rayner
Well-known member
My recollections of my formative angling years were seeing Mitchells being very commonplace. Many of the anglers I aspired to emulate used them. Amongst the specimen anglers, it was mostly Mitchell 300s and Abu Cardinals. The match and general coarse anglers tended to use Mitchell Match or Abu 50*s. Up until around the mid-eighties, I'd have given a kidney for a Mitchell. They were undoubtedly popular and arguably as good as reels got at the time.
However, by the time I could have actually afforded a Mitchell, most of the serious speci lads had moved on to Shimano Baitrunners and the match/coarse fraternity went towards Shimano and Daiwa. I no no longer had any aspirations to own a Mitchell, time had moved on. Not surprisingly, plenty stayed loyal to the Mitchells and Abus that they'd been using for a decade or two. Some are obviously still very loyal to them.
I recall having a Daiwa 1657DM in an attempt to get the finger dab bail arm that I coveted so much from the Mitchell Match. Unfortunately, I considered it to be a pretty poor reel that put me off Daiwa reels for many years. It never stopped me buying Daiwa rods though. Despite any imperfections it may have, I've not encountered a better finger dab mechanism than the one on the Mitchell Match. I can understand why some remain very faithful to them and those that want them for nostalgic reasons. I've even been tempted to fulfill my childhood yearnings. However, I've yet to succumb, and doubt I ever will now.
In the same era, I recall centrepins being a very tough sell. Only the odd ancient, as it seemed to teenage me, was ever seen using a centrepin. I also recall a local tackle shop having a decent stack of red boxed Allcock Aerials that he struggled to shift for buttons. Even when the shop ended up shut down, there were still several sat on an abandoned shelf. Funny how things go in that respect. He couldn't shift them for circa £30 as the shop struggled to survive and I certainly wouldn't have bought one. Now they'd be snapped up for decent money. I'd even consider one myself, for the right money.
A very interesting post Sam.
Probably one that Mitchell reel uses of the past all remember how the reel was and how the reel lost favour with its uses. It certainly was how things went with me regarding Mitchell reels, turning my attention to mostly Abu reels then on to Shimanos.
I fished with friends in the late 80s early 90s who used to say why do you need an automatic bail arm, I felt sure they would have one themselves if they thought the cost was worth it for a fishing reel, they were from a similar tight-fisted school has myself, even more so by all accounts.
I was in a similar frame of mind with Diawa reels back then, now I wish I could justify to myself to spend the cash to purchase a 16TDM it's less than 90quid but I steered myself away from it in favour of a refurbished 440A. I've never been one to believe the tripe I read or was told about how I didn't need one.
My reel history and why I came back to the Mitchell Match.
Way back when I was 16 I started to get some money from a decent Saturday/holiday job and could finally afford a decent reel to replace my Mitchell 320 (100% reliable but slow). The day before a match a neighbour lent me a Mitchell 300 and I duly won the match, my first senior win but the next day I went out and bought an ABU 505 which became my goto trotting reel for several years. Two years later I was working full time and had more money so bought a Mitchell 300 which became my legering/big fish reel for many years. By early 76 I'd bought a Mitchell Match and gradually developed my waggler skills. Over the following years I bought more Matches (the first two I owned were 440 Matches not the later 440A Matches and they were chucked, totally worn out 30 years ago), including a 840 Match which lasted 3 weeks before being returned, and through a vast amount of practice got the hang of these reels. I could strip them down quickly and often got them serviced properly which is why some of my reels that are 40 years old are truly wonderfully smooth running because they've been fettled with care. Yet there is no getting away from the fact that they do wear out but I've got enough now to not worry about that any more.
In the early 2000s I inherited some Shimano Stradic 1000 reels - I was already trying Shimanos for legering and welcomed their reliability and smoothness. They had shortcomings in the long reach to the spool, later rectified, but the line comes off the spool the opposite way to the Matches and that's not the way my brain/fingers are wired. I also never liked fishing with the Shimanos with the anti-reverse off as they spin out of control - Matches don't!
Then a couple of years ago I was trotting a very fast ford on the Avon with a Stradic 2500 and struggling to do what I wanted in terms of presentation when I got the line around the reel and cracked off, losing the float etc. so had to re-tackle which I did but with a Match; it felt so much better in terms of what I was trying to achieve in terms of presentation so since then I've largely gone back to the Mitchells. I seem to acquire Matches without trying; one friend has already given me a mint one, and yesterday offered me another free one that needs fettling. I also have bought several very cheaply plus a 840 that is wonderful on stillwater.
So to sum up: The Matches can be noisy through wear, can tangle and never feel as smooth as the almost maintenance-free Shimanos, and must be carefully maintained but are a joy to use for waggler, Avon float and stick float. For legering it's the Shimanos every time - 300s/410s, you can keep them.
I for one understand what you mean about the noise that an unserviced Mitchell makes. If they are left to fester they soon lose the ability to work in a reasonable fashion.
I recently dug out a 440A from my cellar that couldn't be called anything like a stable area to store a fishing reel.
Continual cleaning and renewing of grease the inside is almost perfect, the paintwork, on the other hand, is quite poor. I'd still prefer using it against a carbon bodied reel that is now available.
I've had my 440 on a Shimano powerloop match rod and it feels much better-balanced combination than my pellet waggler rod with a Diawa Ninja.