What makes a reel poor to you?

[flightliner]

Much as I like my Shimano Stradics, I still love my almost unbreakable Mitchell Matches for fine-line floatfishing; it's just so quick and easy to use them and as I can get over 30 years' wear out of one longevity isn't an issue. They have perfect line lay, don't spin when you don't want it, have a usable drag and are the perfect reel for a stick float or waggler. Graham M. once gave me a Grauvell carp reel to play with and I managed to totally wear it out after one HOUR, chucking a 3oz lead out about 90 yards with mackerel feathers and cranking back the feathers.

Same here, Mitchell match, there bombproof.
Had mine since the late seventies if I remember correctly.
Never had any problems in all those years.
Fits like a glove and like silvers says using it comes second nature, it's all one smooth operation.
I can dismantle it and service it very easily as and when req'd .
Monkey metal gears , yes , never a problem and after forty years or thereabouts it's as smooth and silent as many a modern reel, in other words it's just been run in like a car had to be years ago.
If I trot for Trent Barbel I use my old 300s, even more simple to use, line goes out line comes back, nothing else needed, least of all a clutch as I'm a backwinder that gives me a far better idea where Berty is likely to be than a baitrunner.
Had loads of doubles with it including a fourteen plus.
Sorry for meandering off topic

 

[browndog]

Could someone explain to me how a line roller can cause line twist. it's never been explained to me yet, it rolls or not but can't twist the line.

 

[tigger]

I cocked up up with my answer as I said the good points rather than the bad ones .

Regarding tthe mitchells I had a 410, a 300 and a match and I disliked them immensely. The line was forever going behind the spool and I always had crinckly sections of line that had been under it and unravelled off. Imo they where really shyte....the abu closed faced reels blew them right out.

 

[wetthrough]

Could someone explain to me how a line roller can cause line twist. it's never been explained to me yet, it rolls or not but can't twist the line.

It's the rotation of the rotor that causes the twist. If the twist isn't able to pass over the roller on to the spool it builds up in the line ahead of the roller. Modern rollers are designed to encourage the twist to pass over the roller, some do better than others.

 

[Philip]

I just want a reel to do its job. Lets me cast out, reel in and play a fish without messing me up or falling apart after a few trips. Amazing how many reels get such a simple thing wrong.

Good reels are probably under appreciated as they just do their job unnoticed. Bad reels get noticed all the time. I purchased a cheap Okuma Baitrunner, ticked all the boxes but the one occasion I needed it, it messed up. First proper take I ever had on it and the bait runner wouldn’t disengage & I lost the fish. Never had that happen on even one of my 1990s Shimanos despite having several and putting them through years of abuse.

Allot of modern reels look great in the shop but there are just too many precision moving parts to a reel that bad quality will get found out.

By the way, I agree about the Drennan FD, I got one and I really regret it.

 

[108831]

Here is another sh!he reel,after many years I got persuaded(mags,mates etc)that I really should barbel fish with a baitrunner,I looked around around and fox did a supposed mini runner,looked brilliant on paper,in practice it was awful,I turned up with one rod and reel(55miles from home)for a day after barbel on the Thames,the river was carrying around six inches,coloured,but dropping,perfect,I say below a snag with a good flow going around it,well I'd been fishing about an hour when the top started bouncing,dropping back,I struck,nothing,three times this occurred in the next hour with no fish,then I sussed it,the reel handle was back winding,I thought I'd knocked the anti-reverse off,but no,the bu££er wasn't working,I had to jam the reel handle with a bankstick to fish,that night when I got home I got the reel out to look at it and it worked every time,the next week I went again and it didn't work,it turned out when the air temperature got below 6-7 degrees it failed,great in this country,like of junk.

 

[Jim Crosskey 2]

Line behind the spool - probably the reel just needs to be binned off and forgotten about!

Sticky clutch - this will lose you fish and no matter how many times you think you've sorted it with lubricant or anything else, it will some day stick again. Lose a PB or bin a reel? Second option please...

Interested to see some comments about reel handles/ knobs... I have come to really enjoy using double handled reels and I would always go for a double handled option if its available.

Just going to throw out another reel which most definitely isn't poor (and didn't make me poor either!!) About 12 years ago I bought two Okuma Interceptor IBF40 reels. Those two have accounted for pretty much all of the feeder/ barbel/ carp/ pike fishing I have done ever since and they've never let me down. Baitrunner works well, clutch is reliable and accurate, line lay is good - I just never found anything wrong with them. One of them is starting to show it's age a little and I'm currently considering getting something to replace them. However, the really miraculous bit is that I paid about £23 each for these reels. I'm given to understand that Okuma's quality control in the intervening years has let them down a little so might look at the big boys next time...

 

[silvers]

I cocked up up with my answer as I said the good points rather than the bad ones .

Regarding tthe mitchells I had a 410, a 300 and a match and I very disliked them immensely. The line was forever going behind the spool and I always had crinckly sections of line that had been under it and unravelled off. Imo they where really shyte....the abu closed faced reels blew them right out.

The 440a matches that I have use chenille trims on the spools that minimise that problem for me. The bale spring lever mechanism can sometimes trap or catch the line - which is a pain when your cast ends up at your feet like an absolute beginner!

 

[Peter Jacobs]

Let's put the cat amongst the pigeons:

How about any reel reel where the spool and handle rotate on different planes?

