The Traditional Fisherman's Forum

Here it is:




This image is from Drop Me A Line, I'm told .... and although not clear it is a 'second version'*, still with the knurled knob anti-reverse knob and is a half bail reel. It would seem Walker had not long obtained the reel and in the accompanying letters he states no right hand wind version is available yet and he is trying to persuade the manufacturers to make one for co-respondent Maurice Ingham.

* The 'second version' is a Mitchell Reel Museum expression. The reel has many differences from the first ones made and Mitchell wouldn't know what the expression second version meant, but there are small changes to internal gears with regard to the faces that rub against one another and paint finishing. The main difference is that the 'second' has 'Made in France' in raised letters on the right hand side of the body shell or housing.


There's a fair bit about the reel changes here:

http://traditionalfisherman.com/viewtop ... l+versions


EDIT: 5.7.2021 Well the pictures gone now but it wasn't a second version Mitchell. A trick of the light and the wrong reel anyway.


The Clarissa reel has now been found and has a proud new owner

That's the clearest picture Nobby I'd not seen that one.
Rw must have left his rod rests at home that day.
I have the later edition of Drop Me a Line , There are only line drawings in that copy.
DMAL has a tease quality about it as it ends the year before the event.
It's concerns the construction of the Mk III and the dis satisfaction with the
Crosswind. Quite a sea change to the kit used on the day.
There is no timeline on any of his published pictures so although following the sequential use Is not possible it seems RW was at the front on updating gear as one might expect.

It was Moorhen who spotted this image in his copy of DMAL and he pointed out the lined second ring and suggested this might be the very rod that later caught Clarissa, though in this instance he's apparently fishing for perch.

I don't have a copy of the book myself but Moorhen was scouring his to assist me as we worked on dating the appearance of various Mitchell reel models here in the UK. I think I recall him saying this perching expedition was from the previous October to the record carp capture, but I might have that wrong.

It would seem my 1989 version of DMAL had a radical makeover perhaps pointing to why
Pat M W was not happy with it.
Reading the Built to Endure thread with the later two agate butt rings indicates RW
designed the whole package firstly to cast a light weight as far as possible with minimum friction and specifically for a fixed spool reel.
For me that would indicate the Mitchell was selected because of it having the best line
lay of the F/S available at the time.
As an aside then ,
It would follow (possibly) that the Centrepin project was a BB inspired benefit
With the BB reel being a development from the prototype first version, moved on by
RW. It not being used or mentioned in the subsequent RW writings as far as I know.

Thank you all for taking time out to read my musings....... I'm retired you know!

I always understood the centrepin project to be an attempt to produce a trotting 'pin with a better rate of retrieve without having a reel that was massively heavy by using lightweight materials but Walker knew it was difficult in that the weight of the reel increases with the square of the radius whereas the retrieve rate increases directly with the radius ie double the radius and the weight increases four-fold but the retrieval rate just doubles.

That might be why Walker's own reel was apparently made out of magnesium and weighed so little as a consequence. With both versions of the reel, RW's and BB's having some sort of braking device fitted I'd rather assumed he was thinking carp and I felt sure he'd written as much somewhere....but can't for the life of me remember where.......it's the text from one of his books.

Ah, found it..." for use when monsters are expected"....about half way down the page...




.
He was clearly intending the reel to go after the carp record with him.

I'm retired too, you know


Since we know, thanks to John Nightingale, that Walker's own reel was a 'telephone latch' job...and he rather confirms which reel he refers to in the text above with his comparison to Hardy's Eureka ( what a splendid name for a reel!")...I think BB's reel was the later model as it had a proper centreboss and grub screw rather than the exposed latch.

I don't know if RW wrote why he abandoned the reel as a carp tool anywhere? Certainly he next used a Felton Crosswind and finally got his Mitchell, writing that he preferred its lightness and line-lay as well as its faster retrieve.

So much of this is only re-discoverable now because RW was such a prolific writer........

I have a recollection of Walker discussing trotting reels in Angling Times in the early 70s and mentioning the large centrepins that he'd made. At the time he reckoned the Mitchell 410 the best for trotting, partly due to the fast retrieve. I probably have the article somewhere but after researching several books my archives are in disarray!

Rats.. had to check my copy to confirm its the same Nobby, no recall at all.
Only recently read it for the first time too ! Ah well.... back to page one .
My old model Conquest is my go to trotter,
Even the match aerial for me feels too large to hand.
Cannot begin to contemplate the discomfort that size of trotting reel would be.
I wonder if BB's relegating his one to salty use could be a clue to its lack of Carpy success?
Len A did say it was a bit gritty when he got it from BB.
If RW preferred a fixed spool to trot with and the Mitchell f/s for the Mk IV.
then a centre pin would not be a keeper for him.
A forward thinking modern designer he was indeed.
One wonders what he would make of those of us here on TFF ?

Oh he'd consider us all barking.........

I think that is a picture of Walkers perch set up when he was fishing at Arlesey Lake, it's in the first edition of Still Water Angling.