What makes a good Centrepin

macko

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A re badged kingpin, I think not, they may have built it (to E Barders) specifications,
but Kingpin it is not

ATB Macko
 

108831

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I'm not brilliant with the Wallace cast,but I get by,I don't think you can cast better with a Lythe pin against an okuma Sheffield, the Lythe is just a better pin,my family had a bestoke pin made for my barbel fishing for my 60th birthday,made by a guy in Christchurch,I'd been trying to get him to make me one for years,he made it to my requirements,with several options,marvellous and a pleasure to use,still landed a fair few doubles on my cheaper pins though.:)
 

tigger

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A re badged kingpin, I think not, they may have built it (to E Barders) specifications,
but Kingpin it is not

ATB Macko

I actually think Kingpins own reels are superior to the barder reel :eek:....yeaph, I really do :).
The barder pin in my eyes is a plain old lump of CNC'd metal with no soul whatsoever and if it hadn't got the barder name attached it surely wouldn't have sold more than a handful.
No disrespect to anyone who may own one ;).
 

tigger

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I'm not brilliant with the Wallace cast,but I get by,I don't think you can cast better with a Lythe pin against an okuma Sheffield, the Lythe is just a better pin,my family had a bestoke pin made for my barbel fishing for my 60th birthday,made by a guy in Christchurch,I'd been trying to get him to make me one for years,he made it to my requirements,with several options,marvellous and a pleasure to use,still landed a fair few doubles on my cheaper pins though.:)

I use a few different okuma pins and a number of other various makes and models of pins and imo a bush and pin reel outcasts a ballrace reel by a country mile. By that I don't just mean distance casting but short delicate casts and casts where accuracy are needed...jumo ;).
 
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sam vimes

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A re badged kingpin, I think not, they may have built it (to E Barders) specifications,
but Kingpin it is not

ATB Macko

Semantics, maybe rebadged Kingpin is a bit strong, but the company behind Kingpin definitely made them. Their own variation on the true pin theme is called the Zephyr. Now if they get round to making a variation with spokes of some description, I may be tempted.
 
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macko

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Re: Now Listen Up Chaps......New Barder Centrepin
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Post by Nobby » Sun Mar 10, 2013 5:56 pm

Well, I finally got to actually handle one today.


EB needs to add to the images on his site....they don't do it justice.

I've quite simply never seen such perfect engineering before in a fishing reel. I'm sure there's a LOT of hand-made reels out there I've yet to hold....but so far, I can honestly say the bar has been raised, gentlemen.


By quite a lot actually.


Own one of these and you might as well flog the collection off..........

This fella seems to rate them
but at the end of the day, there are loads of excellent pins out there.

ATB Macko
 

nicholaslukey

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Thanks for the replies chaps it's been fascinating reading. So if one were to look at maybe a Christmas present suggestion, within the bounds of reasonable money say upto £400 what would be recommended. Also it would be a reel to use, and not to store in a box.

Thanks
 
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puffer_

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Thanks for the replies chaps it's been fascinating reading. So if one were to look at maybe a Christmas present suggestion, within the bounds of reasonable money say upto £400 what would be recommended. Also it would be a reel to use, and not to store in a box.

Thanks

An Okuma Sheffield and a new rod :D
 

tigger

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Thanks for the replies chaps it's been fascinating reading. So if one were to look at maybe a Christmas present suggestion, within the bounds of reasonable money say upto £400 what would be recommended. Also it would be a reel to use, and not to store in a box.

Thanks

Maybe one of these...

J W Young Atom Centrepin Reel | eBay

I know there is a FM member that's recently got himself one/or two :eek:mg:.
I'm sure he'll see this and give his verdict of the reel.
 

sam vimes

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Thanks for the replies chaps it's been fascinating reading. So if one were to look at maybe a Christmas present suggestion, within the bounds of reasonable money say upto £400 what would be recommended. Also it would be a reel to use, and not to store in a box.

Thanks

That will rather depend on what your preferences are. If you don't state them, or know them yet, all that is likely to happen is that people will recommend their favourites that fall within the budget.

Maybe one of these...

J W Young Atom Centrepin Reel | eBay

I know there is a FM member that's recently got himself one/or two :eek:mg:.
I'm sure he'll see this and give his verdict of the reel.

Not yet. I like them a lot, but they aren't even properly run in yet.
Definitely not a reel for those obsessed by spin times though, at least not when they are still fairly new.
 

steve2

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I will stick with my Rapidex and Trudex reels I have used and abused them for over 40 years. Still to find better reels for my style of fishing have used others but still come back to these,
My Style, I have used them for anything from trotting to pike fishing like I said I use and abuse my fishing tackle.
 

trotter2

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It's quite easy to get obsessed by this. Been there, after 40 yrs you suddenly realise there is no magic in any off them. Only how well you use it .
Every one will have there own slight different preferences it takes time to find them out and money.;)
Sure there is a handfull of reels that consistently get good reviews and come highly recommended.
Sometimes the only way to find out is work your way down the lists.
I like to think I have this under control now.:D
 

Philip

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From my noddies perspective I think the basic question you need to ask when you buy a Pin is whether you want it for fishing reasons or esthetic reasons as well.

