Old reels in action, lets see em!

[Gfish]

That's a lot of fun and successful fishing reflected in those photos, bja105! I've been intrigued by the 350 and may try one after I get done with the 180s I'm currently working on. Those are nice carp! Is that Pflueger Alpine a knuckle buster? I've been thinking of trying one of those as well, maybe a Penn 78, for some old school carp fishing.

The 350 is just like a Surfmaster or Beachmaster, except the Level Line feature. I have one with a plated brass spool and one with a plastic spool. I cast the plastic better, but I don't really power cast with these old reels. I think a conventional is a perfect Carp and Catfish reel. Set the rod in a holder, clicker on, freespool.

The Alpine is a knuckle buster. The drag is the leather pad. That fish was from Lake Arthur last Summer.

BTW, The 350(according to the Penn manual) should have 30" between the reel and the first guide on the rod. This is to get better "level winding". I did take that guide off my cheap Mariner rod, but it didn't seem to make too much difference.

[bushleague]

 Nice to see the thread taking off, great pictures all around!

 Digging further back, a couple of nice pike the kids caught on Daiwa 130X's or RL's, cant keep track of who's got what but we've got a small fleet of them kicking around. Super easy to service, relatively light and user friendly for kids to use, and despite being a "B-grade" reel they've outlasted a trashcan full of low- mid range Shimanos.

RIMG0039 by , on Flickr

RIMG0037 by , on Flickr

[slosh]

I got a 130 at a junk shop awhile back, had it serviced in no time, just need to put line on it.

Tough little reels. Kind of like an '80s Toyota pickup. Not the smoothest or fastest, but will still be ticking along well after most of the newer stuff is scrapped.

[bushleague]

I got a 130 at a junk shop awhile back, had it serviced in no time, just need to put line on it.

Tough little reels. Kind of like an '80s Toyota pickup. Not the smoothest or fastest, but will still be ticking along well after most of the newer stuff is scrapped.

 Yeah, I dont know if its actually possible to build a functional spinning reel with less parts. Its like Daiwa looked at a Mitchel 300 and figured out how to get rid of 1/3 of the parts. Typical of all Daiwa's great reels they perform much better than the pot metal gears, plastic bushings, and all the nay-sayers might suggest. As you can see, we are using them far harder than they were ever intended to be and they just keep ticking.

[bushleague]

 A real classic lineup right here: Mitchell 300, Ugly Stik, a Junebug Spinner... and a Walleye.

P6020094 by , on Flickr

Another nice walleye caught on a Mitchell 300, shore casting with spoons.

DSCF1520 by , on Flickr

[jgp12000]

This is my second 2062 I got at an antique mall, it needed a spool & some bail work. My new fav I said that before. I go to our pond every evening around 7 the feeder goes off at 730. It been hot action every cast. I took 13 small bream to the creek the last 2 days & caught this stumpknocker

[work2fish]

I christened two new (to me, at least) reels today. Caught two carp, one on my Surfmaster 150 and another on my Daiwa SL30SH. I had the Daiwa on freespool with the clicker, and I was about 50 yards away from my rod talking to somebody when the clicker started to scream. Luckily I got to the rod before the carp pulled me into the downed trees.

[TLHSS]

Modern UL rod.  Vintage UL reel.  Small creek bass.  The combination works well for my style of fishing.

[bushleague]

I christened two new (to me, at least) reels today. Caught two carp, one on my Surfmaster 150 and another on my Daiwa SL30SH. I had the Daiwa on freespool with the clicker, and I was about 50 yards away from my rod talking to somebody when the clicker started to scream. Luckily I got to the rod before the carp pulled me into the downed trees.

 Nice carp!

Fighting a fish off the beach on a Daiwa BG15/ Ugly Stick combo...

029-2 by , on Flickr

[jurelometer]

That's a lot of fun and successful fishing reflected in those photos, bja105! I've been intrigued by the 350 and may try one after I get done with the 180s I'm currently working on. Those are nice carp! Is that Pflueger Alpine a knuckle buster? I've been thinking of trying one of those as well, maybe a Penn 78, for some old school carp fishing.

The 350 is just like a Surfmaster or Beachmaster, except the Level Line feature. I have one with a plated brass spool and one with a plastic spool. I cast the plastic better, but I don't really power cast with these old reels. I think a conventional is a perfect Carp and Catfish reel. Set the rod in a holder, clicker on, freespool.

The Alpine is a knuckle buster. The drag is the leather pad. That fish was from Lake Arthur last Summer.

