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Best centrepin for legering?

Clive Shipman said:
Fishing the Bristol Avon (low clear and quite high banks) and having watched Martin Hooper drop a lead without a sound with an under arm lob with his centrepins can make you question your approach. When the barbel are feet away but suspect nothing and then watching a prat like me drop what sounds like a small fridge with my baitrunners into a similar swim and watch all and sundry disappear you should take note. It will always have its place and used in the correct manner and is a fantastic tool that really keeps you in touch when playing a fish.
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Do you use Arsley Bombs Clive for low and clear? I do and find that they are much more suitable with just a 'plop' as opposed to a 'splash'
 
Ray Walton said:
The tightening of the drag adjuster on the JW Young/RW Rolling Pin (as similar on the ariel), 'does' affect the ratchet's tightness to pull off line. Personally speaking, the Rolling Pin is absolutely perfect for legering to where you have the easy long distance casting ability of a fixed spool plus the superior playing control as with a centre pin.
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Thanks for all the advice guys, and Ray I should have said that I already have one of your Rolling Pins which I'm having a lot of success with (catching a few barbel here and there which will do for me), but as nice a reel as it is I want to learn how to cast properly with a centrepin and replace the shimano baitrunner on my second rod.

The Pete Reading is one I had in mind but I know they're not made any more unfortuntely. I know people who have them so know they have the adjustable drag and they realy look the part - does anyone know where I can get one or know someone selling one? (probably unlikely!!)
 
Hi men,

Clive , I do know what you mean , but this angler has a fantastic cast , in all the forms of his fishing, and feathering it down to a faint plop is not a problem, and is not reel dependent .

Hatter
 
Sorry to buck the 'traditionalist' trend but I use Okuma Epix Pro Pins for ledgering and without any adjustment the drag is spot on and holds well even in flood conditions!
 
Steve Walker said:
I can't really see the point of using a centrepin for legering,a decent fixed spool reel does the job much better imo,although I have met a few old timers who swear by their trusty old centrepin and use it for nearly all of their fishing.
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have you ever tried using a centrepin for ledgering steve ?
 
Hello George,
As you have probably gathered from all the replies every one has their own favourite. If you can find one the old Grice and Young, Avon Royal Supreme has an adjustable drag. I like the position of the ratchet leaver on them as it is right on the top and can be flicked on and off with your little finger. When fishing in a good tow or there is rubbish catching the line I use a thin rubber band round the reel seat hooked over the handle, and that will hold just about anything. You have plenty of good advice in these pages. See you down the Royalty sometime.
ATB
Colin
 
Been using a Hardy conquest for my small river static fishing. Its certainly not as easy as a fixed spool reel, and is more prone to tangles when I get my timing wrong, but it does have benefits (which everyone seems to have covered).

This reel has a good ratchet with two settings that work well as a baitrunner if needed.

Nottingham cast has been favourite as not quite perfected the Wallis cast in terms of accuracy when casting a feeder. Its OK when trotting, but the added weight seems to increase my area of dispersion!
 
I haven't used a fixed spool yet this season on the river and am forcing myself to get used to a pin. The ferrari of the pin world, Mr Cortesi, is proving to be very, very good. I did think they were a bit chavvy but i now think that they work very well. It is quite easy to operate the ratchet from on to briefly off with the same hand that is holding the rod using the twisty, lever thingymajig. The ratchet is strong, so now i may be able to take a nap occasionally too! £30!!
 
George,

Have you tried Ringwood Tackle for the Pete Reading pin? there is also a number on the review on BFW by Jon Berry for Pete.

Failing that there is always the Barbel Catchers Centerpin, another excellent reel that fulfills your requirements (but I would say that as I'm biased:))
 
Keith Humphreys said:
Sorry to buck the 'traditionalist' trend but I use Okuma Epix Pro Pins for ledgering and without any adjustment the drag is spot on and holds well even in flood conditions!
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Don't know what kind of floods you have in your neck of the woods Keith , but round here the Swale , Ouse , Ure , Nidd with 8 foot on would have an Aventa Pin spinning like the proverbial top ratchet on . I have one of these , admittedly very good reels but the check is not / stiff' enough for use in heavy floods .
 
Julian Peacock said:
I haven't used a fixed spool yet this season on the river and am forcing myself to get used to a pin. The ferrari of the pin world, Mr Cortesi, is proving to be very, very good. I did think they were a bit chavvy but i now think that they work very well. It is quite easy to operate the ratchet from on to briefly off with the same hand that is holding the rod using the twisty, lever thingymajig. The ratchet is strong, so now i may be able to take a nap occasionally too! £30!!
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Great reel. If you want a bearing reel rather than a pin, this is the one to go for. Other modern bearing based reels are way overpriced. Personally I still prefer a pin and you either have to pay loads of cash for new ones, handmade with celebrity anglers names on, lovely things, but no better than a decent second hand "mass" produced (but still well engineered) pin like the Ariel Match or the Speedia. With the Ariel you may have to keep a thumb on the reel in torrid conditions, although you can reverse the check to make it tighter. Speedias are usually a bit tighter although they do seem to vary. My Avon Royal Supreme is a great reel, but the reel check is very light and I wouldn't use it in flood conditions, although like all pins they do vary from reel to reel and particularly with Grice and Young stuff who seem to have loads of different variations of the same reel, using different bits and pieces to put them together. Masters of British 1960's and 70's light engineering, when making do was the proud boast of many a tool room.
 
Pete Marshall said:
and particularly with Grice and Young stuff who seem to have loads of different variations of the same reel, using different bits and pieces to put them together. Masters of British 1960's and 70's light engineering, when making do was the proud boast of many a tool room.
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Old Mr Grice was a character. I met him first in early 1971 when he paid a visit together with the two very posh head honchos of the old Avon and Dorset River Authority to the Authority's salmon hatchery at Standlynch Mill. In addition to reels, Mr Grice's firm made fibreglass tanks for trout and salmon culture. Quite a morning with a jolly, rather larger than life character - an irrepressible, enthusiastic canny man, I reckoned, young as I was. A couple of years later I visited him at his Christchurch factory, was given a whistlestop tour of the reelmaking workshop, then precariously lashed a couple of heavy, 6-foot-square fibreglass tanks onto the back a long wheelbase Land Rover and drove them far into the west. How they didn't fall off I shall never know. Wouldn't get ten miles before being pulled over by the traffic police if done now.
 
Sam Lloyd said:
have you ever tried using a centrepin for ledgering steve ?
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Certainly have Sam,and I enjoyed it :) I just about mastered the Wallis cast as well ;)

I am not knocking folks for legering with a pin,far from it-if it works for you and you enjoy that style of fishing then great.

The point I am making is that in my opinion when legering a quality fixed spool with a smooth clutch can do everything a centrepin can.

Conversely a fixed spool cannot match a centrepin for long trotting which is what it was originally designed for.
 
Michael, why on earth would a rotten bottom be required for a pin and not a coffee grinder. I can't see why one would snag a weight more than the other?
 
Mike you are quite right, i fish the Hants Avon and Dorset Stour and don't often see the conditions like the one's you describe! However I have a little trick up my sleeve for the conditions you describe which consists of a small elastic band (Equine mane band to be exact) which I put over the foot of the reel and hook onto the reel handle! If get a 'ripper' the band brakes.
For the record though, I have spent many years fishing Europian rivers, in all conditions and believe me there is nothing in this country anything like them!
 
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