There is not much to a center pin really and some of the good cheaper ones do a great job. Whats a good cheaper one ? …well the TFG seems to get some good reviews and I have a couple of the Marco Contessi ones (the MK1 version) and they seem very good at least to me. Would a top end one last longer ? ….I don’t know but I have put mine through some abuse for several seasons, I don’t wash them, oil them or pamper them and they are still working great. I think they cost me £30, I doubt one costing ten times as much will add any additional fishing pleasure, in fact in my case an expensive one would actually detract from the fishing pleasure as I would be worried about every spec of mud I got on it.

Having said that, some of expensive ones are works of art and great to look at.
 
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trotter2

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From my noddies perspective I think the basic question you need to ask when you buy a Pin is whether you want it for fishing reasons or esthetic reasons as well.

There is not much to a center pin really and some of the good cheaper ones do a great job. Whats a good cheaper one ? …well the TFG seems to get some good reviews and I have a couple of the Marco Contessi ones (the MK1 version) and they seem very good at least to me. Would a top end one last longer ? ….I don’t know but I have put mine through some abuse for several seasons, I don’t wash them, oil them or pamper them and they are still working great. I think they cost me £30, I doubt one costing ten times as much will add any additional fishing pleasure, in fact in my case an expensive one would actually detract from the fishing pleasure as I would be worried about every spec of mud I got on it.

Having said that, some of expensive ones are works of art and great to look at.

I don't think your alone with that philip, looking on the bay of evil the amount of top drawer pins sold in mint condition confirms others also have a fear of using them also.
 

sam vimes

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I don't think your alone with that philip, looking on the bay of evil the amount of top drawer pins sold in mint condition confirms others also have a fear of using them also.

I've little doubt it's true for some, but don't discount there being quite a few centrepin buyers that are collectors rather than users. There are also an inordinate number of pins that are bought by folks that like the idea of a pin, but can't cope with the realities. If they are well heeled, they may spend rather a lot and decide in short order that centrepins (or specific centrepins) really aren't for them.

There's more than the odd blagger too! I use my centrepins quite a lot, pricey or not, at least until something I prefer comes along. I'm as careful as possible with them all, but I know that two of several have picked up marks with use. The rest, were I an unscrupulous seller (not that I would like to be either!) I could easily blag that the were little used, or even unused.
 

trotter2

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I've little doubt it's true for some, but don't discount there being quite a few centrepin buyers that are collectors rather than users. There are also an inordinate number of pins that are bought by folks that like the idea of a pin, but can't cope with the realities. If they are well heeled, they may spend rather a lot and decide in short order that centrepins (or specific centrepins) really aren't for them.

There's more than the odd blagger too! I use my centrepins quite a lot, pricey or not, at least until something I prefer comes along. I'm as careful as possible with them all, but I know that two of several have picked up marks with use. The rest, were I an unscrupulous seller (not that I would like to be either!) I could easily blag that the were little used, or even unused.

I suspect more than a few have been purchased purely as investments.
Making a nice little return on your money if your prepared to wait for your name to reach the top of the list.
I always use my reels they should be used not put behind glass imo.
 

tigger

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I suspect more than a few have been purchased purely as investments.
Making a nice little return on your money if your prepared to wait for your name to reach the top of the list.
I always use my reels they should be used not put behind glass imo.


I do both, I use them all and still put some behind glass when I bring them home...I like looking at them :cool:. I've used lots and lots of different pins and some really are streets ahead of the rest both aesthetically and also in use ;).
 

Alan Tyler

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It might have been simpler to ask what makes a bad centre-pin.

Or, to avoid unnecessary offence, what has put you off a 'pin that other people rave about?

F'rinstance, I have a Match Aerial. Bought, lightly used, around 1970 and still not properly run in, 'cos I'm just not good enough. I watched in awe as Billy Lane demonstrated centre-pin casts with one of these, at a show in the mid sixties, and he could make it do all but sing.
It reduces me to a sobbing wreck, unless I've packed a Rapidex, Trudex, or Speedia as back-up. The arbour is too shallow for me; the line spills off the side of the spool if the faintest breeze discovers an inch of slack line that I have negligently allowed to form.
The other three quietly and efficiently file it under "Line" and stow it away as hoped.
But even they are not without their vices: The check lever on the Speedia is sharp enough to cut the line if you bully a chub while having failed to notice that a really unforgivable loop has gotten round it (and that was a float I made decades back and really loved, macrame-d forever into a reed-bed); the Rapidex was made for speed-demon matchmen fishing ten-yard swims, and the drum is a bit narrow (made tolerable by that new-fangled nylon) and the cage inhibits Wallis-casting; the only real criticism I've heard of the Trudex is that the lugs for attaching the line-guard are a mite ugly. True, but it's a fishing reel, not a posing pouch.

Better reels are available, but not at the sort of prices I can run to!

I bought one of those "Black Zero" bearings jobs for £7.50 in a sale; the only fault I can find is the lack of a compensating drag, an omission it shares with the later model Hardy Conquest, and means you have to be as vigilant against overruns when trying to relax by a pond as while trotting till your eyes bleed on a river.
My petrol-splitter has a Young's Heritage which looks dam' near perfect to me - wider drum, turned arbour, micro-drag... as does the Purist, which also has an unpierced back, which must help keep the muck out. At the prices asked, though, I doubt if I'll ever find out, and don't really mind; it'll be a lotta dosh for a tiny advantage.
 
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