Elite

[John_Moore]

I have used several KP Morritts Intrepid Elite reels for many years and they are a favourite reel off mine.
While fishing for carp the other day obviously I had plenty of time to think as there are only a handful of carp in the 9 acre pool I was pitched up on.
The lightbulb came on and I said to myself "I wonder if the Elite was the precursor for what is now know as a bait runner reel" as the Elite has the three way clutch mechanism I wondered?
It was when putting the rear clutch lever into the top position when it came to me.
Knowing absolutely nothing about modern reels can anybody else input on this?
Keep your lines tight John.

[Stingray]

Yes. The Elite's "Truplay" which is a compensated two-way ratchet can be seen as a similar concept to a very simple baitrunner with minimum adjustment possible and the more adjustable baitrunner would be the next stage after that. It was, however, a fixed spool version of the ratchet system that could already be found on some centrepin reels and particularly fly reels. Also, the Elite was a smaller version of the already successful Intrepid Surfcast. The ratchet on the Surfcast works better and is far less prone to breakages than on the Elite due to the greater size/strength of the components. On the Surfcast the Truplay is particularly useful as it can be used on a rod on a rodrest in all but stronger currents as both a click bite indicator and a baitrunner if you like.The less satisfactory option on sea fixed spools back then was to loosen the drag which is still the way to go if you are fishing for big fish on a fixed spool without a baitrunner. Truplay is also featured on their most successful sea multiplier, Sea Streak, which appeared a few years later in 1966 and the successor to he Surfcast, the Cresta 1970ish.

So, yes, the ever inovative Morritts ahead of the curve there.

[John_Moore]

Thanks for that Stingray very informative.
Best John.