Trisantona comeon cool off, we will have to agree to disagree.
Its just a difference of opinion. and we shouldnt take it personally.
What a boring world it would be if everyone agreed.
By the way I also own quite a few centrepins and have been barbel fishing on barbel rivers (Kennet, Avon, Stour, Lea) with like minded anglers for almost 40 years now (with some success).
I think we might be talking about two different things here,
I was talking about
Long Trotting for fish like Barbel in a Barbel river; which are
generally rivers with lots of streamer weed, different depths, bends, fast and slow speed currents, big fish etc. etc.
Where it is an advantage to be able to control not only the speed but also the depth fished to cope with weed, different river depths and differing feeding levels all in the same swim through.
It is not just a case of trotting through a swim and mending your line. If it was then a fixed spool would cope admirably.
A few well known specialists (whos works you obviously have not read) which come to mind are, John Wilson, Chris Yates, Bob James, etc. etc. etc. all of whom advocate the use of pins when it is called for.
Knotties original question was:
"I have just took up trotting on my local river.But do you have any tips on the type of rod,reels and lines to ues,As i am having trouble with my line twisting strecthing and knoting up after about 1 hour.I have only used maggots and casters so far caught plenty small chub roach,Is there any baits that i can trott with to catch barble. "
(I bet he wishes he hadn't asked now).
I was not talking about being able to make do with a fixed spool; or what it is possible to do with a fixed spool, etc.
I know some people have trouble using a pin like Wendy who uses a closed face reel because her hands are too small to handle a pin and of course that is perfectly fine and valid (even a closed face reel is easier to control when trotting than a fixed spool) I was only giving someone some general advice on what I believe is the best reel type for
long trotting for fish like barbel on a barbel river.
NB. Oh by the way
I was not advocating using a multiplier; I was just quoting what another (very experienced and well known angler) wrote that
he occasionally used for fun in
his book in a chapter about long trotting.
Tight lines and dont take life too seriously we all have different opinions.
PS. Knotty if you want a great informative site for Barbel specialists see link -->
barbelnow.co.uk