Mitchell Saltwater spinners

[nook55]

Hi all,

I've got a couple of Mitchell spinning reels that are popular with surf fishermen here on the east coast (302, 402).
These things have a single teflon(?) drag washer. Does anyone know if I can replace this with a greased carbon matrix washer for improved performance?

Scott

[alantani]

absolutely!  measure this one out and and check with your local shop for drag washers and cal's grease.  or send me a pm with your address and i'll send some out to you.  here's the list for comparison. 

http://alantani.com/index.php?topic=21.0

[qcguy4198]

Alan,
I know you don't often post spinner info, I mean...they're upside down and all, but I do have one I've been keeping on the water for over 40 years. I guess I'm just a sentimental slob. The reel is a Mitchell 301. Of course...it has a "story"...This reel, and the "Gulfstream" fiberglass rod is the combo my Dad bought for me when I was a kid. We were heading to Nova Scotia for Salmon fishing. Through the years, I've kept it in use. Have replaced a few parts, etc...but it's still catching fish. I live in  Florida. These days, the reel is loaded the reel with 20# test line. Offshore, it presents no issues. What I've been noticing however...is that inshore ( I recently joined the "plastic Navy")...when I'm using liteweight lures, the line stacks up loosely on the bottom of the spool on retreive...making kind of a "cone". This is especially prevalent when my retrieve is done with very little resistance, say due to wind, drift, or currents. Subsequent casts...sometimes will throw off loops of the line from the bottom of this "cone",which jump over the other line, and create a mess..!!
I'm wondering if I'm using too light of a lure for the 20# Ande line...?? Or to put that in reverse....If I'm going to throw liteweight lures, do I need to re-spool with lighter line for the "inshore game" around here.
Thanks for your thoughts...   

[nook55]

Just my 2 cents..

For the lighter inshore stuff I would drop down to something in 12 - 15 # class line. Look for a mono diameter of around .015. I would also change to a softer mono. Ande has a reputation of being a little stiff. You can run 6' of 20# test for an abraision leader, I'd go with fluorocarbon.

[Dawn]

I believe the 302's could use the Penn 140 size drag, not sure if the 402 is the same or not.

Dawn
Smoooth Drag

[alantani]

dawn, that is absolutely correct.  the mitchel 302 uses four of the #6-155 penn ht 100 drag washers.  it's funny, i worked on one just this last friday night.  it was missing a shear pin and i just happened to have one!!!!!!!!!! 

[alantani]

Alan,  I'm wondering if I'm using too light of a lure for the 20# Ande line...?? Or to put that in reverse....If I'm going to throw liteweight lures, do I need to re-spool with lighter line for the "inshore game" around here.   Thanks for your thoughts...   

the line should lay a little flatter and cast a little better.  the ande has way too much memory.  i'd start looking around for a better casting line.  obviously, berkeley big game is off the list as well!   

[qcguy4198]

Thanks Alan...
So guys, what are the softer, "better casting" mono lines out there...?
I've never used any of the braid type products...What about Fire Line, or Power Pro, how are they.??
This Yak-fishing is a whole new game. !!

[Bryan Young]

hey qcguy4198,

braided and spectra lines are great for specific applications.  Surf fishing where you are not worried about the line coming in contact with rocky structure should be good.  The softest feel that I have fished with comes from Japan and is know an PE line.  Daiwa seems to be the most accessible here in the US.  I've fished with firewire, JB, Izorline, power pro and a couple of other.  They are all descent, but use predominently power pro because I got a great deal on some old-new stock and the likes just don't deteriorate like mono.

For mono, one of the softest lines I've played with was gamma.  I believe cabelas also advertise a long distance mono, but I haven't tried it.

another thing you can do is try soaking the line in fresh water before fishing.  Some lines get softer if wet.  Greased carbon drags usually are not affected by this as long as you re-grease the drags once and a while.

Good luck.

[nook55]

Momoi and Sufix are popular mono with the East Coast casting crowd.

[richie668]

Hi, new to the site but not to fishing. Most of my fishing is in the surf,on spinning gear. tried out jinkai line this season & It worked out great
It is much thinner than ande. The 20lb looks like 12or 15. I think its a copolymer. Rich

[BigT]

Apologies for being off the original topic... Alan, just delete this if it's of no value.

G'day CQguy,

I know this isn't a general fishing forum but in relation to your casting problems, thought you might like some info on 'braid'.

Interesting the differences in fishing styles in different countries.  Here in Australia now, lure fishing is almost exclusively the domain of gel spun polyethylene lines (braid and fused braid).  The finer diameter for a given breaking strain... along with the engineering improvement of spin reels... has led to the 'downsizing' of outfits.  Where once a person may have used a big Penn Spinfisher loaded with 20# or 30# mono, you'll now see 3000 or 4000 size spin reels loaded with braid.

This makes spinning and luring a lot more fun... you can cast all day without your arms wanting to drop off.

