Long Trotting and the Centrepin Reel

[Graham Marsden (ACA)]

Come on carrott, be fair. You may have found the article limited, uninspiring and unoriginal but the fact is that many others have found just the opposite, including me.

Furthermore, it instigated this very interesting fishing thread rather than yet another one about some other bloody nonsense that's got nothing to do with fishing.

 

[Ron 'The Hat' Clay AMIMechE (SA) MIFE (SA) (ACA)]

Wendy not really.

But for classic centre-pin trotting you will find most people using a light long rod these days, something often in excess of 13 feet. I often use my 17 footer on the Trent and Idleas it gives me good reach and is superb for stret pegging for roach.

And by the way, the old but very effective method of stret pegging is where a 'pin reigns supreme.

 

[Peter Jacobs]

Wendy,

Depending on the chosen swim and depth of water within a rod's length or two, you can use any length rod at all.

I use anything from 12 feet right up to 20 feet when the conditions require. The reason for the longer rod is it is a lot easier to trot the float off of the end of the rod, and you get far better line control and thereby much bait presentation if you have a direct line between rod tip and float.

I prefer to use spliced tip rods for most of my trotting as I believe that this cushions the strike better than hollow tipped rods and can therefore reduce the strength of my hooklength accordingly.

The centrepin is a great method to fish, and is a lot easier to use than a fixed spool reel particularly for those of us with smaller/shorter fingers.

That said, for speed (as in a match situation) I'll opt for a closed faced reel every time without loosing anything in presentation.

 

[captain carrott]

I prefer to use spliced tip rods for most of my trotting as I believe that this cushions the strike better than hollow tipped rods and can therefore reduce the strength of my hooklength accordingly.

i would agree with this whole heartedly. i think a spliced tip helps you pick the line up off of the surface of the water more cleanly also.

 

[Peter Jacobs]

i think a spliced tip helps you pick the line up off of the surface of the water more cleanly also.

Very true, thanks Jason, I forgot to mention that.

 

[Steve Spiller]

Did you get out of the wrong side of the bed today CC?

I was brought up on fixed spools and closed faces for trotting, but last year I got a pin.

Yes it has limits, but when I got it right it was brilliant. It put a smile on my face and it was fun. One advantage I did notice was when long trotting I didn't get the line snatching from the spool as sometimes happens when the line is bedded into the spool (if you know what I mean?).

 

[Ron 'The Hat' Clay AMIMechE (SA) MIFE (SA) (ACA)]

Steve,

Old John Ledger used to attach a small plummet to his hook and make a couple of casts into grass prior to winding his line back on the spool. This he did to knock out any kinks or odd twists in the line.

Also with the centrepin, do not put too much line in the reel. It will bed in if you do, especially after you have played in a heavy fish.

 

[Ron 'The Hat' Clay AMIMechE (SA) MIFE (SA) (ACA)]

Oh and buy the way, spliced tip rods are quite hard to find these days.

 

[captain carrott]

they are for a reasonable price, ron.

i managed to get a 13 footer for exactly this purpose a couple of years ago but it cost me nigh on 200 quid!

 

[Peter Jacobs]

"Oh and buy the way, spliced tip rods are quite hard to find these days. "

Really Ron? My fishing room has about a dozen.

Seriously though, yes, a new one is difficult to find, and quite expensive these days too. However, they often come up on good old e-bay and at reasonable prices, unless of course Brummie and I are competing for the same rod and then it can get a little 'silly'

 

[captain carrott]

One advantage I did notice was when long trotting I didn't get the line snatching from the spool as sometimes happens when the line is bedded into the spool (if you know what I mean?).

you obviously hardly had any line on the pin at all then, they are renowned for bedding in if you put much more than 30 yards of line on them. especially if you hit anything approximating to a decent sized fish.

yet another drawback of the pin, my fixed spool doesn't bed in. and i can trot much further down stream with it precisely because it doesn't run out of line. with the fixed spool i could trot to the point where i can no longer see the float, but i do have a fixed spool with decent line lay.

and i would argue that the fixed spool is no more difficult to use if you buy one which is the correct size, even for people like peter who have chipolata fingers./forum/smilies/smile_smiley.gif

i wonder what mr wintle would recommend.

