Reel Envy: serviced a 300C Yellowfin

[Yogi_fish808]

Today by chance I met up with my friend for a fishing session and a friend of his joined us. He took out this reel and my mind was blown, I've been browsing ebay for these parts (especially the yellowfin spool!). It was his brothers who either had great taste/knowledge or bought it from someone who did, but he didn't really know what a great reel it was. In my head I saw all the boxes tick....Newell 300C plates and SS goodies from that kit, Tiburon N344 frame, Newell YFS spool...can you say REEL ENVY. He did hear that I like working on jigmasters and asked if I could open his up and fix some issues. Did the usual treatment of cleaning, Cal's on the Carbon drags, ReelX spool bearings, light coat of penn grease on exposed metal, etc. She works pretty smooth after the quick service. The reel is no show piece and has a bit of wear on the exterior but I still HAD TO make an offer, which was deliced :[ What would you guys value this reel at for a fair offer? Since I don't have a set due date...I may have to spool it up for a test run

-The stock brass spool sleeve was badly rounded and the handle had a huge amount of wobble. I threw a brass one I had but I'm gonna ask if he wants to upgrade this to an AT SS sleeve or its bound to round off again.








My 500 AccuJig is sweet but damn...it just feels inadequate next to this beast.




Oh, look a Yellowfin Special w/ Accuplates and Tib frame...I wonder where that came from?

[vilters]

interesting reel. I'm getting ready to service/upgrade mine, which is a "99" width. I've bought two (one for my son, one for me) and paid around 80-90 bux for each. see them on ebay for anywhere from about 50-150 bux. basically a jigmaster with spool bearings, and I will find out what other differences, if any.

[Decker]

Guys, are there any advantages (besides the spool bearings) of a vintage Newell 300-C over a Jigmaster?  Do they have the same gears as a Jigmaster, same gear ratio?  Pics in this post show a brass sleeve, so I assume they are all brass.  Thanks.   

[Yogi_fish808]

Haha wow this was the first ever reel I took on for servicing. The internals all come from a 500 jigmaster, they can be bone stock or full custom stainless with all the upgrades available from the AT family. A newell spool has to be used, or the plastic sleeve inserts that came with the 300C kit.  The major advantage is all about having greatly increased freespool from the bearies vs oem bushings.

[Bryan Young]

Essentially spool and bearings are the advantages. I just picked 4 lefties.