tincatinca

I have been looking around for a while now with a view to updating some of my float and feeder reels. In the past I have generally looked leaned toward earlier made in Japan Shimanos or the rarlier virtually bullet proof ABU Cardinals however, from listening to Sportsman on here coupled with a bit of net research, I recently purchased a new Spro Redarc. Having now tried it out for both feeder and float fishing, I am extremely impressed with it and as such have managed to get a couple more used ones off ebay. The reels are very smooth and compact with a superb front clutch and also have a good sized spool with excellent line lay. They are not cheap but if anyone is looking for something comparable say for example with a Shimano Stradic or the higher end Daiwa match reels they are in my opinion well worth a look. I have put a couple of pictures comparing the size with a little Cardinal C3. They come with 2 spools one being a shallow match spool ideal for float fishing and a deeper spool for feeder work. There are many other good match reels such as the Shakespeare mach 3s but these I feel are a little bit special but of course only time will tell.

I am pleased that you like it Chris. It looks from the serial no as if your reel came from the same batch as mine along with the new anodising colours and when you consider that these reels are screwed together and not jig riveted, the manufacturing tolerances are extremely tight.I bet you can't wait to try out.

Chris, you won't regret it. I have just got in and if it had still been there I would have had to buy it. As Ian has said, they are as good as it gets. I have been faffing about for months now trying to decide which one to have next. Now knowing how CL puts the reels together I have been pondering on another 1915 but with ventilation holes both sides which I think could be done but would have to have some means to adjust the balance. Anyway I have now binned that idea and will go for one of the Scotton trotters. Absolutely superb workmanship and to my mind the only thing that would sway me away would be an Alcock original.

Very tempted as they are a fantastic reel but I am going to order one of the Scottons.

To be honest, I was geared up for a bit of roving on the river but it was in no condition for a bit of trotting so I didn't bother and went to a local farm pool. Only had river floats with me so had to use the smallest one I had. Not a good test for the Lythe but it felt nice on the rod and under the hand. beautifully smooth and great for casting, certainly in a different class to my other pins. As far as the 12 foot tip goes, at £30 I think it is worth a punt.

With rods that spend most of their time in a rod rest I will go for fixed reel fittings every time but for ones that you are holding all the time and are using different reels I much prefer sliding reel fittings to get the best balance. As for value, that is not why I bought the rod. As a matter of interest, I was wondering whether the tip section on a 12 foot Titan 2000 could be adapted to fit the 13 foot as there are still some spare sections available. If they are then I would get one as a spare. Managed to get out for a few hours yesterday but not on the river which is way low. Managed to christen the Lythe though with a bit of Roach fishing on a local pool.

Great choice Steve. I nearly bid on that one myself but decided not to as I already have a couple of rods built on the GTI blanks. I would also echo the thoughts of others re the Roberts reel clips. As well as being very good, it also helps that being adjustable you can find the best position when using different reels. I will be putting same on the Normark Titan that I have recently aqquired for the same reason. As for no more rods? you can make a superb Chubbing rod from GTI blanks.

Quite a balanced view between the two types and worth a read. http://www.gofishn.com/content/spinning-tackle

The reel arrived today and first impressions are that it is very good. One thing I did have to do was run a bit of fine wire wool round the back of the spool and around the line clips to smooth the edges. Very positive and free running with a very smooth clutch. Just got to load on some line ready for the weekend. Will be able to compare bling with Anderoo now.

Can't really comment on the Suveran Ian as I have never had one or had a good look inside one. A couple of my mates in Cumbria have them and use them for worming for Salmon. Looking at the site below http://www.realsreels.com/reviews/suveran.htm they appear to be very well made and use carbon in the drag assembly probably similar to that used in the brakes of plane and high powered cars. The interesting bit is that they are using large dia friction discs than would be found on the internal rear assemblies which makes for a more efficient set up.. From the pictures it looks as the clutch assembly contains a combination of both captive and free discs. Quite complex and I think would be a bit of a job to strip down and re build. It does show however that the quality of the clutch component material can make a considerable differerence. Another thing I have noticed is that the drag is very tightly controlled as it appears that turning drag wheel is limited by a cut out and stop.

