Fishing with a drop down line guide?

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john elder
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Fishing with a drop down line guide?

Post by john elder »

I was getting an OKEH 625 reel ready to sell and realized that the Pawl was worn out on it. I was unable to find such a small Pawl… It is really tiny! However with the help of Dick Janak, I got a relatively small one that I could turn down on the lathe and made it work. So now it runs fine, but it then occurred to me that I never really thought about using that line guide. When you cast it drops down out of the way. However how do you get it started again?. Should it automatically come up which I see sometimes happens with Redifor reels or do you manually put it up and get the line back in the guide before reeling in?. Even if it pops up on its own, it’s not clear how the line is going to find it without you manually putting it in the guide. Has anyone used one of these line guides and can enlighten me as to how it should work?
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Eric J
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Re: Fishing with a drop down line guide?

Post by Eric J »

I’ve never used one, but my understanding is that when the guide is dropped and the line is cast, the line guide continues to move back and forth in step with the line. Cranking flips the guide back up and it should be close enough that the line engages the guide again.
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john elder
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Re: Fishing with a drop down line guide?

Post by john elder »

Thanks, Eric. Ideally, i think thats what should happen but that assumes tension will remain the same and no backlashing or slack.
I loaded my reel and did some driveway casting with it to see what would happen. I had to feed the line back in the guide and then tension sideways caused the line guide to pop up and do its thing. You can’t fill the spool too full or the line will just slip out the top of the guide during retrieve. Perhaps i’ll do the same test using my Redifor and see if it does anything different.
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Specializing in saltwater reels...and fly reels...and oh, yeah, kentucky style reels.....and those tiny little RP reels.....oh, heck...i collect fishing reels!...and fly rods....and lures
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RonG
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Re: Fishing with a drop down line guide?

Post by RonG »

If you look at the design of the line guide and the tubular frame, you can see that the idea was for the side of the line guide to push against the line while you're reeling in and push the line up the slope of the tubular frame at the end of the travel and plop the line into the open top of the line guide. Never tried it so don't know if it works.
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Steve
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Re: Fishing with a drop down line guide?

Post by Steve »

Most of the flip-down guides since Wardwell's were designed to pick up the line automatically when retrieval began after a cast. The Pfl. Supreme even had little wings to help. Sometimes some of them worked. :yay (I've tried a few in the back yard.) Here's what Upton's lawyer said so succinctly:

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john elder
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Re: Fishing with a drop down line guide?

Post by john elder »

I reloaded and tried again and although the line guide required occasional encouragement to flip back up, it does do a pretty good job of catching the line when pushed to the edges.
ORCA member since 1999
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Specializing in saltwater reels...and fly reels...and oh, yeah, kentucky style reels.....and those tiny little RP reels.....oh, heck...i collect fishing reels!...and fly rods....and lures
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