The Traditional Fisherman's Forum

Thank you again for your advice gentlemen. Old Tackle I've sent you a PM re the spools. Thank you. Mark

Just wanted to finish this thread gentlemen by saying that I have now received a 330. I bought it a month ago from the auction place but just arrived (long story, went missing in post the found). Lovely reel, great engineering (reminiscent of a ABU cardinal), metal spool. Will make a great deadbait reel. Now to find the ideal rod...

Glad to hear you are pleased with your 330.

As the pike season is just around the corner, I thought I’d resurrect this thread.
I’ve just picked up this 440 which will pair up with my 440N for a bit of ‘trad’ piking.
A cheap eBay find, it’s bearing was toast and, the bail arm retainer was seized solid.
These reels have virtually the same body as the Finessa/ 330 but with a wider diameter rotor and spool.
I think they’re better at handling heavier mono up to 20lb so ideally suited to bait fishing for pike.
A new bearing from my parts ‘bin’ , judicious use of WD40, to clean and free everything up and, with a fresh dose of blue grease the reel is running like new again.
I’ve also stripped the drag down , polished up the discs and applied a bit of ‘magic’ from our top Abu man.
( I don’t want to give away his trade secrets)
I’ll probably back wind when playing a pike, rather than use the drag, but it’s nice to get it working as efficiently as possible.

I had my knuckles severely wrapped by fish when back winding! Not for me since then.

They look about the size of a Mitchell 306 which I used.

Best of luck for a good'un!

Yes, not far off a 306 which is also a great pike reel.
The beauty of these , and older non- skirted fixed spools is that you can use your finger as a brake on the rotor when the anti/reverse is off.
Probably best to keep your winding hand away from the handles though to avoid those rapped knuckles.
These Damsare so smooth , they backwind beautifully.

To stray from the original topic slightly -
I have been looking at a rather nice 330, but have been caught out in the past by buying reels without seeing them in the flesh, then finding out that they are minute / enormous!
Is the 330 roughly the same size as a 'standard' Mitchell 300?

Tad bigger.

Thanks Cat!

So, given that they are extremely well engineered, it will weigh the same as a Mitchell 498?

Sounds like I should be looking for a 220 or even a 110 for my light roach fishing!

More like a 306 in size.