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Barbelon a pin

Quite right, Tom. As so often in life, commerce and politics, where personal and corporate opinion is presented by repetitive loud boys as incontrovertible fact (which, taken to its worst, Nazi regime extreme became "...tell a big enough lie long enough and the masses will not only stop questioning it but actually believe it...").
 
There are blinkered idiots on both sides of the debate, Rhys. As for myself, I use both sorts of reel and don't "evangelize" for either.
 
Not really an answer to my question is it?
Surely a maserati is a better car than a 97 mondeo but how many people drive a masarati in comparison? :D
 
This is another "Marmite' question me thinks, a bit like braid v mono.............. its up too you.

Personally i use centre pins for barbel fishing on smaller rivers, i cannot cast any sort of distance with a heavy lead with them so i use bait runners when i need too.

I prefer a centre pin so i use them when i can.
 
I dont think there is any hype about pins. There may be over enthusiastic comment from one or two, and of course there will always be folks who try to tell you that if you cant use a pin, you are not a proper angler. Well, fair enough, each to his own opinion. Like a previous poster, I cant Wallis cast, and probably will never learn, but I do use a Speedia everytime I fish for barbel. On the second rod I use a shimano baitrunner. This is for purely practical reasons.

After it has gone dark, I would go boz-eyed trying to watch the isotopes on two rods, so I fish one rod on the pin, and watch the isotope on the other. When I get a bite on the pin, the ratchet screams out.

Now of course, all these things are purely personal, but I find that one of the most exciting aspects of my barbel fishing; when that pin screams out in the dark. I personally find playing a big barbel on a pin (pin pb 12:0) to be much more exciting than on a baitrunner (baitrunner pb 12:13).

So I dont think its a question of hype, I think its a question of personal preference. I find using a pin very, very exciting. Others may not. Fair enough
 
I use bait runners and the pin at different times depending where I am fishing and
And the situation etc
And I'n my opinion the pin is way better when playing big fish than the fixed spool
The control you have is a lot better
 
James Anderson said:
Surely if centre pins were that good everybody would be using them??
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Followed by:

Tom Marshall said:
Not really an answer to my question is it?
Surely a maserati is a better car than a 97 mondeo but how many people drive a masarati in comparison? :D
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Rather says a lot there, but unlike the Maserati, a centre pin is the ultimate for lacking in technology!

But if fools like parting with upwards of £300 for a bit of machined aluminium, that in all honesty should carry a price tag of a couple quid, then so be it, it matters not to me....
 
Not the site's fault, as I am sure you will agree, Chris - just a lot of unhappy life-campers about venting their discontent through fishing. I wrote in an email just a few minutes ago, addressed to long-time non-Angler pals and one fishy fella named Berry, that I am not so very far away from leaving Angling to it, that I'll wait for the next boom then put my tackle, Angling library and Angling effects on the market, saying to the main addressee "I've had the best of the best of Angling, as you know...". Jury's out.
 
Not only in this thread or on this site but also elsewhere, I believe, there is a lot of barely contained anger rumbling beneath the surface, a certain quickness not to debate but to trade verbal killer-blows. That's enough from me on this subject, or we'll see one man's quietly expressed personal opinion picked over at huge length and things turn silly here once more.
 
I appreciate that we all see and interpret the written word in slightly different ways. I just don't see what you do. I don't see this anger, I don't see the multitude of potential pyschos. However, you are entitled to your views.
 
Paul Boote said:
Not only in this thread or on this site but also elsewhere, I believe, there is a lot of barely contained anger rumbling beneath the surface, a certain quickness not to debate but to trade verbal killer-blows. That's enough from me on this subject, or we'll see one man's quietly expressed personal opinion picked over at huge length and things turn silly here once more.
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Agreed, rather too much if you ask me.
 
Colin Gordon said:
Followed by:



Rather says a lot there, but unlike the Maserati, a centre pin is the ultimate for lacking in technology!

But if fools like parting with upwards of £300 for a bit of machined aluminium, that in all honesty should carry a price tag of a couple quid, then so be it, it matters not to me....
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It is the lack of new technology that is often pleasing. The centre pin hasn't required any improvements for the last 60 years, because it does what it does and does it well.
The fixed spool reels have improved immeasurably since this time a modern fixed spool reel is just so much better that my old Mitchels.

If people want to pay ,lots of cash for a pin or for that matter a fixed spool it is pretty much down to them. I paid £50 for a new fixed spool and it is a great bit of kit. Likewise I paid £30 for a brand new centre pin, which is a fine reel. I have paid a £100 for a match aerial, but it is well engineered and will last forever (unlike either the new fixed spool or the new centre pin).

I would guess that if you wanted a new centre pin made to the same standards as an aerial then you would have to pay £300 as no body mass produces these things and the workmanship required would be very high, however if you are happy with a bearing based mass produced reel then £30 will get you one as good as anything else around.

For fishing at close distances around snags where fish control is all then I find the centre pin just far easier to use. Once I need to fish at a distance or cast a heavy lead I switch to fixed spool.

The things I still dislike about even the best of the fixed spool reels is that I have to lower the rod to reel in and that even the best of clutches isn't as variable during the fight as a pin is. However for casting they are almost to easy these days, with my new one I have to restrain myself or even the slightest flick results in the bait going to far. Using it for spinning this spring I only had to turn the handle a couple of times and the spinner was half way across the river! Unlike the old mitchels I was used to it doesn't make a sound like a coffee grinder either.:cool:
 
James Anderson said:
i think Rhys has hit the nail on the head nostalgic nonsense. Unless trotting normal bait runner reels are far superior than any centre pin reel in every department
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Not every department James. It's instinctive, and much more exact, the amount of pressure you can apply with a 'pin and they are far superior playing tools when casting distance doesn't restrict their use and if you need to apply maximum pressure at short range (and this from a man who uses 5000 XTE-A's most of the time).

It's horses for courses really.

Dave
 
I find that when the drum gets wet braking is all over the show! Thumb slipping on the wet drum has allowed barbel to get further downstream than i would have wanted on more than one occasion , not talking about small fish but big Avon barbel in very weedy conditions( 12lb gr60) didnt feel in control one little bit, never go back to one ever, now use a ss2600 and it has a fantastic clutch and excellent cranking power and loving it, ive tried dave swallow, speedia , and trudex, ok for trotting , no good for hauling, in my opinion,
 
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