The other advantages of gel spun (GSP) lines in this style of fishing are the lack of stretch, providing the ability to feel everything a lure is doing... the ideal is to be able to feel a fish breathe on it; and fine diameter and suppleness of lines allowing effective casting of much smaller lures.

I'm lucky enough to have a work association with a fishing line manufacturer so have a reasonable (if non-technical) insight into the ins and outs of the stuff.  The PE mentioned in one of the posts is another generic term for the whole bunch of GSP lines.  

If you read about Spectra and Dyneema, they are merely the trade names of the only 2 companies who manufacture GSP fibres... the characteristics of each are very similar.  All 'braid' manufacturers, whether in Japan, USA, Australia or anywhere else, ultimately source their fibres from either of these companies, before braiding or fusing it.

The main differences between a braided GSP line (like Power Pro) or fused GSP line (like Fireline) are obviously related to the manufacturing process. They result in the fused lines being generally stiffer (for which reason they are often preferred in Australia for ultra light line applications where they can be easier to handle), as well as being thicker for a given breaking strain than braided forms.  Incidentally, Berkley's thermal fusing is a proprietary process... Stren Microfuse being another of their brands... so these lines are much more different to braided lines than the braided lines are to each other.

Relatively few sportsfishermen in Australia use fused GSP line for spinning regularly in breaking strains over about 20#... it starts to feel like fencing wire. Most will generally use a braided GSP line and even in light breaking strains, it is probably used by the majority of GSP converts.

There was a time not too long ago when it was considered that braided lines were unsuitable for spin reels because of line twist. This attitude has changed... firstly because new generation reels are better able to manage line twist and secondly, because when braided GSP twists it doesn't create nearly the headaches of twist in mono.

One thing to be careful of though when considering putting GSP on your spin reel is that a lot of the new generation of spin reel features (spool profiles, line lay control for example) have evolved to deal with some inherent problems of braid. The very limpness of braid that makes it great for spinning, can also see it cause casting problems with loops falling off the spool, getting caught around runners when casting and so on.

Cheers, BigT

[alantani]

tony, you worry too much ....   

[callelk]

Alan,
I know you don't often post spinner info, I mean...they're upside down and all, but I do have one I've been keeping on the water for over 40 years. I guess I'm just a sentimental slob. The reel is a Mitchell 301. Of course...it has a "story"...This reel, and the "Gulfstream" fiberglass rod is the combo my Dad bought for me when I was a kid. We were heading to Nova Scotia for Salmon fishing. Through the years, I've kept it in use. Have replaced a few parts, etc...but it's still catching fish. I live in  Florida. These days, the reel is loaded the reel with 20# test line. Offshore, it presents no issues. What I've been noticing however...is that inshore ( I recently joined the "plastic Navy")...when I'm using liteweight lures, the line stacks up loosely on the bottom of the spool on retreive...making kind of a "cone". This is especially prevalent when my retrieve is done with very little resistance, say due to wind, drift, or currents. Subsequent casts...sometimes will throw off loops of the line from the bottom of this "cone",which jump over the other line, and create a mess..!!
I'm wondering if I'm using too light of a lure for the 20# Ande line...?? Or to put that in reverse....If I'm going to throw liteweight lures, do I need to re-spool with lighter line for the "inshore game" around here.
Thanks for your thoughts...   

QCGUY,

The 300 series Mitchells are very near and dear to me and no doubt to a lot of people as they made something like 14 million of them.  Growing up in Nor Cal, my dad and I caught a ton of strippers in the 8-20# range with them.  I probably have close to a 100 300's in just parts from fighting strippers in the 25-30# range and Salmon back in the day between Red Bluff and Redding.   I even took them to Baja early in my Mexico days.  Only did that once though as I came back with a bag full of parts. 

I left CA 17 years ago because of the politics and economy but I truly do miss strippers.  Though it is of a small consolation, I have plenty of the salmonid species to tangle with here in the intermountain west.  I still go to CA about every other month and occasionally have an opportunity to fish for strippers but I do miss it. 

As an FYI if you are interested, I replace the 81 103 Teflon washers with the Penn 6-965 drag washers in my 300's and 400's that I use for river browns, small salmon and a-run steelhead.  For big b-run steelhead and salmon I fish 965 Internationals and Squidders.

[Walter_Lars]

If I'm going to throw liteweight lures, do I need to re-spool with lighter line for the "inshore game" around here. Huh
Thanks for your thoughts...   

when I was growing up  the guy who taught Me to fish was a chem engineer for Garcia Mitchel /Conlon in Costa Mesa  Calif  He used spinning reels for surface fishing  He used 302's  and its high speed varant  the # escapes My mind right now   and Langley spinators  870's
he used Garcia Royal bonel  its put out by somebody else now  its a very limp line
He told  me it was designed for the 302
if you can find some give it a try