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.