Reel tuning

[hurdpete]

Good Morning Folks:

I've accumulated a few older baitcasters (nothing special - mostly 7/8 level) and would like to fish several of them. I've been through all of them (clean and lube), and they seem to work OK, but I've read a bunch of posts suggesting ""tuning" the reel for best performance. Other than bearing cap adjustment, what does this involve? Thanks for the help.

[Jim Madden]

Pete, centering the spool is important. Take the rear spool cap off and loosen the headplate cap. Push the spool to the left. Tighten the right cap till you see the spool move left until it's exactly in the middle of the two plates. tighten the rear cap. Now back the rear cap off a hair, so that there is the slightest play in the spool movement. Ay South Bend Bait Company, you could have your reel "lapped." A mild abrasive was put in the reel, and it was spun at high speed for a few seconds. It was then relubed and was instantly seasoned. It's a good idea to take 4-ought steel wool to the spool journals too if you see any discoloring. Jim

[Warren Platt]

Pete,
Since I'm one of the people that talked about "tuning" the older reels, I'll tell you what it means to me. Naturally first thing is to disassemble the reel, completely clean and inspect each part. Reassemble, lightly lube each moving part as you put it back together. Center the spool by end cap adjustments. Spin the handle backwards and adjust end caps for smoothness. If the reel was in good condition to begin with this is about all that needs to be done to the reel until final adjustments by the individual caster. I also consider proper line, rod, and lure selection as part of the total "tuning" process. If reel, line, rod, and lure don't match, casting is possible, but complete casting satisifaction isn't going to happen. Really, I'm not saying much that you haven't already said.

As for lubrication, I'm not a fan of "Hot Sauce" for the 1920s, 30s, and 40s reels. Most of these reels weren't made to be lighting fast and mormal reel oil does just fine. I even cleaned the Hot Sauce off of a Pflueger Nobby reel because it became hard to cast without backlashing due to increased spool speed. A person with more casting skill than I might not have any problem with it, but I wasn't able to adjust completely.

[hurdpete]

Jim & Warren:

Thanks for the info- I guess I've been tuning these reels without knowing it!

[SWIM JIG]

jump usa Pete, as you have a car dealership, one area that needs to be checked is spool wobble! have your man that runs the shp lathe set the spool between the haed chuck and free turning tail chuck, once its running watch for wobbel all you need to do is take a pice of soft wood like white pine a pus gently untill the wobble goes away this takes a bit of practice! also the sides of the spool are generaly out of round, thus you can put them back into round on the lathe! One thing we do is for example on PENN SPOOLS WITH THAT USELESS PIN IN THE CENTER TO TIE THE LINE TO , WE TAKE IT OFF THEN WE KNUARL THE SPOOL SHAFT VERY easy untill some non slip marks are on the spool, it makes a nice non slip area to tye the line on with no slippage or humps! We do all charter boat reels like this ( note we charge $1.50 extra for the process, a lot less expensive than new spools!warren i corect on ZEBCO HOT Sauce tm as too fast! however unless a person has no thumbs, its not a problem! also you can use 9 MARVEL MYSTERY OIL tm. itis about the best oil we have found and at $16.50 a gallon it will last a very long time! it to is red in color! pete, I checked all my spool spacers and ever one I have thats close is 1/8 inches to short! The Holy Mackeral Tackle show comes up soon posibly Mike may have some and I will get them! I have not forgoten you on this! The adjustments described to you on the above posters is the ONLYTRUE WAY to do it! Your ohio conection on Lake ERIE COL. MILTON LORENS aka SWIM JIG Remeber fish caught out of Laje ERIE now are alraedy pre Frozzen!

[hurdpete]

Thanks for the help, Colonel! Any chance you might do a Reel Fix column on tuning? Let me know about the arbors if they show up.

One other thing- how full should the spool be loaded, line wise- all the way (1/8 " from the spool edge) or with more spool showing? All the reels I've acquired seemed to me to be underloaded, with anywhere from 1/4" or more of the spool showing.

[Warren Platt]

I'd say 1/8 inch is about right. The fuller the reel, the less turns the spool must make, thus easier casting. If you get it over full, the line wants to get behind the spool and that's real trouble!