 

[maggot_dangler]

Let's put the cat amongst the pigeons:

How about any reel reel where the spool and handle rotate on different planes?

Now you gunna get some typograpahical (SP) whatsit for that i can bet but you might well be right .... nuff said as maggot backs of and becomes a shadow ... ...

 

[xenon]

Let's put the cat amongst the pigeons:

How about any reel reel where the spool and handle rotate on different planes?

I am probably being a bit thick here (not for the first time) but what does that even mean?

 

[sam vimes]

Barring the odd inexplicable lemon, you have to try pretty hard to find a genuinely bad reel these days, even from brands you've never heard of.

However, anything that has issues with tangling, or line getting behind bits of reel it shouldn't, is either a poor reel, or a centrepin .
A reel with a spool far deeper than required isn't necessarily poor, but it's bloody irritating.
Poor drags, rollers that do nothing to alleviate line twist, or even make it worse, no roller at all, gears made from something akin to warm chocolate, are all unacceptable.

On a far more personal level, I'm not keen on the looks and colours of certain reels. For example, the Spro Red/Black Arc reels were good, but I couldn't cope with the bright colour/finish of them. Handle types are rarely unacceptable. Despite having far more single handle reels than double, I'm not that bothered which they have. It's a similar story with handle knobs. I have standard small rubberized efforts, flat paddles and EVA bulbs. I've not owned the big ball type, but they are far more comfortable than many might think. My favourites are the smaller EVA bulb type. Shame that they are a bit of a swine to keep clean.

 

[sam vimes]

I am probably being a bit thick here (not for the first time) but what does that even mean?

The handles and spools/rotors of standard fixed spool reels (closed face and open) have a spool/rotor and handle that rotate at a relative 90 degrees, i.e. in different planes. Centrepins and multipliers have handles that rotate in conjunction with, and on the same plane as, the spools.

 

[Philip]

Barring the odd inexplicable lemon, you have to try pretty hard to find a genuinely bad reel these days

I can't say I agree with that bit. Perhaps from a first looks point of view many reels look great in the shop but if you put quality / longevity into the equation quite a few that just wont last the course and by course I mean literally even 1 season before bits start wobbling, coming loose or stop working and sometimes even sooner.

 

[sam vimes]

I can't say I agree with that bit. Perhaps from a first looks point of view many reels look great in the shop but if you put quality / longevity into the equation quite a few that just wont last the course and by course I mean literally even 1 season before bits start wobbling, coming loose or stop working and sometimes even sooner.

I rather suspect that your disagreement will boil down to one single factor. It's that I've always been totally bemused by the way that some folks manage to destroy reels. I have never been able to fathom exactly what they are doing to them. I suspect that the relatively recent obsession with a reel's "cranking power" might be a pointer.

I've had the odd poor reel over the years, for at least one of the reasons I've listed already, but I've never managed to strip gears, have anything drop to bits on me, or bend bits into unusability. However, if they are so dismal that I did manage any of that, I'd have them firmly in the lemon category.

However, when I say lemon, I don't just mean an individual friday afternoon reel, it can be a complete range of reels. Though it may be overly harsh, based on little more that the single range (the one Whitty mentioned), I consider all Fox reels to be lemons. I wouldn't touch them with a bargepole. I have a similarly dim view of Drennan reels.

 

[nottskev]

I rather suspect that your disagreement will boil down to one single factor. It's that I've always been totally bemused by the way that some folks manage to destroy reels. I have never been able to fathom exactly what they are doing to them. I suspect that the relatively recent obsession with a reel's "cranking power" might be a pointer.

I've had the odd poor reel over the years, for at least one of the reasons I've listed already, but I've never managed to strip gears, have anything drop to bits on me, or bend bits into unusability. However, if they are so dismal that I did manage any of that, I'd have them firmly in the lemon category.

However, when I say lemon, I don't just mean an individual friday afternoon reel, it can be a complete range of reels. Though it may be overly harsh, based on little more that the single range (the one Whitty mentioned), I consider all Fox reels to be lemons. I wouldn't touch them with a bargepole. I have a similarly dim view of Drennan reels.

About 10 years ago I decided I should have a baitrunner-type reel, and I bought one of the (temporarily) popular Fox models. I can rarely face the hassle of selling on ebay, so I still have most of the stuff I don't really use, but this reel was soon up there "Hardly used and as new". Selling unwanted tackle is business, but in this case it was personal. Apart from a Ryobi cf, permanently grounded for lack of a weirdly-shaped spring, I'm a one-brand angler when it comes to fs reels.

 

[108831]

I would definitely not buy any fox reel(especially after hearing of a mates disaster with a different reel to the one I had),drennan has now ticked the same boxes,if they can't test a reel to eliminate the line twist issues,what else could be wrong with them???

 

[tigger]

I remember a close friend of mine getting a pair of Fox baitrunners for dead baiting, it was about 12yrs ago so their reels of today may be brilliant?
The ones he got had rave right ups in the weekly angling press and he was took in by it all. Anyhow, when he got the reels the handles had lots of play in them and where thin pathetic things. When winding in the handles wobbled about from the joint at the reel body and they had no winding power at all.
He used them one time and took them straight back and swapped them for some shimano's.

 

[Specihunter]

The build quality, bought 2 shakespeare salt reels. They looked really good and had no problems with the mach 3. So thought they must be good, well within 5 mins the problems started so, love the rods won't touch the reels.