Intrepid Prince Regent

[Colin Payne]

chesters1:

ban him

the blue one he mentioned was the boy`o

Ah the Boy'o............memories of my first reel and my first fish. A tiny roach from Battersea Park. Strangely enough I picked up a couple of Intrepids from a boot sale last year and got a Boyo thrown in. 7 quid for the 3! I think I was done!

[teebee]

My first reel was an ABU closed face that came with a tiny pistol-grip spinning rod. Obviously designed to be fished atop the rod, but I didn`t know - I wondered why my mates thought it odd that I had to wind backwards !

Next one was a Mitchell 324. This reel offered the owner the opportunity to claim ownership of a Mitchell, but not much else. It was a nasty, unreliable piece of junk, prone to bail spring failure, and it just loved to get your line under the spool.

I was earning £3 a week at a paper round when I bought my first Mitchell Match - at £20!!!! I loved that reel, and acquired various 300`s and 410`s after starting full-time employment, and used them all for years.

Then, a few years ago, I bought a JW Avon Quiver that came with a free Daiwa reel. I was staggered at how much better this cheap reel was than my beloved Mitchells - beautifully smooth, and a drag that actually worked. You see, years of Mitchell use had made me into a backwinder, pooh-poohing those who relied not on skill (like I and all backwinders did !) but on the reel to do the job for them. Reality was, though, that the Mitchell drag was so awful, requiring such a massive tug to get it going, that owning a Mitchell pretty much dictated a different approach.

I now have a pair of Daiwa TD1650`s, the best reels I have ever owned. But the fact is that today`s £30-ish Jap reel knocks the old Mitchells into a cocked hat !

[fenboy]

Japanese reels are like Japanese cars - full of features and very reliable, but not renowned for longevity. A 10-year-old Toyota Land Cruiser or Nissan Patrol is an old vehicle, you'll find plenty in the scrappies, but a 10-year-old Land Rover is a classic. It is a fact that 75 per cent of Land Rovers ever built are still on the road (manufacture began in 1948).

 

it's the same with reels. My first Abu is now 34 years old, has been hugely abused and never serviced.But I could go and catch fish with it now. The same with my Mitchells (oldest 1971).

 

They are true classics, that fetch good money secondhand. See how much you have to pay for an old Mitchell Match or ABu 507.

 

The Daiwas are great reels for now. But you don't see many old ones for sale on E-bay.

 

This isn't blind patriotism (old ABU were Swedish, Mitchell were French). Just a fact. In my opinion, Daiwa reels are horrendously overpriced. The build quality of Shimano is far better.

 

It's also a question of style. The original Mitchell 300 was timeless and looks as good today as it did over 30 years ago, because it has stood the test of time. The same with Abu Ambassadeur multipliers. They just go on and on, in my experience.

 

But, to anybody a lot younger than me, my advice is to ignore everything I've just said and get yourself a cheap-ish, feature-packed reel. Even if it only lasts a couple of seasons, you'll get great value for money... much better than was available on a budget in my youth. Then think about getting something more sophisticated.

 

We've never had it so good when it comes to good-quality fishing tackle. But I still contend that most of the far east stuff, with the exception of the original Baitrunner, will never attain classic status in the future.

 

Of course, I am very biased, and quite probably living in the past to some extent, but I do enjoy the basic simplicity and solid engineering of a lot of the old stuff. I would enjoy hearing others' opinions on this very subjective issue...

[chesters1]

"They are true classics, that fetch good money secondhand. See how much you have to pay for an old Mitchell Match or ABu 507."

 

have you seen the price of mitchell 840`s

[Bonzo]

Mitchell 400/410 & 440 Mitchell 300 Iam afraid I do have too many, still using them , also brought two of the new, cracking reels.

Starting buying extra ones just in case i ever needed spare parts, but of course you don't if you keep them clean and lubed.

But before anyone one asks "NO Not selling any of them, there mine.

Also own modern reels and pins etc.

[chesters1]

the chap in the creel aldershot has small parts for most abu`s and mitchells ,i bought a abu 507 gold max 2 about 5 years ago now i cannot even get the silicone anti tangle bands for it now :mad: my head bailiff bought an abu 704 after 18 months of light use its TOTALY worn out :mad: and people say old reels are rubbish :mad:

i still use a 1044 and my mrs a 501 ,i carry my old 506 as a spare

[Excalibur]

And I too am still using two 300A's and a Match. Just try parting me from them. They do all I want, so why change?

[Excalibur]

PS. Teebee, you must have been rich! I had a Mitchell 320, till I could afford the 324, which then seemed like a Rolls Royce!

[chesters1]

we seem to have turned this intrepid post into their competitors post

i bought a mitchell match but preferred my 506 ,fishing on the military canal at hythe it was a bit windy (its just inland from the sea at one end) and the line was always going behind the bailarm i still have it though and have picked up a few others at car boots ,my fave mitchell though is the 408 great little reel but i lost it years ago i have a 409 but ofcourse its wrong handed

[Pangolin]

Oh, the nostalgia of old tackle! As the enthusiasm for reels seems to be waning, what about rods? My first serious rod was a MARCO 'Zephyrine' 13' match, which I soon supplemented with a Sealy 'Octostrike'. The rod of the moment was the Sealy 'Blue Match', which I had intended to buy, but my dealer has the 'Octostrike' in stock. Top quality power rods of that time were the Bruce and Walker range, which were beyond my financial resources. I have used both of the old match rods, recently, but I find the tendency of the reel to drop off, having lost a retaining ring, rather disconcerting!