[hurdpete]

Warren:

Thanks for the input! You make a good point about the balance between the rod, reel and lure weight. A question arises (what a surprise!)- when the rod is designed for a given lure weight range (XL = 1/4 to 3/8 oz., LT = 1/2 to 5/8 oz., etc.), doe it work better to use lures toward the upper end of the range - it seems that the increased weight of the lure would work the rod more, giving greater distance, but does this increase the tendency to backlash due to the increased line speed? Your thoughts would be appreciated. BTW, the combo I'm currently contemplating is a South Bend Model 9 straight handle 6 foot XL rod with a P-41 loaded with 9 lb. braided nylon for 3/8 oz. lures.

[Warren Platt]

Pete,
I'm going to avoid a direct answer to your guestion about heavy or light lures for your outfit. I believe it all depends on the type of caster you are. I fish almost all the time with surface lures and I like to make hard casts to enable good accuracy. Unless I'm throwing very close casts to the shore, how far I throw beyond my target isn't as important as where I lay the line down on the water. For example, if I want to work my lure between two stickups, I can only do that if I lay the line down on the water between them. I think I have a better chance of doing that if I throw a hard cast and thumb the spool pretty hard throughout the first part of the cast, then try to feather the lures speed down and try to make a soft landing as I guide my line down to the water on the path that I want to work my lure. The outfit I prefere for this type of casting is a short (5 or 51/2 ft) steel rod that is med. or med. light action. A Pflueger Supreme, or Shakespeare Marhoff reel with 12lb. braided nylon line, and a surface lure of approx 1/2 oz. If I need to go to a very light (1/4 oz.) lure I must go to a longer 6 to 61/2 ft. soft action rod and a smaller, faster reel with approx. 8 or 9 lb. line. The cast is much slower and softer because the reel is much faster, a hard cast here results in a honey of a backlash if you aren't perfect with the thumb. I'd say to put together an outfit that you think is correct and cast it a few times. You'll know pretty quick if it's a balanced outfit.
As for the outfit you listed; I don't know what the rod is like, but I do know that the P-41 was built to be a tournament reel (and it was a good one) and I've never had anyone say it was a great fishing reel for them, thus I've never fished with one.

[Halcyon]

When I fish with a conventional reel, which is most of the time, it always has one of TG's oil recipes in it. They make 4 of them. For older reels, that is my montague, Pflueger, Langley, & ABU reels I always use the Red formula unless I need to slow the reel down a lot then it's time for the liquid grease. To date I haven't needed the Liquid Grease formula on any of my old reels as a moderated tensioning keys the reel nicely to the wind and wieght conditons. One thing that is very important is spooling a line weight that suit your reel. Of my reels that don't have a mechanism that disengages the handle for casting I like my Langley KC 310 to best. The lightness of the spool, tensioning mechanizm and 4 to 1 ration all put it ahead of the other reels in it's class that I've fished so far. However the ABU 2600 & 2650 are definately a cut above. These Swedish productions will fish Mono and modern braid where the others fail miserably. The 2650 will fish 8lb mono very nicely and the 2600, being a slightly larger reel will fish 8lb Triple fish Bullybraid beautifully. There are several features that make take these reels to a whole-nother-level. All one has to do is get a nice on and sevice it carefully, see the craftsmenship in it and lubricate it with TG's red formula to see how sweet a piece it is.

Note: fished the beaches of Monterey Bay yesterday - got 10 or more and released all but three nice Barred Surfperch (like bluegills on steroids) with my ABU 2050 with 8lb mono with a 13 foot noodle (equivalent to a 5/6 weight fly rod) rod throwing 1/2oz. The catch of the day was a 15 incher just under 2lbs on the scale -- a buck -- a real brute -- I don't think they get much bigger. Beautiful water -- Beautiful day.

Good Fishin' & Better Catchin', Rich

[drexelantiques]

Buck Paysour used to run this wonderful tackle shop in Columbia, SC. Many years ago Buck used to guide for striped bass on Santee Cooper, and Lake Murray, SC. Buck got to know some of the bass fishing pros in the 1960s and 1970s when he used to guide, and when they discovered his talent for tuning reels, they let him do so.

20+ years ago I let Buck tune some Diawa PT 33P reels, and some ABU reels, he turned the spindles, worked the bearings, and etc. I remember he told me his secret was that he did some machine work, but then he would "lap" the gears in by packing the gears in toothpaste, and while he was sitting in front of the TV at night he would just turn them.

If I remember right he would only work on brand new reels, he said his tuning wouldn't do much good for used reels. I know some bass professionals sent him reels to work on.

I lost contact with Buck years back. Anyone else know him, or have any news?