And now from Iconic Rods

dezza · Nov 29, 2009

To Iconic Reels.

And the most iconic of the lot, and one that indeed I used when a boy, was the plain ordinary Nottingham wood reel. Made from ash I think with brass fittings and a plain steel spindle, it was the workhorse for anglers for at least 150 years I guess. The better ones had a cross shaped piece of brass to strengthen the back of the reel, and because of this they were known as "starbacks".

They were surprisingly free running. Certainly great anglers of the past such as William Bailey and JW Martin used them. At the turn of the century they cost 2/6d.

These reels led onto the Coxon Aerials and the top class centre-pins of today.

But what of the fixed spool reel, originally called a threadline reel. The Illingworth was named after its inventor, a textile mill owner.

So these the Nottingham wood reel and the Illingworth are the two iconic reels of the past 100 years.

Or don't you agree?

preston96 · Nov 29, 2009

This one is easy? surely it has to be the Mitchel range, eg 300 and 410 etc?

Before these fixed spool reels were a bit hit and miss on the quality front?

slime monster · Nov 29, 2009

Mitchel 300 and Abu 506 immediately came to mind

dezza · Nov 29, 2009

Hey chaps, I am talking history here, not what happened yesterday.

Mitchell 300 and 410??????

What a load of *****!

One even hears of anglers that still want to use such tripe. When they were wound they sounded like a thousand bees trying to get out of the hive. And when you gave them some reall wellie, the gears stripped! Mitchell reels any good? - don't make me laugh.

The first half decent fixed spool reel were the Cardinals by ABU. Before that, playing a big fish was better on an ordinary centre-pin or a multiplying reel

904_cannon · Nov 29, 2009

From memory my old Ambidex I had was a far smoother reel than the 300's. Sadly I left it and a couple of rods in my wife's Grandads outhouse in N Ireland when we visited in 1966, we've been back since but everything was cleared out when the old lad died

Always a trailblazer :wh I was fishing the Bann in the early 60's, my wife's family lived less than a mile from the river in those days

Stealph Viper · Nov 29, 2009

Shimano Baitrunners, they have to be iconic due to their uniqueness, and excellence in that field alone.

slime monster · Nov 29, 2009

Stealph Viper said:
Shimano Baitrunners, they have to be iconic due to their uniqueness, and excellence in that field alone.

Careful Steaph you dont want to cause Ron to have a heart attack :wh

mcdejer16 · Nov 29, 2009

Mitchell Match, Daiwa Harrier 1657 (I have had a pair of these for 20 years and I'm still using them!), daiwa 125m for me but then I'm a fairly young pup!

dezza · Nov 29, 2009

The early Ambidex reels by JW Young were not bad, although they had a poor retrieve rate and a very small line capacity.

What was better was the Felton Crosswind, although the gears were weak I believe.

The Shimano Baitrunners were good and I had one of the first in the early 80s. I bought it for estuary fishing. It was designed by Americans and made in Japan.

Nobby C (ACA) · Nov 29, 2009

Ron, I understood it was designed by an Aussie skipper who took the design to Japan...

..........but I'll always stand to be corrected if I'm wrong.

Iconic reel? Mitchell 440A Match.

preston96 · Nov 29, 2009

Ron The Hat Clay said:
Hey chaps, I am talking history here, not what happened yesterday.

Mitchell 300 and 410??????

What a load of *****!

One even hears of anglers that still want to use such tripe. When they were wound they sounded like a thousand bees trying to get out of the hive. And when you gave them some reall wellie, the gears stripped! Mitchell reels any good? - don't make me laugh.

The first half decent fixed spool reel were the Cardinals by ABU. Before that, playing a big fish was better on an ordinary centre-pin or a multiplying reel

You are having a laff boy!.......they out cast the Abu's by miles.....though i concede the Cardinals had far better clutches......but most anglers, be they match or big fish anglers chose the Mitchels everytime.............yes, they were coffee grinders, but they did the job we needed them to do at the time.

We used them for everything from presenting a delicate float setup to hurling out big deadbaits...............no other reel has done as much during the last 1000years!!

Ray Roberts · Nov 29, 2009

I preferred the ABU cardinal C4 & 5 over the Mitchell's. I used one for years when I did a lot of roaming for chub on small overgrown rivers. I use Stradic's now but for chub fishing they were superb and never let me down despite some very rough treatment.

dezza · Nov 29, 2009

The Cardinals were much better engineered make no mistake about that. They had precision cut helical gears compared with that horrid train of gears cut in mazak that I stripped on two occasions playing heavy hardfighting fish.

I had Cardinal 54 and 55s, nowt wrong with them.

Although I changed to Shimano when they became available.

preston96 · Nov 29, 2009

Ray Roberts said:
I preferred the ABU cardinal C4 & 5 over the Mitchell's. I used one for years when I did a lot of roaming for chub on small overgrown rivers. I use Stradic's now but for chub fishing they were superb and never let me down despite some very rough treatment.

