One Of Life’s Great Mysteries

[foakes]

Went down to town yesterday.  Ran errands and had lunch with a good friend who tracks down lots of reels for me over the last 25 years.

Bought 4 nice rods, Fenwick, Kunan, Daiwa, and one other —- all new.

Then a couple of Daiwa's NIB, one a line counter.

Then a Cardinal 6 with a spool shaft frozen to the spool.  Fair condition, some scratches & the badge missing.

Then a large —- nearly new, possibly unused Mitchell 486, Dark Blue, Bearings, High-Speed gearing, door knob crank.  But something was wrong.  The bail would not flip properly.

Broke it open this afternoon —- it was obviously never fished, and in perfect shape.  Bronze gears.  Not a hint of crud or use.

Figured out the issue must be in the rotor assembly.

After monkeying around with it for an hour —- decided to try a different bail spring with a different "leg orientation".

Pulled a new spring out of the inventory.

That was the problem.  On a new reel, someone had installed the wrong bail spring!

How would this have happened on an almost new reel that shows no sign of being rod-mounted?  A mystery with only theories — no simple explanation.

Now, this reel works perfectly and just like new.  Crisp, strong, positive bail snap, not a hint of any corrosion or having ever touched salt water.

Ready to load with 15-30 pound —- and fish the surf, piers, salt, or HD fresh waters.

This is a very heavy duty spinning reel that can be used for heavy freshwater fishing or medium saltwater fishing for bass, barracuda, bonito, catfish, cobia, dorado, halibut, lingcod, pargo, redfish, snook and stripers. This extra large heavy duty spinning reel will also work great for trolling for Lake Trout and Salmon. You can fish 15 to 30 pound test line on this reel and fish on the bank, in the surf or on a boat. This is a very durable spinning reel that will last you a lifetime.

Since these are very heavy-duty salt water reels — they are seldom, if ever found in this condition.

$50.

Best, Fred

[oldmanjoe]

    That`s a nice find on that 486 !!