What cente-pin do you use.

The reason I ask this question is I fished last winter for grayling using a Leeds classic centre pin reel and I must say I enjoyed fishing with it untill it started to come apart whilst I was fishing up to my waist in water last winter. The problem was the centre screw holding the reel together had worked loose. I managed to tighen the screw using my clipper's on my waistcoat but to be honist its put me off using this reel.

In the mean time I've just bought myself a J W Young II Purist cente pin and I love it its better made and its a lot lighter and before anyone says it. A lot more expensive!

i have two okuma aventa pro's and a battered old grice and youngs avon royal and a nice little trudex.

Price doesn't always dictate suitability for purpose, although generally it does follow that the more you pay the better quality the product.

I have several centrepins; a while back, in order to help out a friend who had just bought a Flick-Em, I carried out a basic test to see which ones would spin the longest. Out of eight reels, my Flick-Em came out second from bottom, only being 'beaten' by an Allcock Aerialite.

This was most instructive, as the Flick-Em is my first choice centrepin for trotting and close-range float fishing. I have not found it restricts the flow of line even in a gentle current, where I might be using the smallest size Drennan balanced balsa; and I can cast four or five rodlengths 'off the reel' with a 2BB quill or stillwater blue.

What I did learn from that test is that cheap reels can be just as good. I picked up a Strikeright Ultraflow for ?8 some years ago, which I have used solely for margin carp fishing. It came out second in the spin duration test; only a 4-inch Aerial Popular beat it.

I have since used it for trotting and it's brilliant. I can Wallis cast twenty yards with a one swanshot float with it and, despite being made from pressed steel, there is no wobble or play in it whatsoever.

So, if you jib at paying two hundred pounds for a Purist (beautiful reels that they are) and have reservations about the cheaper models currently available, don't rule out some of the 'lesser' centrepins produced over the last seventy years or so. Allcock and Hardy reels are expensive because they are desirable, not always because they are better.

I'm very, very fond of Trudexes; if windy and fishing at shortish range, Rapidexes. (There are lots of clones of these - Milward's Float queen; Allcocks' Flick'em Perfection - Young's just badgeded them up for different suppliers!). I'm not much impressed by length of spin as a test - it makes my 5.5" "Maxima" look good, but in fact it's just a b.great flywheel on a dodgy bearing!
I love the look of spoked and pillared reels, but hate the "corners" they put in the line - particularly with fine line, low flow, a small float and a many-ringed rod!
Avon Royals, Black Cats and the like have been largely relegated to legering, though I have a Merlin and a 5.5" Leeds which both get a bit of use. Also a few ebayed "dog" Speedias - if there's a reel that doesn't seem to do well in ebayland, its the speedia.
Fred, I think you're very lucky with your Strikeright. I have one; it has a nylon bearing bush and nothing seems to loosen its grip on the pin! What do you lubricate yours with?
Oh, yes, tests. Pinch shot on the line - the "Lincoln" sidecaster and the ball-bearing reels will start on a couple of #6,
many of the true pins will need a BB or more.
If I could only have one reel of the ones I have, it would be a Trudex. Tough, uncomplicated, with a spool deep enough to behave in a wind, but shallow enough to retrieve quickly, and light enough to Wallis cast from.
But I haven't got an Okuma, an Arnold, or a Browning!

Have the Aventa Pro for my stick fishing and i use a leeds for margin fishing. Agree with above re the leeds coming apart. The okuma is a lovely reel in my limited opinion. I have a mate who was considering selling his purist and buying the Adventa pro as it was just as good.

Two Okuma Adventa pro's a Brownings Revolver with a spare spool a couple of Richard Carters a six spoke and a twelve spoke a couple of trudex's a rapidex and a Grice and Young Golden Eagle.
The ones that tend to get the most use are the Revolver and the Okumas.
Bryan your mate is doing the right thing I had a Youngs Bob James and got rid of that because as an all round useable thing the Okuma is frankly better even if it is unlikely to become a collectable.

I like beautiful things and use a couple of Chris Lythes, loads of dosh but worth more than you paid as soon as you get them.

The Okumas are perfectly usable as are many others, Swallow, Spedia, Trudex, etc, etc.

I wouldnt use a Leeds though, cheap and nasty in my opinion.

I've got three, an alcocks aerial, a speedia and a seldex.

The Aerial is a fairly late model reel, and spins very well. It has at some point in the past been fitted with a replacement reel seat, so I got it cheaper than I might have done,as no collector would be interested in it.

My speedia is a wide drum version, but not the deluxe model.

The Seldex was cheap on ebay (?20) and runs very well.

I've got 5lb bs on the alcock (for tench and chub), 8lb bs on the speedia (for carp and barbel)and 14lb on the Seldex (for Pike)