robtherake
Well-known member
Don't you use Freecycle, Shaun? Somebody less well off might have been able to get some use out of it.
bought and hardly used
- Thread starter Lord Paul of Sheffield
- Start date
Don't you use Freecycle, Shaun? Somebody less well off might have been able to get some use out of it.
Don't you use Freecycle, Shaun? Somebody less well off might have been able to get some use out of it.
Or the collective heads of the FM seat repair team could have been engaged.
If the results of the recent heavy duty repair are anything to go by repairs can even please the family cat...
.
fishplate42
Well-known member
All my fishing gear!
I have only managed to go fishing once so far as I have only just been tempted to have a go in the last few weeks - I have done a lot of talking about it so far - see OUR BLOG.
I have no doubt that a lot of what I have bought may well only get used now and again if at all. and I expect some of it will get up-graded as I learn more.
Ralph
I have only managed to go fishing once so far as I have only just been tempted to have a go in the last few weeks - I have done a lot of talking about it so far - see OUR BLOG.
I have no doubt that a lot of what I have bought may well only get used now and again if at all. and I expect some of it will get up-graded as I learn more.
Ralph
Keith M
Well-known member
A fly rod and reel that I bought around 15 years ago after watching a J.Wilson film of him using one for Carp, looks exciting but I still haven't tried it yet.
Keith (BoldBear)
Keith (BoldBear)
Alan Tyler
Well-known member
Allcock's Match Aerial. Had it since about 1972, but prefer my Rapidex and Trudex. Probably doomed to ebay.
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Standing in a row of well-used (and in some cases, ready-to-go set-up) rods, one never used Preston Innovations Sentient 12ft Super Feeder from circa 2006. Lovely rod that I was going to use for some rare, big roach that I had found (when I wasn't trotting flake for them). Then the roach disappeared and with them the reason for having the rod.
Hey Al,
Was it 'vintage' when you bought it - or has it always been that old?
- or did you buy it 'new'? and is it totally unused? Did you buy it intending to use it or was it a 'collectable' then? Why are the Rapidex and Trudex superior to the much-vaunted Match Aerial? - careful answering this as you may be ostracised
by the venerable Order of Vintage Tackle Tarts! Tight Lines!
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You simply cannot understand how much I tried to like Allcock Match Aerials.
From the brand-new one (in red box) that my parents gave me as a Christmas present at the age of 16 (sold when I was 19 after my first encounter with cheap-as-chips Speedias), to the perhaps dozen others I bought when offered them for virtually nothing on trips to some seller to buy myself a really great, older model, trotting Aerial.
No, sorry, the modern Match Aerials were pants.
From the brand-new one (in red box) that my parents gave me as a Christmas present at the age of 16 (sold when I was 19 after my first encounter with cheap-as-chips Speedias), to the perhaps dozen others I bought when offered them for virtually nothing on trips to some seller to buy myself a really great, older model, trotting Aerial.
No, sorry, the modern Match Aerials were pants.
Alan Tyler
Well-known member
I bought mine "nearly new" from a schoolmate, Nick Webster, who couldn't get on with it.
It's got three killer tick against it for me; it winds the line onto pillars, which is OK if you fish rushing torrents with rods with only four rings, but a right haemorrhoid if you're almost trying to push a small float along a sluggish flow; it's too narrow in the drum, and too shallow in the arbour, making line spill off in the merest zephyr, and making Wallis casting a matter of extreme paranoia as you try to keep your thumb exactly in the same plane as the reel.
I first saw the Wallis cast demonstrated by Billy Lane at a show in the mid '60s, and he was using a Match Aerial, so I know it is possible; but it does help if you're Billy Lane...
I like a reel that I can fish with, not against. Probably 'cos I is useless, but there it is.
It's got three killer tick against it for me; it winds the line onto pillars, which is OK if you fish rushing torrents with rods with only four rings, but a right haemorrhoid if you're almost trying to push a small float along a sluggish flow; it's too narrow in the drum, and too shallow in the arbour, making line spill off in the merest zephyr, and making Wallis casting a matter of extreme paranoia as you try to keep your thumb exactly in the same plane as the reel.
I first saw the Wallis cast demonstrated by Billy Lane at a show in the mid '60s, and he was using a Match Aerial, so I know it is possible; but it does help if you're Billy Lane...
I like a reel that I can fish with, not against. Probably 'cos I is useless, but there it is.
Thanks for the explanation Al,
Makes me wonder if all the vaunting of CPs is the latter day equivalent of 'designer labels' where the names are more important than the functionality!
mg:
Tight lines!
Makes me wonder if all the vaunting of CPs is the latter day equivalent of 'designer labels' where the names are more important than the functionality!
Same goes for me too! - also probably the same reason!
mg:Tight lines!
nicepix
Well-known member
I agree with Alan's observations. When I was a youth every top Trent angler had a Match Aerial and I vowed that I too would own one when I could justify the cost. As it turned out I ended up spending my Saturday job and paper round wages on other, more useful in an every day sense; ABU 506, Mitchell 300 for example and never got a Match Aerial.
Wind the clock on forty years and with mid-life affluence and a growing love of fishing with centrepins I added a Match Aerial to my small collection. It was used, but almost 'as new', not the tatty examples you usually see on eBay.
As Alan says; Wallis casting is a pain due to the handles being very close to the thumb you use to control the reel. Swapping from a Trudex or Adcocks Stanton usually means a couple of fluffed casts until I can remember to position my thumb correctly.
The other two points he mentions are also valid.
