The Traditional Fisherman's Forum

Shropshire Lad wrote: ↑Wed Nov 29, 2017 9:31 pm I use my cardinal 40 for barbel fishing, I think it is a cracking little reel, I much prefer the drag system at the rear of the reel and it is wonderfully smooth, some people say they look better on glass rods than cane, but I use mine on my sharps cane and I think it looks just fine.

Mitch300 wrote: ↑Fri Dec 01, 2017 5:43 am This is an interesting thread! In the early seventies, fed up with a Black Prince that was falling apart, I saved up from my paper round (and even baby-sitting as a substitute for my sister) and bought a Mitchell 308, which I found to be a magnificent reel. I soon added two Mitchell 300's to my tackle box, which were also superb. I used to look longingly at the ABU 44s and 66s in Tight Lines, but they were so expensive. The matchmen all used ABU 506's for trotting but Mitchells for swing-tipping. Who cared about adjustable rear drag when you could back wind? Rotating that 300 gear set would tire most fish fairly quickly. The only Cardinals I saw were on display, and rarely sold, in tackle shops. Back then, I didn't know the Cardinal 40 existed.

Forty years later, in the online markets for used tackle, the original Cardinals had become quite affordable and, knowing how well-made (I don't believe in the word `over-engineered') they were, I bought a 44, a 66 and a 77 (actually the Zebco equivalents) just to see what they were like. Even to a Mitchell afficionado, they're delightful. Now, on any given outing, if conditions aren't right for the Rapidex, it's a toss-up between a Mitchell and a Cardinal. We're spoilt for choice!

Enjoy your Cardinal 40. It looks like a gem.

G. B.

BeechmereLake wrote: ↑Fri Dec 01, 2017 6:52 am Apologies for not coming back sooner men, lots of work to do.

The Cardinal 40 is exactly what some have said, simply a budget reel of its time, its quite a tall reel but has a great feature in the rear drag system.

The reason of its noisy drag is simply that the coverplate is made of plastic which was one of the reasons it was a budget reel, also had plastic spool and drag knob (a cheaper plastic) if you think that the 40 was noisy then you should wind a salesman reel a totally different plastic used for the cover plate made it sound like a football rattle It also had a fair bit of zinc in it to, not the finest metal used for gears.

This is the salesman reel which is just a cover plate on a 40 body, the original plate was all blue like the rest of the reel


Regarding the 44 and 66, I have had many a conversation with some of you gents regarding these reels over the table at Redditch, while the 44 is on par with a Mitchell 300 size wise only the 66 is more like a 306, next level reel for spinning for pike or carp fishing, of the two I would use the 44 for a majority of my fishing but if it came to distance fishing for Carp or weir fishing for Pike then the 66 would be my go to reel.

A couple of the things about the 66 is its plastic trip, once used a fair bit you may notice a click or ticking on the rotor where the bail doesn't trip properly, there is a temporary fix for this but really the plastic trip part needs replacing, there is also the shallow oscillation of the spool, doesn't give the best line lay on a reel. If like me you like a smoother more refined reel the Abu Cardinal 6X is just another world, in a time period the original 66 was released in 1965, one of the best reels is the 1975 model 66 but by 1977 the 6X was released and was a really super user reel, gone was the plastic trip and the line lay was very good. As for the 44? most of them are superb in most ways as long as the bearings are good and the bail springs have been looked at, sometimes they can be a bit sloppy but if you loosen the screw (dont remove it completely) and flush out any dust with a good amount of WD40 you will think you have replaced the springs for new ones.

As for the Cardinal 55, in my honest opinion the best dam reel Abu ever made, in a couple of years time my reels will be 40 years old and the only thing replaced on them is the handle, replaced the original ones, which I kept, for the bigger Cardinal 57 handles, they work so easy especially this time of year when its cold on the fingers but also when you have size 15 hands like I do, much easier to grab hold of and very easy should you wish to crank a fish through the water should you need to. The reels are also still in use to this very day



For those who are new to the forum I have done articles on the forum for all of these reels

Cardinal 44 life history viewtopic.php?f=214&t=21879

And the Cardinall 66 history viewtopic.php?f=214&t=22757

Any questions always happy to help