I'm not bragging but . . . . . . . .

It's nice when a plan comes together and it certainly did that for me on my last trip out to Burton on Trent, a bit of rain and a small rise and fall in river levels followed by a nice warm spike in the weather had me scrambling to get my gear ready for a mid-weeker.

I don't often 'show-off' but it's nice to just remind folks every now and again that as well as build rods, and offer advice, I know what I'm doing with one too ;)

So although not a p.b it's still a very good fish and a real beauty in the flesh, excellent condition and when it 'woke up' a proper scrapper!

Tipping the scales at 13lb dead on, this fish came just after midnight and was well worth the effort, catch of the season so far, I do love the autumn and winter for these bigger fish, makes putting up with the winter worthwhile !

* Mental note to self: next time get all the TTR logo in the picture on my new embroidered hoody !

A blast from the past with some Garcia Mitchell multipliers !

A few before and after shots of some Mitchells in for servicing, a very old Garcia Mitchell 600 & 624, not opened up either of these for about 10 years so It was great to reacquaint myself with some ' old tech ' as I guess they'd be called now.

Still, 'old tech' or not, they made them solid and simple and at over 30 years old, after a good service they're purring again and even shining a bit . . . . these are great old work horses that just need the minimum of looking after to keep them working, no frills, but just good old fashioned well built kit. . . . . . . . . .


As it had been a while since I'd had any of these apart I took a little longer than I normally would to strip them right down to the bare bones and re-build them from a box of bits, partly to re-familiarise myself with them and partly because I could tell they probably hadn't had a service in 20 years! To be fair they were pretty well looked after, and even so long as they're dry and not kept anywhere with lots of moisture/damp etc, they fair pretty well over the years, but with a bit of pitting to the chrome and some oxidisation here and there I got the cleaning kit out and went over the lot with a fine toothcomb, well, brush ;)

The drag washers were a bit worse for wear as well but I took them out of each reel and left them out overnight and well into the next day after cleaning and de-greasing them to re-invigorate them as the customer wasn't wanting to throw too much at them on this occasion, but the clean seems to have brought them back to life and they should last a good few sessions before needing to be replaced, which I would always point out and advise to do.

Butt ring repairs on two boat rods . . . . . . .

Just a quick post to illustrate the quality of finish I use, which is Flex Coat epoxy resin, and the variety of rod types that can be dealt with.

Dave from Stockport phoned after a search on the net in a bit of a panic on a sunday as he had a sea trip planned the following friday, amd two boat rods both with broken butt rings !

As I'm always happy to try and accommodate where possible, and as I had a day or two to wait for reel parts I was able to slot him in in-between jobs. The rings weren't an exact match in shape, the rings on the rod were the older, flimsier version of the one below, which are notorious for not being able to take a knock or bang !

(no offense to the ring pictured which is actually a decent type!)

So when the rods were dropped off I actually made a start on them the same day, applied the finish over the next couple of days as it was quite a thick finish, and the end result is pictured below, not too shabby at all ;)

I didn't get an exact match on the red coloured whipping but not a million miles away either and Dave was made up to be getting out so another happy customer!

Free Spirit Launcher Spod Rod butt ring repair pre-finish shots

Just a couple of quick pic's of a butt ring repair to a Free Spirit spod rod, quite possibly my 'favourite' brand to repair !

The blanks really are great to work on and always come out really well, the factory finish is pretty much bullet proof and very difficult to mark, very much a case of - you get what you pay for - and it shows.

If you ever wanted a set of rods as 'an investment' you'd be hard pushed to better them, no offense to Century or Harrison ;)

Anyway, the finish to match is what I'd call 'extra-thick', so I prefer to do it in 2 stages, first stage shown here. This coats and sinks into the whipping thread, securing it to to the blank, I'll leave this 24 hours before applying the top finishing coat, it can be done in one, but this gives me the chance to tweak and adjust it so it comes out as perfect as a factory finish, I don't get any complaints. 

;)

This is what your Shimano's Oscillating worm gear looks like, along with the oscillating slider and idle gear, one small fault and the reel stops working, like this has.

 

And this is just how much you need to strip a Shimano Baitrunner down to diagnose/remove the worm shaft! #Shimano #ReelServicing

And here is the offending item! 

 

Look closely as the worm shaft hardly looks damaged at all, but damaged it is and the remedy is two-part, worm gear and 'pawl' that fits in the block shown on the gear. 

 

Infinty X Baitrunner repair

Just a few pic's to illustrate a little clearer  the damage done to this Daiwa Infinty X Baitrunner after just a short drop, quite literally, to look at, this was all the damage done when the reel was dropped, spool first  . . . . . . .

Doesn't look too bad until you compare what it did to the oscillating worm gear once the handle was turned!

But happily as usual, Daiwa's service department were efficient as ever and had the new worm drive and a 'pawl' to me in just a couple of days to get this lovely bit of kit back on fighting form . . . . . . .

Daiwa Infinity X 5000 baitrunners

Another set of reels recently dropped in for repair and services, Daiwa Infinity X 5000 baitrunners, 2 working well and one not working at all.

Upon stripping down, the faulty reels fault was pretty obvious to see, the reel had been dropped and the spool had taken the brunt of the fall, marking the lip of the spool a little. The greater damage was inside, luckily, the spool shaft was intact and seemingly undamaged, which is a stroke of luck considering - the worm gear that drives the shaft, not so lucky!