Ray.......they may have been OK for small river chub, but only a Mitchel could be used for 3lb line one day and 15lb the next.

Mark Wintle · Nov 29, 2009

Iconic reels would have to include pretty much all of the following:

Nottingham starback, Coxon Aerial, Aerial (1925), Homer Flick 'Em, Aerial Match, Match Aerial, Rapidex, Mitchell 300, Otomatic, 410, Prince, Match, Hardy Silex, ABU 505/6, Intrepid Elite?, Shimano Baitrunner.

preston96 · Nov 29, 2009

Mark Wintle said:
Iconic reels would have to include pretty much all of the following:

Nottingham starback, Coxon Aerial, Aerial (1925), Homer Flick 'Em, Aerial Match, Match Aerial, Rapidex, Mitchell 300, Otomatic, 410, Prince, Match, Hardy Silex, ABU 505/6, Intrepid Elite?, Shimano Baitrunner.

I well remember, as a youth, looking into the local Fishing tackle/electrical shop at a display for the "Intrepid Elite"..........but i think i had to settle for a "Black prince" at the time.

But it was every bit as good as my "Sun" racing bike that took me fishing then! :wh

Sean Meeghan · Nov 29, 2009

And of course the Abu Ambassadeurs! Surely THE iconic multiplier! Just looked at my 1975 copy of Tight Lines: £25 for a 6500! Having said that Guiness was 14p a pint then! £25 would be about 2/3 of the average take home pay then.

I suspect the Cardinal 44 and 55 are the iconic Abu fiexed spools. They were the ones to have for specimen hunting due to their superb drags. I had a couple of Cardinal C5s in the late eighties but I wore out the innards salmon fishing in the US! I've still got the C4 I bought in Bay City(yes that's where the bay City Rollers got their name from, but they never visited it!), Michigan in 1988 and it's still my favourite ledgering reel.

dezza · Nov 29, 2009

Nobby C (ACA) said:
Ron, I understood it was designed by an Aussie skipper who took the design to Japan...

..........but I'll always stand to be corrected if I'm wrong.

Iconic reel? Mitchell 440A Match.

I read somewhere that the Shimano baitrunner was designed in the USA. That was probably written by an American. I refuse to be dogmatic about the matter.

The Intrepid Elites were atrociously engineered, and I must have owned 2 or three of them at the time they were available. **** Walker gave as much encouragement to KP Morrits who made the elites and others, as he could; yet even he gave up in the end as the far east, notably Japan, started to take the lead in fixed spool reel technology.

What a lot of Mitchell 300 lovers don't accept is that there were a number of features that made these reels inferior. First of all the bale arm went around in the wrong direction for right handed anglers. The bail arm did not roll at all on earlier models and when the Mitchell manufacturers put a revolving bail arm on the reel it didn't revolve - period.

The next bad engineering fault was that the line would often get behind the spool. The skirted spool reels of the far east reels solved this problem of course. Then there was the clutch or drag (better term) adjustment screw on the front of the spool where the line often got behind.

Finally, the drag itself was bloody awful. Jerky and subject to jamming were only two of the faults.

The only decent aspect of the Mitchell 300 was the line lay on the spool. It certainly was the best around, until Shimano got it right that is.

preston96 · Nov 29, 2009

Ron The Hat Clay said:
I read somewhere that the Shimano baitrunner was designed in the USA. That was probably written by an American. I refuse to be dogmatic about the matter.

The Intrepid Elites were atrociously engineered, and I must have owned 2 or three of them at the time they were available. **** Walker gave as much encouragement to KP Morrits who made the elites and others, as he could; yet even he gave up in the end as the far east, notably Japan, started to take the lead in fixed spool reel technology.

What a lot of Mitchell 300 lovers don't accept is that there were a number of features that made these reels inferior. First of all the bale arm went around in the wrong direction for right handed anglers. The bail arm did not roll at all on earlier models and when the Mitchell manufacturers put a revolving bail arm on the reel it didn't revolve - period.

The next bad engineering fault was that the line would often get behind the spool. The skirted spool reels of the far east reels solved this problem of course. Then there was the clutch or drag (better term) adjustment screw on the front of the spool where the line often got behind.

Finally, the drag itself was bloody awful. Jerky and subject to jamming were only two of the faults.

The only decent aspect of the Mitchell 300 was the line lay on the spool. It certainly was the best around, until Shimano got it right that is.

Ron, every one of the "heroes" you have mentioned in past postings probably used the Mitchell reels you are knocking, yes the Abu 54's and 55's were better bits of engineering but over all Mitchell 300/400's had the edge.

KP Morrit's and their "intrepid" range were the only option for many....the Mitchells cost anything up to 2 weeks wages......i have a feeling my first fixed spool cost under an old Ten bob note, 7/6 springs to mind?........in about 1968 that was lots of money for a birthday when you were a miners lad

geoffmaynard · Nov 29, 2009

I think an Intrepid Monarch was 19s 6d in 1968. I had the Elite which I think was 22/6d. All **** by todays standards.

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