How Fixed Spool Reels can be improved

I think that FS reels manufactured by leading makers such as Shimano, Daiwa and Okuma have improved tremendously in the past few years. They all have rollers that roll, smooth drags, double handles and are virtually silent in operation.

But there are a number of areas where further improvement can still be made

1: Reels for the left handed. I am not left handed myself but I feel for those who are. Changing the handle around is no problem these days, but the line will come off the spool at the wrong side for a left handed angler. It's time that this was put right.

2: Push button spool removal for front drag reels. There is only one front drag reel that has a push button spool removal and that is the Daiwa 3012 TDX. It really is time that this was incorporated on all FS reels of this design.

3: By far the majority of anglers do not need more than 100 metres of line on their reel. A Drennan reel I obtained recently comes with 3 spools, each spool designed specifically to hold 100 metres of a certain diameter line. This is a great concept and is ideal for the smaller sized reels. I hope most other reel manufacturers will look at this.

4: Position of the anti-reverse switch. For years I have been used to having the anti-reverse switch on the body of the reel and just under the back of the spool. This is the logical place to put it of course. However Daiwa put the switch on the top of the body towards the back. To reach it becomes fiddly for most, certainly for myself.

5: Reduction of "Bling"

Very important. The only colour for a reel is matt black or very dark matt grey. They are used for fishing, not to make a reel display in a tackle shop look like a jewellers window!

But what do you think?

No innovations like auto release line clips Ron ? If i have described that correctly I think some reels have them.

I have retro ABU500 series and Mitchell reels, so probably have no right to comment on your points Ron, but i have been looking very closely at some mini baitrunners recently ..just waiting to resurrect the wallet which has not been well lately.

I dont notice which way the line comes off my reels (ABU=correct, Mithcell=wrong), but then i dont use the Mitchells except for ledgering.

Agree about the colour and bling thing - i made similar point in another thread recently. Fashion now seems to be moving to black or metallic greys rather than shiny silver. All those fancy transfers also get to look a bit shabby on a well-used reel.

Also agree regarding spool capacity - maybe they are in cahoots with makers of cheap backing line.

Only novel things i could think of is that the reel stem - the bit that connects to the rod - doesnt ever get used for anything. Maybe this is missing a trick as a place to put a lever that could be used by the right hand very quickly (so long as it is not easily knocked holding the rod) with a different finger to the one trapping line or whatever.

I believe other manufacturers other than Daiwa have push button spool release now.
I have 3 TDX reels and feel the front drag has suffered in effectiveness possibly due to the push button compared to the earlier TDR range.

chub_on_the_block said:

I dont notice which way the line comes off my reels (ABU=correct, Mithcell=wrong), but then i dont use the Mitchells except for ledgering.

Click to expand...

The way the line comes off the reel spool is particularly important if you use the reel for trotting, spinning or lure fishing. If it comes off the right hand side, if you are a right handed angler, it becomes difficult to "feather" the line as the line does not meet the sensitive part of your forefinger.

By far the vast majority of anglers who use Mitchells today are left handed and use the 301 model.

As does Chris Ball.

peter crabtree said:

I believe other manufacturers other than Daiwa have push button spool release now.
I have 3 TDX reels and feel the front drag has suffered in effectiveness possibly due to the push button compared to the earlier TDR range.

Click to expand...

I thought the baby baitrunners do too - only reading about them the other night and already forgotten!

Other improvement - resurrect the idea of some sort of dab bail/single handed bail release for one handed casting - to keep left hand free (if right handed) handy for feeding, holding cigarette etc.

peter crabtree said:

I have 3 TDX reels and feel the front drag has suffered in effectiveness possibly due to the push button compared to the earlier TDR range.

Click to expand...

How has the TDX front drag suffered in effectiveness Mr Crabtree?

I had mine in South Africa catching a range of fish that took off at incredible speeds. The drag worked very well.

I still think my dream reel for trotting would be an ABU506 but with the drag of a modern Shimano, an improved spool/rotor/gearing and lengthened handle so that it could ultimately be used to trot for larger fish with greater assurance.

Quite agree with you on the bling, Ron. I make a point of vomiting on each and every angler I pass who is using one of these.



Truly horrible things. I wish they weren't so popular.

chub_on_the_block said:

I thought the baby baitrunners do too - only reading about them the other night and already forgotten!

Other improvement - resurrect the idea of some sort of dab bail/single handed bail release for one handed casting - to keep left hand free (if right handed) handy for feeding, holding cigarette etc.

Click to expand...

The baby baitrunners I own don't have push button spool release Caco (in disguise) - however it's not something that bothers me, after all how often do you need to change a spool whilst fishing?
Jerry

Agree 100% on the "bling" thing. I hate flashy reels...or rods for that matter and I'd also like to see shallower spools as an option.

The other thing that gets me is the a/r switch. Personally I like it on top of the reel rather than under....my hand seems to go there naturally and I'd rather that than grope around under the reel.Wherever it is I do wish they'd make it from something a bit more robust than plastic. I've broken the odd one and a flimsy plastic a/r switch on an expensive reel seems totally out of place. The weight penalty must be minimal.

chub_on_the_block said:

I still think my dream reel for trotting would be an ABU506 but with the drag of a modern Shimano, an improved spool/rotor/gearing and lengthened handle so that it could ultimately be used to trot for larger fish with greater assurance.

Click to expand...

Actually the more i think of it, a closed face reel is the way to go for trotting and probably most float fishing.

