Help! I need a new reel for light waggler fishing.

[John Keane]

Was thinking about your plight in the local Angling superstore this afternoon and saw these two 3000/4000 sized reels with nice wide, shallow spools. The black one is a Fox and the silver one is an Abu.

 

[silvers]

I keep meaning to try my old Mitchell Match 410 which I don’t think I’ve used since the early 90’s, it’s still in a fairly good condition and I have lots of spare spools for it.

I think I will give it a try to see if it’s as good as I remember it being; thanks Mark.

Keith

do you both mean the 440a rather than the 410?

iirc Mitchell made 3 finger dab bail reels with progressively faster gearing
the otomatic (330) was black
the match (440) was originally dark blue in the late sixties, went through a paler blue and end up as black in the very late incarnations.
and the 840 was a very dark brown

but my memory could be flawed.

If I was in the market for a new reel that is not Daiwa or Shimano, I would be looking at cadence (lot of reel for the money allegedly) or Okuma (I've had decent reels from them but not recently)

 

[trotter2]

Those Mitchell 840s were the devil for line twisting and had issues with vibration due to the 6.1 line retrieve.

 

[Keith M]

do you both mean the 440a rather than the 410?

iirc Mitchell made 3 finger dab bail reels with progressively faster gearing
the otomatic (330) was black
the match (440) was originally dark blue in the late sixties, went through a paler blue and end up as black in the very late incarnations.
and the 840 was a very dark brown

but my memory could be flawed.

If I was in the market for a new reel that is not Daiwa or Shimano, I would be looking at cadence (lot of reel for the money allegedly) or Okuma (I've had decent reels from them but not recently)

I went and dug out my old Mitchell Match from the back of a drawer to see which one it was and it’s a Mitchell 840 not a 410 Thanks silvers; I’ve corrected the number in my previous post .

It’s condition isn’t as good as I previously thought as its paint is scuffed quite a bit through years of misuse; although it still seems to work fine; and mine is black not brown.

And I also now remember why I had put it at the back of a drawer in the first place; because apart from the shallow spools and the bail dab feature it felt pretty basic quality wise compared to my more modern reels (like my stradic which I also had out), and I think I will just have to remove my rose tinted glasses .



Keith

 

[108831]

Cadence reels are all 6.1 ratio Alex,which imv is too quick and imparts too much twist,a maximum of 5.1 seems better(unless a drennan fd 4000),I was looking before the ninja. As for the Mitchell's I always used 440 matches,but I would have preferred 330's,but they had stopped producing them before i realised,believing fast was always best for a match angler,wrong...

 

[tigger]

I had the mitchells in the match, 300 and 410, I disliked em all. I think they're one of the worst reels ever made!
The line was forever going under the spool and wrapping around the shaft which the spool sits on.
They were the only tackle I didn't miss when it was stolen from my farther in laws shed!

 

[Philip]

Totally by coincidence I was in a tackle shop today looking at a Ninja 2500 as they had an offer on it for @35 quid. I have been tempted to get one for a while and thought this may be the little push I needed but like you I found it just a bit too small. Unfortunately they didn’t have a deal on the bigger sizes (typical). I have read all the good reviews and I am sure it’s a good reel but there is something about it I just don’t like but I can’t put my finger on it.

Total curve ball if your struggling to find something …I have an old DAM reel that came with a shallow quite wide spool and I really like it allot..was unbelievably cheap too, I paid something like £10 for it in a sale and its been brilliant. I did a quick google at the current DAMs and there seems to be a few shallow spooled ones there that look similar spool sized to mine & in your budget…the Quicks..

I can’t vouch for the quality or how wide the spool is in reality as mines years old and I have not handled any of the current range.

 

[sam vimes]

There's at least five Shimano reels with big diameter spools and supplied line reducers to take them down to more sensible line capacities.
Unfortunately for the OP, two of them are rear drag and one was discontinued. The Stradic Ci4+ RA and the Super GT RD are the current rear drag models and
The Aero match/feeder the front drag models. There was a Ci4+ version of the latter that gave a very worthwhile weight reduction.
God knows why, but some loony at Shimano thought it was a good idea to discontinue them. They might as well be made from unobtainium, even second hand.

 

[Keith M]

I have a Shimano spool which is very shallow and takes just 100 meters of 0.18 line (or 170 meters of 0.14 line), and it has ‘4000M’ printed on its side (see pic below) so it shows that not all of Shimanos 4000 series reels were designed with 4, 6 and 8lb lines in mind.

