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Best of the cheap pins

Jonathan,

Same as I use for my barbel fishing. I love the reel, not problems so far. I see the Okuma reels sell very well for the Steelhead boys in the US and Canada.

They add additional bearings and they spin for a fortnight. Highly rated.

Richard.
 
Richard Barrett said:
Jonathan,

Same as I use for my barbel fishing. I love the reel, not problems so far. I see the Okuma reels sell very well for the Steelhead boys in the US and Canada.

They add additional bearings and they spin for a fortnight. Highly rated.

Richard.
Click to expand...

Additional bearings, or replacement bearings Richard?

Cheers, Dave.
 
Dave, you remove the old bearings,which is quite easy and replace with abec7 bearings,the spool then starts rotating with a number 4 on the line.There is a lad who sells them in the UK for about £14/pair or you can ebay from China for around £9 for the pair.All of the okuma's/arnold kingpins use the same bearings.If you are wary of overruns you can sewing machine oil the bearing to slow it down.
 
Of the cheap pins that I have, the best two are the black Marco Cortesi and what appears a black and silver Okuma copy, name of which I cannot remember and it's not stamped on the reel either! Both were about £40. I think the Cortesi is still available but the Okumaesque I have not seen advertised since.
 
Gone through a lot of pins in my time generally for running a lightly shotted float down a steady glide, Some of which were: the Marco Cortesi problem this used to put light lines ( 3lb double strength type lines ) behind the spool, ok if your fishing handles down but handles up terrible. OK for heavy lines though.
The TFG was a tad heavy for me another reel that I wasn't over impressed with.
The Greys Bewick was great little reel very light problem is it's a tad small 4" I seem to remember. Spend ages batting 40m back onto it :0). Although for the price I paid was a good buy.
Now my best buy was the Fox centre pin, I paid £80 have never found another even second-hand near that price. I think they stopped making them or something but second-hand started to fetch double that. Its based on the light weight Youngs which is £200+, just so surprised they didn't keep production going. 5" drum spins all day ( once oiled and run in ).
 
Further to my earlier comments about how brilliant I found the TFG CLASSIC I thought yesterday that I'd better get one sharpish before the retailers came to their senses and started charging £100+ like the similar Okumas are.
I was just about to order it and saw the Free Flow advertised alongside, as Martin has put up the link to above. Finding any specs. or reviews online wasn't possible so I gave Fishtec a call to pick their brains. Fortunately I got through to a very knowledgeable chap who actually owns and uses both reels, mainly trotting for Grayling. His opinion was that the classic is a better looking reel and lovely to use but the Free Flow is THE BEST CENTERPIN HE'D EVER USED, slightly heavier at 220grams than the classic at 202grams with vastly superior bearings.
Mindful of Mark's earlier comments on the upgraded bearings people fit to Okumas I spent the extra £10 bought the Free Flow and it arrived this morning.
Absolutely delighted with it, spins with ease, beautifully made, NO wobble or run out at all, minimal gaps and I think it looks fantastic. The spool even turns if I blow on it and I used to smoke 40 a day.
Just been and got some braid put on, can't wait to put it on the Acolyte and use the new outfit over the weekend.
Where to go though? The Ivel, the Lea or the Ouse?
 
Paul i think the better bearings abec7 style are ideal for the smaller rivers we fish.It means you do not have fish too big a float,which is ever so visable to the fish,in the crystal clear streams we fish,especially the upper Lea.One thing, be wary of overruns,because they can fly out line very easy.In the past quality bearings were very expensive but now the lower price makes them available to all,sounds like a good reel.
 
I spent 40 quid on some bearings for a Marco cortese but I didn't see much improvement, I put that down to the reel though.

Mark. I use okumas on the upper lea and I've never had a problem but I do normally fish swims with more flow and use a wire stem stick. The fiddler in me is tempted to give the new bearings a go, but I always thought the bearings okumas uses are pretty high quality already
 
Okuma's are really good reels Dave. I find that with the river so clear and shallow, the better chub and roach swerve a stick float and then carry on feeding,its funny to watch.I have found the smaller the float you trot, the more you catch.I sometimes only use a blob or dibber pole float.My swallow pin runs with the pull from a 1 number 4 float.I do fish stick floats in low water but will fish them 3 feet overdepth and hold back severly, inching them through, so the terminal tackle is a long way in front of the float For Barbel it does not seem to matter.
 
I recently bought a DAM Black Shadow for trotting the slow moving streams near my home and have to say I've been impressed for the money. I also have an Avon Royal Supreme, an Okuma Kennet and a Match Aerial, all of which have their day.

Nick C
 
Paul Collins said:
Further to my earlier comments about how brilliant I found the TFG CLASSIC I thought yesterday that I'd better get one sharpish before the retailers came to their senses and started charging £100+ like the similar Okumas are.
I was just about to order it and saw the Free Flow advertised alongside, as Martin has put up the link to above. Finding any specs. or reviews online wasn't possible so I gave Fishtec a call to pick their brains. Fortunately I got through to a very knowledgeable chap who actually owns and uses both reels, mainly trotting for Grayling. His opinion was that the classic is a better looking reel and lovely to use but the Free Flow is THE BEST CENTERPIN HE'D EVER USED, slightly heavier at 220grams than the classic at 202grams with vastly superior bearings.
Mindful of Mark's earlier comments on the upgraded bearings people fit to Okumas I spent the extra £10 bought the Free Flow and it arrived this morning.
Absolutely delighted with it, spins with ease, beautifully made, NO wobble or run out at all, minimal gaps and I think it looks fantastic. The spool even turns if I blow on it and I used to smoke 40 a day.
Just been and got some braid put on, can't wait to put it on the Acolyte and use the new outfit over the weekend.
Where to go though? The Ivel, the Lea or the Ouse?
Click to expand...

I like the look of these pins, especially at that price. What is the width Paul? They look like 1" but it's not detailed on any of the marketing bumph.

Also, Glasgow angling centre are selling the free-flow lineguards for a bargain price of £6.99.

https://www.fishingmegastore.com/tfg-free-flow-lineguard~27586.html
 
After all that's been said, I'd still rather go for a secondhand 'true' centrepin, i.e. one that rotates around a central spindle, as long as it has no wobble. Then the quality of the bearings becomes superfluous.
 
Richard Parsons said:
After all that's been said, I'd still rather go for a secondhand 'true' centrepin, i.e. one that rotates around a central spindle, as long as it has no wobble. Then the quality of the bearings becomes superfluous.
Click to expand...

I'm inclined to agree Richard, but when you look at the prices that many of the better quality secondhand spindle pins (Speedias, Match Aerials) go for the EBay, some of the newer bearing pins look like better value for money overall. Especially if fitted with low-inertia bearings, assuming they are as good as is claimed.
 
Joe Winstanley said:
I'm inclined to agree Richard, but when you look at the prices that many of the better quality secondhand spindle pins (Speedias, Match Aerials) go for the EBay, some of the newer bearing pins look like better value for money overall. Especially if fitted with low-inertia bearings, assuming they are as good as is claimed.
Click to expand...

Yes, completely agree with that, Joe. However, there are less 'trendy' pins that do the same job and cost less.
 
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