Centerpin Reels

[boilie]

Just come back from watching somebody fishing on the Teme.
He was using upto date gear, and a centerpin reel for trotting the float through.
And it looked very easy, and he was catching too.
I was wondered if it mighn't be worth buying a good centerpin reel and having a go,they seem to make it look easy(yes i know they are supposed to)but i liked the style and ease of the reel,or can the same thing be achieved with a good standard reel.

[Stu]

With practice you can achieve good control over the float with a fixed spool reel, but a centrepin offers even better control if used correctly and if it's a good reel.

Unless you are going to fish rivers a lot and are going to spend a fair amount of money on a good pin I would not recommend it, simply because the cheap pins are not engineered well enough to do the job. The benefit of a pin is the smooth direct contact and the ease of laying out line a few inches at a time. This you cant do with a fixed spool as you need to let out some line and use the rod to feed out the line moving it downstream with the flow, and then repeating the process. Obviously the weakness in this method is the time you have to let out a few more feet of line, and also striking with an open bale arm. The pin gets round all this by allowing to edge the float through as you want to at all times.

However, with a cheap pin you will not be able to do so as the mechanism will not be sufficiently refined. For that reason I would not recommend it unless you want to spend £100 plus and will put the pin to good use.

Incidentally, I fish rivers a fair bit particularly a lovely bit of the middle Kennet and I choose not to use a pin for that very reason. I find my fixed spool Shimano's more than adequate for the job even if it's harder work.

I hope that helps!

[argyll]

Its not really true that you need to spend a lot of dough on a centrepin. The best reels for some years were from Young and Sons and these can make a serious £200-300 hole in your pocket.
But these days there are some great cheap reels out there. I know budgie swears by his Lewtham Engineering Leeds reel that will cost you about £50 or less. I use an Okuma Aventa which cost me about £70 on ebay. Its easily a better reel than either of my Young's reels at one third of the price. A lot of fun to use too.

[Andrew Burgess]

Have to agree with Argyll on the Okuma Aventa Pro is the one you want boilie and it will cost you arund £90 from here www.fishtec-coarse.co.uk/ this reel is the craze a few months ago and still is.

It is not easy to "master" the centrepin but in time you will. Best of luck if you do get one.

[boilie]

Thank very much Stu and Boilie. I think i will take your advice and go for the Okuma Aventa. their are a few for sale on ebay, off to get my bid in.

[MrMatthew]

How did ya get on boilie??? I was given a plastic Centre-pin, which because of its poor action didn't cast too well and needed a big stick flot to trott properly.
I now use a closed face reel for trotting though in my heart I would like to give a centrepin another shot!

[boilie]

Well Christmas got me a Okuma Aventa Pro. Looks the biz, got it all lined up and ready to go. I think the wife got it from my local tackle store.
Can't wait to try it out. Will keep you posted, after my first try out.

[MrMatthew]

You must have been a good boy!
Nice one!