From the dim & distant past....

[regpude]

i beachbuddy,bought a penn squidder l/h with my first wage packet £28.them were the bees knees,but as g force said even that went BANG one day while lifting 2 fish up on s/s pier,{plastic spools} assaid good memorys.

[BigLoada]

Nice to see a Mitchell again! I used a 600AP for over 20 years until a few years back when it finally exploded and I had to buy a new reel. Glad it blew up though.. going from 20 years of using a Mitchell, to using a new Penn 525mag was a revelation!

[g-force]

Well, they're all ready to go - fully stripped & cleaned & re-spooled....I was amazed that despite having taken a battering on the outside, they were surprisingly clean on the inside! And the Penn is way more rugged than the later 525s with it's anodised ally cage & stainless gears & drive, although I think I'll have to do something about the "coin-slot" operated mag adjustment...perhaps fashion some sort of small knob that I can attach to the existing screw.



Another surprise was discovering that the Abu 12 does, after all, have brakes the same as the 9000 (tucked away in the left hand side-plate) although no blocks were in it, so I added a small one to help take the edge off the massive spool's tendency to lift a bit (it didn't half swallow a ton of line, even the 45lb stuff I filled it with to use off the rocks!).

Looking forward to having a few chucks now to see how they perform...I might give the Abu's an outing at Newton on sunday in my last summer league match, but I'll still be packing the trusty Saltists just in case

Gary

[BigLoada]

They look great Gary. I love the old reels. If you ever want to sell that Mitchell I will take it off you!

Dean

[Stewart 1971]

Well, they're all ready to go - fully stripped & cleaned & re-spooled....I was amazed that despite having taken a battering on the outside, they were surprisingly clean on the inside! And the Penn is way more rugged than the later 525s with it's anodised ally cage & stainless gears & drive, although I think I'll have to do something about the "coin-slot" operated mag adjustment...perhaps fashion some sort of small knob that I can attach to the existing screw.



Another surprise was discovering that the Abu 12 does, after all, have brakes the same as the 9000 (tucked away in the left hand side-plate) although no blocks were in it, so I added a small one to help take the edge off the massive spool's tendency to lift a bit (it didn't half swallow a ton of line, even the 45lb stuff I filled it with to use off the rocks!).

Looking forward to having a few chucks now to see how they perform...I might give the Abu's an outing at Newton on sunday in my last summer league match, but I'll still be packing the trusty Saltists just in case

Gary

I'm sure there's something missing from this picture...

[g-force]

They look great Gary. I love the old reels. If you ever want to sell that Mitchell I will take it off you!

Dean

Cheers, but I think I'll probably be hanging onto it & see if I can track down a metal spool for it - I might then see if one of the reel guys could fit a mono-mag to it then see if it'll fly! Otherwise I might stick it on a flatty rod for short range stuff as it'll be easier to lob than my 7HT Mags and won't have to worry about the mega-slow retrieve when only chucking 30 or 40 yards!

Gary

[g-force]

I'm sure there's something missing from this picture...

Yes indeed, the Mitchell is cleaned up but haven't re-spooled it or anything yet as tbh it's the one least likely to see any action, at least for the time being

Gary