First couple of handle turns and the worm shaft was chewed beyond usefulness  . . . . . as can clearly be seen by the amount of swarf chewed up and spat round the reel body!

In cases like this it's recommended to also change the oscillating 'pawl' that rides the worm shaft, these can often look fine, but any minor burrs they suffer after a chewing like that can render them useless and not worthy the risk of putting them back in the reel, and besides, at just a few pounds to replace, is it really worth skimping on a £300 reel?

The mangled worm shaft  . . . . . . . . .

Total cost on this repair only came to £35.00 and included a service, and parts! please compare that to some of the tackle shops service only charges, which seem to average around £28.00. The reel has to be stripped down to the same degree, and cleaned, oiled, and greased and then re-assembled. And if you're around the greater Manchester area (or reasonable driving distance) you won't have postage costs to add in either.

Century Spod Rod butt ring repair part 2 . . . . . . . . . . . .

The finished article . . . . . . . .

After applying the epoxy over a couple of coats to build it up, the final finishing coat is applied and watched carefully while it dries to the point where it can be left for a couple of hours spinning away happily without the danger of losing shape, some Century rods are done with a very (over-thick in my opinion) thick application of resin which although it may look 'nice', is a bit heavy and unnecessary in reality.

Personally I prefer a compromise on the thickness between the extremes of the likes of Daiwa  (not enough) to Century (too much) and I generally do my builds and personal rods in 2 'decent' thickness coats. But anyway, I digress . . . . . .  the finished ring ....

Century Spod Rod butt ring repair part 1. . . . . . . . . . . . .

Century Spod Rod butt ring repair part 1. . . . . . . . . . . . .

Part 1 ??

Yes, I have aways preferred to do finishes as thick as Century paste them on in 2 stages, first coat semi-thick to set the whippings in place, which can then be adjusted and tinkered with if need be, then the second coat is applied 24 hours later, to achieve a perfect 'factory finish' that most can't tell apart from the original.

This is stage one in the images below, brand new 40mm Kigan ring on a Century Big Bertha Spod rod . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Watch this space for part 2 !

Reel bearings repacement. . . . . . . . . .

Did a short video the other week just to highlight what a massive difference a new set of bearings can make, the two daiwa crossfire X's I was servicing were noisy, one kept jamming, then, on inspection it seems the reels had been left soaking wet on one or more occasions, and rust had set in to the bearings and basically ruined them . . . . . . . .

Luckily on this occasion once a new set were fitted, the reels were virtually like new ! Quiet and silky smooth once again and even with another couple of small springs that were changed during the services, the tally at the end was still only £40 everything included, so another happy customer back under the bivvy ;)

Happy new River season !

Well the new season's finally here, my start wasn't too clever on the River Severn, with just a chub, a 5lb bream, and sunburn to show for my efforts ! And apparently, I did OK compared to half a dozen others there who blanked ! The bream was full of breeding tubercles, so I think that tells it's own tale  . . . . .

Inbetween a few services I dug a bit of kit out. . . . .

So I thought I'd get ahead of myself in a rare moment of forward thinking efficiency by making some heavy leads for when the inevitable rainy season starts  . . . . . . . .

So i cobbled together a mould (smartgrip mould) and a few tools......

 Dug out my trusty Hippolito stove and filled it with paraffin. . . . . .

 A bit of extra help from a gas torch to get the lead to temp' and away we go. . . .

 Here's a few from the batch I knocked up that were then powder coated.....

 The finished article :)

 

Barbel Landing net repair for the new season !

Well the new river season has arrived, and as usual, I left last season with a list of things I'd so for myself, and then forgot       : |  like I do every year ;)

This was one of them, my Gardner barbel spoon landing net, great bit of kit and I was very lucky to net a few lumps in it last year, but even that action of the frame just flexing is enough to loosen the screws, as pictured, which I've re-tightened enough times now for it to be getting annoying!

 

So I decided to do away with them altogether for something a bit more substantial.....

 

Drill the spreader block out to about 5mm. . . . . . 

I drilled the block out first, then inserted the 'arm' and then drilled it out, I 

did it this way because the arm then goes in a touch further, which in my mind 

is a little bit more secure, it certainly feels solid once in. 

And done. . . . . . A couple of M5 nuts/bolts, and then the threads are ground off on a bench grinder flat and smooth after making sure they're cranked up tight, hopefully I'll never have to fiddle around with it again, please take note, Gardner Tackle

Do it properly, and you only do it once  . . . . . . . . ;)

Currently my reel servicing charges are as follows: 
1 Reel  - £ 15.00
2 Reels - £ 25.00
3 reels - £ 35.00

You'll find that compared to some other southern tackle dealers, my prices are more than reasonable, in fact for 3 or more, they're LESS THAN HALF of their prices ..... 
see for yourself, and you have postage costs on top ........

Although the shop may be sadly  long gone, you can still get your rods repaired & built, and reels serviced and repaired etc, by Dave (ex-staff) - all inquiries to my facebook page please, or if you're not a fan of FB, simply email me, Dave from Trafford 

or you can add me on google+ via the link on the right of the page


 

A few shimano baitrunners for servicing . . . . . .

Well these should keep me busy for a few hours tomorrow ;)

Nice collection of Shimano Baitrunner GT's all in for servicing, dropped off yesterday,
I'll have the lot cracked off tomorrow so my customer can pick them up Friday :)

A new blogger page and a new Facebook site !

Well I'm fishing for traffick so I've been busy cultivating some new hits ;)

Please feel free to message me through here or facebook.......................