Hi all. Do any members have experience of the Trent Trotter centrepin ? A number are appearing in the market for sale at the moment. I know they are quite inexpensive, so I was just wondering if the are not very good. They seem to look the part but are they another cheap reel that lets the line foul behind the spool ? Hi All I have added to this post that the reel is not called the Trent Trotter but The Severn Trotter Sorry !!
Last edited by David on Wed Jan 03, 2024 10:48 am, edited 4 times in total.
I've no experience of a Trent Trotter but have used a Marco Cortesi for many years with no problems, well, no more than my Avon Royal Supreme. Or, dare I mention it my Intrepid Match, a good little reel for stalking, you wouldn't want to trot with it though!
Thanks Polecat It looks like they may be worth acquiring for general have a go fishing. I have built up a small collection ( 15 ) of centrepins and should I get one it would be just a workhorse reel and not for my collection
Hi I have purchased 2 of these reels and found they are very well made and work perfectly. Of course I don't know how long they will last but they spin very freely and in fact they completely out spin my 5 brand new J W Youngs reels with bearings. For £50 or so, I believe they are very good value for the money. I let my Grandson who likes trotting the river, use one a couple of times, and he said that it worked as good as his Youngs pins. He did say that he would have preferred a different shaped check lever, but did not have a major issue with its current one though he thought it a little fiddly to use one handed. When I first asked a question about these reels i made a mistake and called it the Trent Trotter, however I added an amendment to the original post to correct the mistake.
As an addition to my thoughts about this reel. After using it in a very small trial, I found out that there is a slight problem to the check lever. I used it for a little over an hour as I am still having problems after my shoulder replacement. A couple of times whilst trotting on the Trent my little finger brushed against the lever and it instantly flicked to on. this stopped the trot and I had to turn it off again. Obviously, after that experience I would adjust my hand position in the future. Apart from that the reel trotted perfectly. Although I did not catch any fish during that short test, I went through the motion a few times of pretending to land a fish and I found that it was easy to touch the lever to put the check on to stop over runs when holding the landing net in the other hand, so I suppose that was a bit of a plus point.
I have used one of these for carping for a few years and never had a problem great reels for the money, and saves wear on the more expensive pins .also they look ok on a mklv rod
I see an advantage in using any of these cheapie Chinese reels or indeed a well used
basic " classic"- overcoming any minor glitches is part of the fun