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Many thanks for your thoughts, I too was thinking it might be North Western Avon and nothing else has been suggested, so I guess that’s what it is. The term floppy action sounds a bit unkind, but I cannot deny that it is an accurate description. It was certainly hard to hit sharp chub bites at...

Many years ago before such a rod was popular, I wanted a rod for float fishing for barbel. My local tackle dealer offered me a Kevlar blank, so you now know it was really some time ago because they were still adding Kevlar to carbon rods then. It was a 12ft Kevlar Avon 1 1/4lb test curve...

I have started doing the same thing on a 14ft GTI SU myself. My rod was already fully built on an unground blank. The butt was quite tatty so I have totally stripped and ground the blank. Before I did this I put a 1.75lb weight on it to get an idea of potential ring spacing. Picture below. The...

Thanks for your opinions on the Lewtham Leeds reel, seems to be a good starter. I think it will do fine for trotting less so for legering in rests since it does not have a clicker. It just has a clamping arrangement for when you don’t want a free spool.

I have brought a Lewtham Leeds reel which was probably made in the 80s to try. The drum seems quite wide and it seems to start rotation easily and spins well. These can be picked up for less than 40 and as low as 25. For what looks a good reel I don’t see anyone advocating their use. Is there...

I recently started building rods for myself and found lots of good you tube videos covering this but I still learnt a lot more by actually doing it. These few tips might help. I used the U-40 two part mixes and found them good. I made a rod turner with a microwave turntable motor, cheap on line...

Have a look at lower itchen fishery. Chalkstream just out of Southampton, you need to book ahead. I dare say the rules have changed a bit since I was a member but you could drive up the side of the river and park in several places, even dropping off your tackle at your chosen swim on the way...

My reel is a 4.5 inch and the shaft is 3/16” and the bearing of is 1/2”. The reason I know the bearing position was critical is not because I thoroughly examined the reel before dismantling. I pushed the new bearing in flush when assembling ( the first time) and then found the drum was too low...

Hi Daniel, You made a fantastic job of that reel and you really documented it well. Thanks for the links to the bearing supplier I think I will give it a go. My reel does not have the clicker it just has the central drag. I only use the drag when not actually trotting, I.e. moving swims etc...

Hi Daniel, Can you give us an update of how the bearings are going? Also can you tell us of the supplier of the bearings. I did find a supplier that did 3/16” by 1/2” ceramic bearings but they did not look like the ones you used. A search on google with the type number in your photo did not find...