Reflex Tournament Caster

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Mole-Patrol
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Reflex Tournament Caster

Post by Mole-Patrol »

Lock down boredom forced me to browse the French Freeads sites and before you knew it I was €30 lighter .....................

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Mentioned in Phil Waller’s books as ‘Allcock’s Tournament Casting Reel’. This reel is engraved “S. G. D. G. Déposée Marque” Which basically is a legal mention releasing the State from any responsibility on the effective functioning of the patented device. The Patent would be granted: "without prior examination, at the risk and peril of the applicants, and without guarantee either of the reality, novelty or merit of the invention, or of the accuracy or precision of the description". This law was abandoned in 1968. This text is the invention of Napoleon Bonaparte, according to the decree of September 27, 1801.

The company went by the name of ‘Reflex’ and made casting reels in the early years of the 20th century. Tournament casting was as popular in France as it was in England and it would seem that this reel was specifically designed for that purpose.

The reel measures 92mm diameter or just over three-and-a-half inches in old money and is made from aluminium or alloy with a cage supported on brass pillars. As you can see from the photos there is an unusual casting brake that is adjustable by quite a sophisticated system. The brake works on the anti-backlash type of arrangement that used to be advertised as an accessory for beach casting reels in the 1960’s and 70’s. The line exits the reel from the bottom and runs over the steel bar that will operate a friction brake on the spool once the tension on the line is reduced as the weight hits the water or grass.

I found a diagram on a French web site:

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This is a similar model to the one that I have bought and shows the brake mechanism and adjustment offered.

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The Reflex I have bought reel was manufactured around the 1920’s. Another version was offered by Allcocks in the 1930’s with what appears to be a trigger arrangement similar to the Silex. There is also a rare multiplier version of this reel which appears to closely resemble the Silex Multiplier.

It will be interesting to see how or even if the casting brake works in practise.

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Duckett
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Re: Reflex Tournament Caster

Post by Duckett »

A really interesting find. I can’t wait to hear how effective the design is, especially after all these years. Enjoy!
From "... the wilds of the Wirral, whose wayward people both God and good men have quite given up on ...".

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Mole-Patrol
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Re: Reflex Tournament Caster

Post by Mole-Patrol »

It would appear that there are many variations of this reel. I have not seen two of the same. They were manufactured by a company called G. BOURIANT who were based in in Saint-Amand Monrond which is in the Cher Department in the Loire valley. Allcocks retailed a version of the reel in the 1930's. They, Allcocks had a shop in Paris from at least 1912. The Reflex reels dated from the early 1920's and went on in various incarnations into the 1930s and the company also manufactured another casting reel again designed purely for tournament casting called 'Le Berry'. They included a multiplier option for both the Reflex and Le Berry reels. Early models had the line follower pivoted on the outside of the back plate. Later models had the mechanism inside the reel. This one is a Series 1 (earlier models were Series 0) and Model Type P whatever that means.

The Allcocks reel featured in Phil Waller's book appears to be a later model with a Silex type trigger as well as the line follower. The Allcocks reel is a right hand wind whereas my French made reel is left hand wind when the reel is below the rod with the line follower facing the rod rings. The line however has to come off the top of the reel in order for the anti-backlash system to work properly so when you retrieve on my reel it is either left hand wind backwards or right hand wind conventionally with the reel on top of the rod.

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This reel features a fancy holograph type pattern on the face plate and the back plate as well as a visual indicator of the drag position. I reckon this must have been the Bugatti Royale of the 1920's French casting scene :snooty:

The line follower is attached to an aluminium shoe with a leather block that presses against the alloy spool. The line follower mechanism is adjustable two ways. The length of the spring can be altered via a fine screw and the arc of the line follower can also be adjusted via the larger knurled wheel protruding through the back plate. According to the sparse information on these reels I have been able to establish that the spring adjuster was changed to a larger type in 1927 so this reel may pre-date that. When I first disassembled the reel I found that the pivot for the line follower that also acts as the spring traveller had been assembled incorrectly and the line follower was able to rock sightly causing the reel not to operate correctly. Simply turning the locking nut around solved the problem and I think that declared fault might have cost the seller a few bob.

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The spindle is not the same diameter all along its length. It has a central recess presumable to hold lubricant and / or reduce friction. There is no check cog on the spool and it is very, very light in weight presumably to reduce inertia. In fact the whole reel has been designed to keep weight to a minimum.

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This is a reel designed specifically for the casting field as are all the other Bouriant reels I have been able to view online. The line coming off the top of the reel entails retrieve rotation is the reverse of normal unless the rod is turned over so that the reel is uppermost and of course that means right hand retrieve .

One factor of the line follower braking arrangement should you use the reel for actual fishing is that if the rod is unattended the brake would be resting against the spool preventing it from depositing line on the ground, but should a specimen gudgeon make off with your bait, the brake would automatically release the spool and prevent a break off. :Happy:

It is persisting it down outside at the moment and so field trials will have to wait a few days.


<Edit> The rain stopped long enough to take the dog for a walk and have a bit of quality time with the Reflex in the garden. After about ten minutes fiddling about with underhand casting and adjusting the controls I decided to have a swing from the side. WOW! :shocked:

First I just gave a gentle lob where the 1oz lead was swung with a conventional release of the spool. It went about 12 yds and stopped with not an inch of over run despite my not braking or touching the reel in any way. A bit more effort resulted in longer distance and no over runs. So I went for an overhead cast using the technique described by Marston but without the under thumb line release. I just let the reel decide when to start. The lead sailed away around 15 yards in controlled manner and the reel stopped turning the millisecond the lead hit the turf.

I realised that I had dropped the rod top to around 45 degrees during the latter part of the cast so second time around I gave the Chapmans 500 rod some welly and purposefully stopped the rod at vertical. "Aim for the sky" was Mr. H. T. Elliot's advice in 1910 and that it what I did. The lead cleared a 30 foot high tree that is around 20 yards from my casting position and disappeared into the conifers on the boundary of the garden about 7 or 8 yards beyond that. :oops: I could follow its path by the old plaited cotton line that had come with the reel but had parted at the spool knot. The lead and newly tied shock leader were still attached when I hand lined it back in.

Boy, am I going to have some fun with this reel. :Hahaha:

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OhMyGoodness
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Re: Reflex Tournament Caster

Post by OhMyGoodness »

These reels look to be very chunky and heavy. This one has the Allcocks name and stag logo, but most I have seen do not. I believe that there is a French collectors group who have information about these but I have no French.
I wonder if the later Allcocks Easicast reels were based upon experience gained from the Reflex reels. Have you ever tried an Easicast?

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OhMyGoodness
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Re: Reflex Tournament Caster

Post by OhMyGoodness »

The beautiful pattern on your reel is known as 'pearling' by machinists.

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Mole-Patrol
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Re: Reflex Tournament Caster

Post by Mole-Patrol »

I have never used an Easicast so I cannot compare the two. Regards information about the reels; there is very little that I have found other than with the diagram I posted above.

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