BTW, The 350(according to the Penn manual) should have 30" between the reel and the first guide on the rod. This is to get better "level winding". I did take that guide off my cheap Mariner rod, but it didn't seem to make too much difference.

I think it is because of this:

The levelwind is still going to put the line on the spool in the same way, but the closer the bottom guide is to the reel, the greater the angle from the bottom guide to the spool edges. More angle leads to increased twisting load on the pawl and worm.  This can wear out the levelwind assembly faster, especially if you wind under higher loads.

-J

[work2fish]

The Daiwa SL30SH is on a roll. Caught 2 more carp today on it. One was fairly big. I was fishing by myself so I had to take a selfie with it 

I think someone on AT has something like "Fish where the fish are" in their signature. That has been the case with these carp. I could see them on the other side of the lake, but couldn't fish there because there are so many downed trees. I have tried it before, and it is next to impossible to land the carp without them getting into the trees. So, I'm casting over there from the other side with my surf rod.

That thread about skipping Spring and going right to Summer doesn't apply to Western PA yet. It was 38 degrees and windy when I left the lake today.

[Dominick]

Check out this link.  Unfortunately the pictures are gone but those carp make great subjects for gyotaku.  Dominick

 https://alantani.com/index.php/topic,8210.0.html

[oc1]

The levelwind is still going to put the line on the spool in the same way, but the closer the bottom guide is to the reel, the greater the angle from the bottom guide to the spool edges. More angle leads to increased twisting load on the pawl and worm.  This can wear out the levelwind assembly faster, especially if you wind under higher loads.

He has the Leveline, not levelwind.  The spiral bar on the leveline eliminates the guide wire, carriage,  pawl and worm as well as all the trouble they cause.  But, the Leveline creates it's own unique problems.  If there is not tension on the line the spiral bar just rotates without laying the line.  To help keep tension on the line, the spiral bar is located higher on the frame than a worm gear.  In this position, the line is rubbing on the spiral bar during the cast.  Even though it was designed and sold as a surf reel, it is not a very good surf reel, in my opinion.  Gfish uses his for trolling which is a better application for the spiral bar concept.  Penn missed an opportunity by not coming out with a narrow Leveline trolling reel.

Because there is no levelwind carriage and the groove in the spiral bar is shallow,  line can be pushed back and forth on the spiral bar by hand with very little resistance  Relocating the stripper guide out to 30" prevents the stripper guide from making the line slip on the spiral bar and bunching line up in the middle of the spool.

[jurelometer]

The levelwind is still going to put the line on the spool in the same way, but the closer the bottom guide is to the reel, the greater the angle from the bottom guide to the spool edges. More angle leads to increased twisting load on the pawl and worm.  This can wear out the levelwind assembly faster, especially if you wind under higher loads.

He has the Leveline, not levelwind.  The spiral bar on the leveline eliminates the guide wire, carriage,  pawl and worm as well as all the trouble they cause.  But, the Leveline creates it's own unique problems.  If there is not tension on the line the spiral bar just rotates without laying the line.  To help keep tension on the line, the spiral bar is located higher on the frame than a worm gear.  In this position, the line is rubbing on the spiral bar during the cast.  Even though it was designed and sold as a surf reel, it is not a very good surf reel, in my opinion.  Gfish uses his for trolling which is a better application for the spiral bar concept.  Penn missed an opportunity by not coming out with a narrow Leveline trolling reel.

Because there is no levelwind carriage and the groove in the spiral bar is shallow,  line can be pushed back and forth on the spiral bar by hand with very little resistance  Relocating the stripper guide out to 30" prevents the stripper guide from making the line slip on the spiral bar and bunching line up in the middle of the spool.

Oops.  You are right.  I was thinking of the GT levelwind series.  Thanks for catching that.

As for the bottom  guide distance, I would say it is a different flavor of  the same  problem I described with the levelwind. The increased angle to the spool edge from a closer bottom guide would tend to cause the line  to slip more and bunch up toward the center of the spool on leveline reels.

It seems like a finicky design .  You need the right type of line with the right ring size and profile guide at the right distance from  the reel, and even then there's only going to be a certain range of tension where the spool will be filled evenly.

I don't find it surprising that this feature was an evolutionary dead end.

 -J

[jgp12000]

Mark what do you use for Carp Bait?
I have grass carp in my pond 30" now around 12#.I have caught them on red wigglers & crickets.

Only when the feeder goes off they love fish food,big splash they show off.