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Centre pin recommendations

Paul. If you intend to use it for legering as well it's worth paying attention to the strength of the ratchet. Some have a fairly weak ratchet. If you fish anywhere with fast flows and drifting debris you may have problems. Of course you can get round it with a run clip or elastic band on the butt but better not to have to.
 
Paul. If you intend to use it for legering as well it's worth paying attention to the strength of the ratchet. Some have a fairly weak ratchet. If you fish anywhere with fast flows and drifting debris you may have problems. Of course you can get round it with a run clip or elastic band on the butt but better not to have to.
I see you've got one. Bit late to the party! Use the ratchet as little as you can unless you want to annoy people quietly fishing away! Some have incredibly noisy ratchets that are almost embarrassing! 🙂
 
Paul. If you intend to use it for legering as well it's worth paying attention to the strength of the ratchet. Some have a fairly weak ratchet. If you fish anywhere with fast flows and drifting debris you may have problems. Of course you can get round it with a run clip or elastic band on the butt but better not to have to.
One reel with a weak ratchet is the Okums Aventa , lovely reel otherwise but it is too easy to pull line off against the ratchet in my experience
 
Most clicker systems are achieved with a spring applying force to the back of a pawl which is pressed into the central gear.
In these cases it’s not difficult to make them apply more force, thus increasing the strength of the check.
A well placed shim of your choice of thickness between the spring and the back of the pawl will increase the check strength.
This can be done in seconds on a lot of reels if one thinks about it carefully.
 
I really don't agree. Pretentious in what way?
I never play a fish off the ratchet as I just think it disturbs the peace and quiet of anyone else fishing nearby and I think after while it would get on my own nerves as well. It's up there for me with setting your hangers with the alarm still on. But a ratchet as a bite alarm..............Well that's a different matter ! :)
 
I really don't agree. Pretentious in what way?
Well apologies for that Richard. I hoped the “😜” emoji would indicate that my comment should largely be taken tongue in cheek, but obviously you’ve read it literally.

I do think it is a bit pretentious, purely because it’s completely unnecessary and therefore has a whiff of showing off about it. But if you enjoy it, what is that to me? I think there’s a lot that is pretentious in angling- and some would probably say there is in mine- but I’m not going to go on a crusade to call it all out. Because that would be… well, pretentious!
 
Alan gave the best bit of advice and that is to be patient with it.
You are going to end up in tangles, your going to lose fish, your going to get afew clattered knuckles along the way, however when things start to come together, there is no better way to trot a float.

Learning to cast one is something that can be learned really quickly and with the right pin on the right rod it will get you out of the frustration stage quicker.
Now I’m not amazing by any strength at the Wallis cast but definitely results do vary with the set up on the day. You’ve picked a perfect pin to start at this with it being wide with good deep flanges and it will be very free running on bearings all these things go in your favour when starting out.
If you put it on a nice tippy rod to preload your cast to start with this will help gain afew extra yards. Try and use heavier floats in depths of less than 6ft to start with and again it will make learning to cast easier.

Once you can put your float where you want it, there is only benefits going forward by using one.
The presentation of your rig can’t be better than with a cpin, holding a float back or even just a slight reduction in speed can’t be bettered either.
the control you have with just a single thumb on the rim is amazing. Youll do things with that float that are simply not possible with another type of reel.

Regarding playing a fish I know anglers that do it with both check on and check off.
Personally I’m check off all the time.

The noise drives me mad But that’s not the thing that worries me most, using the check or clicker to play fish will wear out the gear and the pawl much faster than if it is just used as a brake.


The ratchet spring on my okuma aventa has just broken. I don't play fish on the ratchet but it's inevitable that the sprigs will break eventually, especially if you use the reel alot. I've used this reel many times over about a decade. Luckily I have a replacement spring because finding a replacement spring is a PITA!
That might be a little nich for you Richard, supplying springs for reels that are difficult to find them for.
Before I managed to get hold of a spring for the reel I did consider trying to use a womans hair clip.
 