The one handed operation and absence of the bail arm in its conventional sense is key to this - to reduce tangles around handle or bail arm in wind etc. It enables the left hand to catch and inspect a bait on the retrieve, hold it momentarily under tension to aid casting, activate bail with the hand still holding the rod, and re-cast with a side-arm swing. Its a smooth easy operation not hindered by having to use the left hand to open the bail at any stage.

Ron
I believe Preston do a fd reel with a push button spool change for around 120 notes

S-Kippy said:

The other thing that gets me is the a/r switch. Personally I like it on top of the reel rather than under....my hand seems to go there naturally and I'd rather that than grope around under the reel.Wherever it is I do wish they'd make it from something a bit more robust than plastic. I've broken the odd one and a flimsy plastic a/r switch on an expensive reel seems totally out of place. The weight penalty must be minimal.

Click to expand...

Only time i use the anti-reverse is for a moving swims with a tackled up rod, or for storing the reel in its case. Agree it should be robust. Also think it should be virtually impossible to activate by accident - on a Mitchell its very easy to knock while playing a fish!

1. I can understand how the left handed would feel put out. However, I don't see anything changing for them in a hurry. I suspect it'll take a relatively small manufacturer to attempt to make money out of the left handed minority, and they'll be made to pay. I doubt that the big players will bother as it'll cost a fair bit for relatively small return.

2. Couldn't care less about push button spools. I don't find it a great hardship to unscrew a front drag button, usually when I'm prepping for a trip rather than on the bank.

3. Shimano used to do shallow match spools that took around 100 yards of 4lb(ish) mono on quite a few reels way back in the early to mid nineties. I have both Stradic GTMs and a Perfection with such spools. However, somewhere down the line they, and others, went away from this. It was probably down to cost reduction by commonality. Far easier to produce one type of spool for all potential markets. I know that I was a bit surprised to find Shimano making a bit of a song and dance about the Twin Power Ci4s having shallow spools when I was researching them.

4. I don't really care where the anti-revese switch is. It's not something I tend to fiddle with very often.

5. I'm not that worried about colour schemes. However, I'd not buy a red reel for all the tea in China. Too many are a bit too full on for my liking but I wouldn't want to see all reels being grey and black. There are plenty of silver, dark blue and even white reels that look just fine, even if it is a constant source of surprise that the all white Shimano Stradics took off and lasted so well as they have.

P.S. none of the 4000/2500 sized "baby" front drag Shimano Baitrunners have push button spools. Only the rear drag 6000 sized plus Baitrunners do. They also no longer do 5000 sized rear drag baitrunners like they used to, though there are still a few available as old stock.

My post from the "discontinued products" thread...

I own and still use my original Diawa Harrier 120M for trotting and silvers which as I remember, superseded the Abu 506 closed face (the main difference having anti back wind as I remember?)

Years before that I bought for the princely sum of £7 a close faced reel called the "One Touch" - maker unknown!

If anyone knows who made the One Touch I would be very grateful or if anyone has one and would like to sell please get in touch!

It was a great reel with a simple lever mechanism which once depressed using a forefinger released line for casting and was as smooth as..

Click to expand...

I think close faced reels are great for trotting and float fishing on stills. The only downside to these kinds of reels are that they are er, 'closed faced'! :wh

Great for one handed casting, keeping the wind off, anti-tangle and such, but unlike an open bail when casting, I personally find a closed faced can be limiting in situations where you sometimes need to cast a little further out.
In this regard they are definitely designed for trotting by feeding line off or gentle underarm lobs rather than casting as I find the aluminium face causes slight resistance to the line leaving the spool.
Oh yeah, and the retrieve gear ratio is poor too!

So what is needed to overcome this?

I would suggest a hybrid, or possibly a remake!

Solution,
Do away with the bail arm on a modern bog standard open-faced fixed spool reel, keep the gear ratio and incorporate a closed face together with the inner pickup pin mechanism that covers the spool.

Instead of a normal closed face of a fixed sized aperture, it should be replaced with a camera shutter type aperture which can be operated (opened fully for casting and closed partially for winding) - all with the touch of either a left or right handed forefinger!

Another nice feature would be to have a deeper spool so that I can still under-fill but use a heavier line.

Who would stop me and buy one? mg:

laguna said:

Who would stop me and buy one? mg:

Click to expand...

It depends how catchy your jingle is

I'd probably keep my money in my pocket Chris, not because I don't think it would be an improvement, but I've always preferred a pin for trotting and some aspects of ledgering, a multiplier for lures and a f/s for just about everything else. I just don't need one.

Jerry

Looking into the future, what about a reel that, once you at the desired distance out, it calculates the distance in meters, also when you cast out, it applies steady pressure to the line, so you hit the exact distance each time. This would do away with line clips, marking up the line and re-setting if a big fish took more line than the set distance you were fishing.

shaunfox said:

Looking into the future, what about a reel that, once you at the desired distance out, it calculates the distance in meters, also when you cast out, it applies steady pressure to the line, so you hit the exact distance each time. This would do away with line clips, marking up the line and re-setting if a big fish took more line than the set distance you were fishing.

Click to expand...

I would guess that would depend upon just how 'mechanised' one wants his fishing to be?

Personally, I far prefer to use the skills I've learned over decades to cast and catch my fish and neither want nor desire any more 'automation'

And, yes, before the knockers set to, yes, I do use electonic bite alarms and from time to time a bait boat too, but only when conditions necessitate.

I'm not too fussed on what colour a reel is but do find the all black ones a bit dull , but the performance is the deciding factor