ravey

The 'P' stands for 'power'; the rod was introduced as the 'commercial' scene was starting to take off. The seller was a bit out with his estimation of RRP, but at £25 it was still a bit of a 'steal'

Go for it. I have the Amorphous 13' job. The Matchwinner was next model down in the 'pecking order', but is a very capable rod (amorphous coil?). Retail price at the time was £155 I think. One went on ebay for £92 recently. Not sure how much you paid, but the Amorphous jobs crop up quite regularly. If you want river rods, then those from the nineties may have been the best.

A couple of years ago I was pike fishing with a friend at Burton Joyce on the Trent. It was a bitterly cold day, and only a couple of other anglers were fishing along the road stretch. After a couple of hours, I got bored and had a walk along to see how these other anglers were doing. I asked the first I came to if he had any bites, to which he replied that he had just landed a salmon! At this point, I was wondering if he could outrun me to my car...when he said that he had taken a photo of it. Sure enough, there was a clear pic of a salmon, about 7/8 pounds in weight that he had caught on a lamprey section, and released back into the river. I was only a few minutes from actually seeing it with my own eyes, and could tell from the background that he was not kidding me. Cracking pastime this dangling...you just never know...!

You wouldn't have these problems with a Mitchell... Sorry - not very helpful, but it does make me mad that a serious design fault like this should render a £150 reel unserviceable. I can understand the attraction of older reels which last. It might be worth getting a ceramic version. Could you use a section of old ceramic rod ring to replace the worn 'crescent' bit? Might not be feasible (how could you cut it?). An engineer may be able to help out.

It's been a struggle for me as well. Lots of dead weed on the river bed; it needs a good flush through before I expect things to improve...

'Your' stretch will be classed as 'upper' Trent. Swarkestone and Shardlow are very close to me, although I have little experience of fishing them. It is quite narrow - nothing like as wide as the river downstream of Nottingham which is where I am most 'at home'. The far bank is only a lazy flick, but I appreciate that the flow can be strong. Most of my fishing is done below Nottingham. I generally use 5, 6 and 8 pound Maxima mainlines with hooklengths ranging 3, 4, 5, 6, and 8 pound Daiwa TDR rig line. My usual choice of rod is one of my Daiwa 11/13s - Whisker Kevlar and Amorphous Whisker (heavy version). I don't use mine at 11', but this might be a useful option for you on the narrower river. There are other options open, but if money is not a consideration, then a Daiwa 11/13 would be ideal (they still fetch good money on ebay). I am sure other manufacturers offer something suitable, but can only speak for the stuff I use. For lighter work - 5 pound mainlines, 3 - 5 pound hooklengths, then an old TriCast quiver/feeder rod fits the bill (casting weights 0.5 - 1.5oz). Don't rule out the Daiwa Porky Pig, either. I can recommend the 12' or 12'2" versions with a heavy carbon quivertip; they did do a hollow tip version as well, but the quiver version will be more than adequate... Hope this helps. PS the only reason I use 8 pound mainline is so I can raise the hooklength strength accordingly if barbel are likely to be caught

I am familiar with the Trent and long range feeder fishing. The big questions are: What sort of weights are you intending to cast? What mainlines are you expecting to use? What stretches ar you fishing (tidal, non-tidal)? Do you expect to encounter barbel?