Pretty global coverage http://www.okumafishingteam.com/

The basic principle of a clutch is very simple ie using a a friction plate to create a dring force as in a car, or any other bit of machinery that requires a clutch. The difference with a reel is that you want to introduce controlled slippage that builds in a safety margin relative to the line used therefore unlike in a car where you want it to want it to work constantly you now want to be able to vary the load on the friction plates/washers which is done by creating a mechanical means to vary the compressive force applied to the friction plates/washers unless an entirely different arrangement is used ie abraking mechanism on the shaft. In the main this compressive force is created either through a spring and/or compressable material. In many reels you have a combination set of both friction washers and compression washers. Whatever the make up is the quality of materials used will dictate how efficient the mechanism is with regard to frictional properties, adjustment capability, parrallelism and rigidity. As the clutch assembly will normally be mounted on a shaft then positioning close to a bearing support will also be important to maintain both regidity and parrallellism under load. Much will depend both on the design of the reel and materials used which will also reflect in the cost. I think that these latter issues are very relevant as manufacturing costs generally increase and which I feel is the main reason for example that Shimano reels do not appear to be as robust as they once were plus the accuracy and machining technology may now be different. Getting back to clutches, the front clutch is a much simpler mechanism than the rear clutch and in principle bigger is better shearly for the fact that they produce less stress in the components. Budgie for example has had a lot of experience with large cats the reels for which I would imagine have all had a front clutch. I think that if they had used a rear clutch you would have needed a spanner to tighten them up. This would have put enormous stress onto the component parts with the likelehood that they would have failed very rapidly. I can appreciate why there is a preference by many for a rear clutch and the good ones such as in the Shimano GTE range work well but my own opinion is that mechanically a front clutch is a much better design and particularly where bigger fish are the quarry.

The main difference between the two is that generally the size of the drag washers on a front drag reel are much bigger and this tranlates to less force having to be applied to the adjusing screw to achieve the same loading which in turn creates less stress on the reel components which also has the advantage of being able to make fine adjustments easier. What will also make a difference is the quality and accuracy of the materials used to make the drag washers.

If that is the one you showed me, it is a stunning little reel

If I am fishing close to medium range I still use my Shimano 3500 Tritons which have a superb clutch and for feeder fishing I use my ABU Cardinals which are virtually bomb proof. Whilst they may not be as smooth running as later reels they are ultra dependable and have never let me down over a longer period of time than I care to remember. Since Shimano stopped manufacturing in Japan I think the quality has dropped quite a bit. I have several of the earlier baitrunner 5000 and 6000 GTE range which are still going strong but would not buy any of the later versions. Whilst I do not have any Okuma reels apart from a Sheffield, many of my mates do and speak very highly of them particularly the original Epix Pro range.

Just ordered one from here http://www.totalangling.co.uk/index.php?pa...=1&vmcchk=1

Thanks for that. I will be getting one in the near future.

Thanks for the replies which have confirmed most of my thoughts. Last weekend there were three options I was interested in which were a 13 foot Titan 2000 with 20mm of the tip missing, a 13 foot Titan 1000 and a 13/14ft Avenger 11. After much deliberation I decided to take a punt on the Titan 2000 which I eventually got for £125 which I think was reasonable as £200 plus seems the norm plus the fact that I cannot see the missing 3/4" making any difference. I wanted a rod for float fishing up to 4lb mainline and as I already have good rods for heavier work including 2 Harrisons based on the GTI blanks and a Diawa Amorphous Whisker H it swayed me towards the Titan as opposed to the Avenger. The main purpose for the rod will be for roving on my local river for Chub, Perch and Roach plus a bit of waggler fishing on the lakes in the warmer months and from previous comments made by several members on this and other forums I was attracted by the comments made re weight, action and kindness to the arm and wrist. Should receeive the rod later this week and hopefully be able to give it a whirl at the weekend although the river really does need some rain. I have noted the comments re knocking the the tip so I will have to be careful.

Been looking at Normark float rods for some time now and have noticed that quite a few that come up have had the tip snapped. Any underlying reason for this and also what are the differences between the 1000, 2000, and type 11 models. Am I correct in assuming that the type 11 are from the Masterline era and the 1000 and 2000 are built on the Japanese Diamura blanks. Any info would be gratefully received.

Have you got room in the cabinet

Don't forget the most important item http://www.firebox.com/product/2351/****-Box

I am starting to take an interest in the Spro reels. I am looking for a good match reel and the Red Arc range seems to have a big following in Europe. Have not seen one or handled one in the flesh. Have you had any experience of them?.

You will of course need a wooden reel to go with the cane rod. A nice Coxon Aerial perhaps

I got hold of a couple of Daiwa 2lb Daiwa whisker kevlars for lobbing out the big drennan maggot feeders and the occassional feeder mix at Wingham. It is a personal thing but I do not like stiff action rods. Whilst I freely admit that this can be a drawback with casting accuracy at longer distances I am quite happy to sacrifice distance against fish playing ability. Yes you can set the clutch close with a stiff actioned rod but for me it does not compensate for having a rod with a through action acting like a big spring coupled with the right setting on the clutch. When I used to Carp fish a lot I always found that my much softer actioned Ballistas were much better at handling fish close in than my Amorphouses even though they were the same test curve. Also when fish are weeded I have found that what has worked for me most of the time is to leave the rod in the rest with a slack line until it moves off. Obviously there are occassions when this does not happen but after a prolonged waiting game it may be that there is no longer a fish on the end of the line. No it is not foolproof but I would wait for a long time before I even contemplated pulling for a break and only then if there was no alternative. It makes you wonder how they used to catch all those big fish many years ago with those low test curve bean poles. Just for interest Rob, I have also used my Diaflashes with feeders and they have worked OK but I changed to the Daiwas just in case as they are easier to replace if an accident occured.