The ratchet spring on my okuma aventa has just broken. I don't play fish on the ratchet but it's inevitable that the sprigs will break eventually, especially if you use the reel alot. I've used this reel many times over about a decade. Luckily I have a replacement spring because finding a replacement spring is a PITA!
That might be a little nich for you Richard, supplying springs for reels that are difficult to find them for.
Before I managed to get hold of a spring for the reel I did consider trying to use a womans hair clip.
I reckon the springs are really hard tool steel Ian. I would guess they would likely last longer being loaded and unloaded frequently and anglers using the check more often would probably get more life out of the spring and less life out of the pawl and gear.

Most of them are just flat and bent into shape which would be simple. I’ll pick Gary’s brains this month on the material type of them.
 
Well apologies for that Richard. I hoped the “😜” emoji would indicate that my comment should largely be taken tongue in cheek, but obviously you’ve read it literally.

I do think it is a bit pretentious, purely because it’s completely unnecessary and therefore has a whiff of showing off about it. But if you enjoy it, what is that to me? I think there’s a lot that is pretentious in angling- and some would probably say there is in mine- but I’m not going to go on a crusade to call it all out. Because that would be… well, pretentious!
I should start playing fish using the king pin clicker😂😂😂😂😂

You’d hear that from the carpark 😂😂😂😂
 
I should start playing fish using the king pin clicker😂😂😂😂😂

You’d hear that from the carpark 😂😂😂😂

I'm not well up on metals, but the okuma springs just look like a bit of tempered flattened steel. They are imo very thin and cheap'o looking compared to a lot of other reels.
Funny how I have a reel of over a hundred years of age and yet the ratchet on that is still sound, although it has a caliper type set up.
Thinking about it all my older made reels have much more quality looking springs than the okuma ones.


I actually did that with the zeppelin reel just to see how much the rod bent over before the ratchet released line.
The rod didn't bend over as much as I had expected it to do, but my ear drums were a little rattled 🤣.
I find the worst thing about such a harsh ratchet spring, is when setting up the rod, threading the line through the guides. I do it in two hits, pull enough line off the reel to go half way, then pull enough off to reach the tip with enough to add the float etc 🤪😆.
 
I'm not well up on metals, but the okuma springs just look like a bit of tempered flattened steel. They are imo very thin and cheap'o looking compared to a lot of other reels.
Funny how I have a reel of over a hundred years of age and yet the ratchet on that is still sound, although it has a caliper type set up.
Thinking about it all my older made reels have much more quality looking springs than the okuma ones.


I actually did that with the zeppelin reel just to see how much the rod bent over before the ratchet released line.
The rod didn't bend over as much as I had expected it to do, but my ear drums were a little rattled 🤣.
I find the worst thing about such a harsh ratchet spring, is when setting up the rod, threading the line through the guides. I do it in two hits, pull enough line off the reel to go half way, then pull enough off to reach the tip with enough to add the float etc 🤪😆.
I pull 4 big lengths off the reel and through the first eye then put the clicker on. Then I just thread it through off the floor.

Perfect if you set up the rod in the lounge like I do. Not advisable for bank side threading mind.
 
I pull 4 big lengths off the reel and through the first eye then put the clicker on. Then I just thread it through off the floor.

Perfect if you set up the rod in the lounge like I do. Not advisable for bank side threading mind.

Snap, I make mine up at home most of the time 😉.
 
I worked for Young's under Jim and Sally when they were still here in Redditch back in the day and was part of the assembly team under Garry Mills so I know quality pins.

I thought I was going to laugh at the NGT pin but I was impressed at what had been put together for the price (I've seen them at £30) and for the price I don't think you can go wrong. I chucked one on my Korum Glide rod.

If I was buying a high end pin these days it would be from Garry, but, the River Specialist from Chris/Young's looks pretty nice.
Just loooked at these Mark £35 delivered on eBay . How was it to trot with ? 🌞🎣
 
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