 

[Ron 'The Hat' Clay AMIMechE (SA) MIFE (SA) (ACA)]

"My fishing room has about a dozen!"

I would expect a comment like that from you Peter. You probably don't know what you have got in your tackle room.

/forum/smilies/big_smile_smiley.gif

 

[Ron 'The Hat' Clay AMIMechE (SA) MIFE (SA) (ACA)]

Or cars in your enormous garage!

 

[Peter Jacobs]

"Or cars in your enormous garage! "

Oh yes I do!

There are, er, 2.










A green one and a blue one.

 

[Alan Roe]

With regard to the problem of bedding in it is an issue predominantly with pins that use a caged drum i.e. the spool is made up of the two sideplates held together by pins that create the drum and the bedding in usually happens where the line crosses the pins as these are in effect little acute angles.

In the old days when the vast majority of pins where made in this fashion the answer tended to be to use no more than about 30 or so yards of line on the spool.This did help but was a bit limiting!

The pins I use like the Browning Revolver as seen on the video clip that went with the article have solid drums and the problem of line bury or bedding in is massivly reduced The Okuma reel that I have recommended is also built with a solid drum and thus has the same advantage as well as being significantly more affordable.

By using a reel of this type I routinely put up to a hundred yards of line on the reel if I have need of that much for the job in hand and I don't have any problems at all .

This is a great confidence booster to me as I am often called on to demonstrate the Wallis cast at game fairs and club events and the one thing that you can be sure of is that when you are demonstating if it can go wrong it will!! So I have to be very confident in my set up.

Finally for today don't go all misty eyed over the reels of bygone times, modern pins are vastly better fishing reels than their predecessors

 

[Peter Jacobs]

I'm not sure that I would agree with your final point Alan.

I regularly use; Rapidex, Trudex and Aerials that are over 40 years old and they compare very favourably with my Purists, Wilson and James reels.

Granted that they need a little more tender-loving-care than their more modern counterparts, but then to me, that is all part of the fun of using them.

 

[Ron 'The Hat' Clay AMIMechE (SA) MIFE (SA) (ACA)]

I have a John Wilson Heritage which I have used for over 6 years now. It's a great reel and I expect it will long outlive me.

It's actually a modern version of the old Allcock Match Ariel. and it's made of far superior materials with a ball bearing and a removable line guard.

 

[Alan Roe]

Peter the advice is aimed primarily at those who are wanting to start using a pin there have been more than a few, who knowing nothing about pins, who have wasted good money on old pins that are not in good order beliving the myth that 'they don't make em like they used to'.

The reality is that modern tooling and advances in metalurgy mean that todays reels are better than the oldies. I speak as one who has had more than his fair share of old Aerials and other reels made by Youngs most of these I sold and bought new ones!!

The question of enjoyment is a personal issue as for me I will stick to my Revolver and Okumas

 

[Neneman Nick]

Ron,any chance of meeting up sometime for some coaching/tuition in the art of strett-pegging??? It`s a method that has caught my intrest over the past few weeks and i have been doing some reading up on it. I was watching john wilson doing some this morning on the old cable tv...i found it compulsive veiwing. If i could ask one question now though...i know the float lays flat on the surface,well over depth but is there a range at which the float depth should be set??? I presume that the more overdepyh you set the float,then the greater the likelyhood of deep hooking???

I for one found the article a good read and i must admit i would have fallen into the "look at this pin spinning and spinning for an age...it must be good!!!" catagory.

 

[Ron 'The Hat' Clay AMIMechE (SA) MIFE (SA) (ACA)]

Let's see if I can describe what Stret Pegging is on a few words. Stret pegging is a tactic for a river by the way, not for still waters. In the old days it was often called "tight corking".

Some people confuse stret pegging with laying on. Laying on means fishing a fair bit overdepth with a slim float and the shot on the bottom. The rod is put into a rest with the rod tip fairly low. You then sit and wait for a bite.

Stret pegging has similarities but you work the tackle down the swim by lifting the rod point and then you lower the point, allowing the tackle to settle. By working this way you can search a large area of your swim.

The float for laying on should be a slim streamlined one. One of those lollipop floats is ideal. For Stret pegging a thick fat short float is better. You attach the float top and bottom only with rubbers.

For most rivers a fairly long rod of 13 to 16 foot will be found ideal. I think that you could also stret peg for roach with a pole.