Exploding Abu Cardinal 55's

[The Tuesday Swim]

With a mention of my re-found fondness for 80's kit and the 55 in another post, has anyone ever had an exploding spool.

I've heard tales of exploding Swedish spools across Darenth in the 1970's and 80's but never first hand.

With these spools now over 30 years old, can they deteriorate any further?

Seems like things don't change, anglers in fear of their beloved reels exploding... Coxon's to Cardinal's!

[GloucesterOldSpot]

Never happened to mine when I used them, but as I soon reverted to Mitchells I probably didn't give them chance to do so. The problem seems to arise from a combination of deteriorating plastic (UV light destroys the flexibility) and tightly-wound line. Not much you can do about the brittle plastic, but there are some things you can do to reduce the chances of an accident, such as winding on a few yards of soft braided line (fly line backing) before filling them with mono; the braid forms a cushion against the arbour and can mitigate the pressure of tightly-wound mono.

Alternatively, there is a chap in the far east who makes alloy spools for the Cardinal range, though you have to send the originals to him so he can re-use the push-botton spool release mechanism. Not cheap either, and to be honest it's probably overkill. Certainly makes a heavy reel even heavier.

[Bob Brookes]

Hi,
I have had 2 spools burst on me using Abu 44X reels while barbel fishing. Not a good thing when you have to handline in a 9lb barbel on the Trent with 4ft of extra water on.
As I said on another thread I now have no confidence in the 'older' fixed spool reels, so will now tend to only use a 'pin when fishing with traditional gear for larger fish. I don't particularly get on with Mitchells but I am currently exploring the Dam range from the 70's.
Bob

[BlackSheep]

I have had several 55 and 54 spools go on me, mainly when a fish is one.

I sold my 55's on as i had no confidence in them but i managed to source two aluminium spools for my 54's some time ago, they are superb.

All i need to do now is find a use for the two reels.