The Trudex is a vastly under rated reel. It is almost the same as the Speedex and has a very useful ratchet lever that is a doddle to operate with a cold or even gloved hand. The Match Aerial has a plastic knob that is OK in warm weather, but if it is wet or your hand is cold it can be difficult to operate. It also has a solid arbour and is deeper than the Match Aerial. As such it is a better everyday reel.
My view is that reels such as the Match Aerial and Adcocks Stanton were made for the top end match anglers who's skills could get the best performance out of the reels. A bit like a thoroughbred racehorse that is brilliant in the right hands, but a nightmare for less experienced riders.
Wind the clock on forty years and with mid-life affluence and a growing love of fishing with centrepins I added a Match Aerial to my small collection. It was used, but almost 'as new', not the tatty examples you usually see on eBay.
As Alan says; Wallis casting is a pain due to the handles being very close to the thumb you use to control the reel. Swapping from a Trudex or Adcocks Stanton usually means a couple of fluffed casts until I can remember to position my thumb correctly.
The other two points he mentions are also valid.
The Trudex is a vastly under rated reel. It is almost the same as the Speedex and has a very useful ratchet lever that is a doddle to operate with a cold or even gloved hand. The Match Aerial has a plastic knob that is OK in warm weather, but if it is wet or your hand is cold it can be difficult to operate. It also has a solid arbour and is deeper than the Match Aerial. As such it is a better everyday reel.
My view is that reels such as the Match Aerial and Adcocks Stanton were made for the top end match anglers who's skills could get the best performance out of the reels. A bit like a thoroughbred racehorse that is brilliant in the right hands, but a nightmare for less experienced riders.
Alan Tyler
Well-known member
Absolutely. If you fish four days a week, and depend on winning matches fished at "one bat and it's back in your hand" range for your bait'n'beer money, then a "contracted" pin is probably unbeatable - I seem to remember people like Billy Makin and Dave Thomas switching back to pins for certain types of match-fishing, and they wouldn't have done that without good reason - but for "once per fortnight, per haps" types, the daily learning curve is too steep, and by the time you're fishing as well as you want to, all the fish have laughed themselves stupid and taken to their winter quarters for a lie-down.
You mention the cold - for a lot of fishing, decent bakelite or wooden reels can still deliver the goods without being painful to touch. Desperately unfashionable, but utterly functional.
My big regret (ok, one of my small-to-medium ones) is that when ebay was new and wonderful, someone sold two wooden Nottingham reels that had belonged to Frank Buckland. Thinking I could never afford them, I didn't bother to follow the auction, and if I remember aright, they sold for low sixties, which at the time I could have scraped together.
Grrr.
You mention the cold - for a lot of fishing, decent bakelite or wooden reels can still deliver the goods without being painful to touch. Desperately unfashionable, but utterly functional.
My big regret (ok, one of my small-to-medium ones) is that when ebay was new and wonderful, someone sold two wooden Nottingham reels that had belonged to Frank Buckland. Thinking I could never afford them, I didn't bother to follow the auction, and if I remember aright, they sold for low sixties, which at the time I could have scraped together.
Grrr.
nicepix
Well-known member
I remember the mentor who ran the angling section of our youth club bringing his Match Aerial in for us to look at. Even as a 14 year old I appreciated the smoothness and precision engineering. Forty years later I also appreciated how easily that open spool, spoke design allowed groundbait, bran from maggots and soil from worms to get into that precision engineering. Also, because Ron used his reel for tench fishing he hadn't removed the handles. A lot of the anglers who used their Aerials specifically for trotting had taken their handles off to alleviate the problems with them catching the thumb during casting.
I also have an Adcocks Stanton, the one with the 1984 badge on. It also has handles but they are placed more inboard and don't cause problems. On that reel though there is no ratchet and that together with its extremely free running tendencies and no line guard would make it an absolute nightmare for any newbie to centrepins who inadvertently bought one. A proper 'Mester's Reel.'
I also have an Adcocks Stanton, the one with the 1984 badge on. It also has handles but they are placed more inboard and don't cause problems. On that reel though there is no ratchet and that together with its extremely free running tendencies and no line guard would make it an absolute nightmare for any newbie to centrepins who inadvertently bought one. A proper 'Mester's Reel.'
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Got my new wife to buy me a ratchet-less Stanton in the mid 1980s as a wedding present (as one must do).
Very pretty, very free-spinning reel, ideal for flicking float tackle out a few yards or dropping in from a boat or similar then trotting, but, as a Wallis Casting reel, total pants - far too heavy in the drum. Last fish it had was back to back-to-back shrimp-trotted salmon of 9 and 11 pounds in 1988.
Still have the reel, in Cliff's original postage-stamped and addressed box. Don't fish with it, though.
Very pretty, very free-spinning reel, ideal for flicking float tackle out a few yards or dropping in from a boat or similar then trotting, but, as a Wallis Casting reel, total pants - far too heavy in the drum. Last fish it had was back to back-to-back shrimp-trotted salmon of 9 and 11 pounds in 1988.
Still have the reel, in Cliff's original postage-stamped and addressed box. Don't fish with it, though.
Bob Hornegold
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Strange, I've had Allcocks Match Aerials for years and never had a problem, the only thing that's added is a line guard.
Never tried to Wallis cast with them, because there is no need to on the rivers I fish.
Bought a new Oval and overwrap on closed season, just in case we had another wet summer.
Bob
---------- Post added at 11:33 ---------- Previous post was at 11:08 ----------
Never tried to Wallis cast with them, because there is no need to on the rivers I fish.
Bought a new Oval and overwrap on closed season, just in case we had another wet summer.
Bob
---------- Post added at 11:33 ---------- Previous post was at 11:08 ----------