It was made for the ‘Shimano Super-X Aero GTM 4000 Match reel’ but I bought it many years ago because it fitted nicely on one of my other older Shimano reels at the time.



Keith

 

[108831]

Many years ago I bought two Shimano aero match III's,made in Japan and have two match spools each,they are still sound,my problem is they are rear drag,I wouldn't get rid of them mind...

 

[silvers]

Cadence reels are all 6.1 ratio Alex,which imv is too quick and imparts too much twist,a maximum of 5.1 seems better(unless a drennan fd 4000),I was looking before the ninja. As for the Mitchell's I always used 440 matches,but I would have preferred 330's,but they had stopped producing them before i realised,believing fast was always best for a match angler,wrong...

I wouldn’t recommend the Mitchells to another angler ... but they suit me: Finger dab, brilliant spool and line lay, durable. One of my 440a matches i’ve Had for 37 years now and it’s used plenty.

Surely with a faster ratio you could compensate by just reeling in more slowly?

 

[John Keane]

Going back to your original post, I had the Drennan FD3000 and it kept doing the same thing, throwing loops of line off the spool when casting, so I got shut and bought the Maver Tica in the photo. If you want to pay bigger money, the Shimano Aero Match has a wide spool and has reducers supplied to use with 100m or so of finer line. It’s a work of art. Shimano reels now mostly have a chamfered lip on the spool so you only fill the spool to the base of the chamfer and you don’t get tempted to get carper’s syndrome by filling the spool to within a micron of the lip!

 

[tigger]

I have a Shimano spool which is very shallow and takes just 100 meters of 0.18 line (or 170 meters of 0.14 line), and it has ‘4000M’ printed on its side (see pic below) so it shows that not all of Shimanos 4000 series reels were designed with 4, 6 and 8lb lines in mind.

It was made for the ‘Shimano Super-X Aero GTM 4000 Match reel’ but I bought it many years ago because it fitted nicely on one of my other older Shimano reels at the time.



Keith

I was gonn'a mention the shimano super x gtm Keith because I have one in a 2500 size. It has several spools and a couple of the shalow ones like yours.
I got mine still in unused condition off evilbay about ten years ago. I've used it for my float fishing during the closed river season every year since. It is a excellent reel and they still come up for sale in the same sort of condition.

 

[nottskev]

Many years ago I bought two Shimano aero match III's,made in Japan and have two match spools each,they are still sound,my problem is they are rear drag,I wouldn't get rid of them mind...

Have you ever had one of these, Alan? It's the GTM 3010 - a bit more compact and lighter than the Match (about 40g) with the Fightin' Drag feature and shallow spools. I'm still using 90's ones for all light float, and although I've tried the odd newer Shimano or other brand, I've ended up with 4 of these from ebay over the years. There's one on now; they don't go cheap, but there are reasons for that.

 

[sam vimes]

Original Stradic GTMs also had that type of shallow match spool. Both 3000 and 4000 are of much lower diameter than the modern Super GT2500RD or Stradic Ci4+ 2500RA though.
I'm pretty sure I put a comparison picture up on a similar thread a few months back. I'd find it and link it if I could manage to do so on a phone.

 

[trotter2]

My old Mitchell match was the blue one purchased new in about 1979 cost me quite a bit of money back then. It was the worst reel I have ever had used it only a couple of times before I went back to a 506.
If you want to bump fish of on the strike it's the ultimate reel for blanking.

 

[silvers]

I think we've conversed before on the subject of how to avoid the dreaded "bump" on closure of the bail with the match.

Actually - an ABU 501 might b a good solution to this request.

 

[JONM14]

Just reading this on my lunch, havent done much waggler fishing but my abu 506 has always been decent. Should pick a new one up between 50-60 quid.

 

[tigger]

I think we've conversed before on the subject of how to avoid the dreaded "bump" on closure of the bail with the match.

Actually - an ABU 501 might b a good solution to this request.

The original 501 is one of my all time favourite reels, not so much for trotting really though ( that's what the pin excells for) as no matter what line I used I always seemed to get line stick.
I do like them for still water fishing and in windy conditions, especially at night after dark the reel comes into it's own.
I always use them for my after dark tench float fishing in spring.

 

[108831]

When I used mitchell matches they were the best around at the time imo,why mitchell didn't update the design I don't know,they certainly missed a trick.