Unused in box Black Prince reel - my latest purchase.

[MaggotDrowner]

I put a bid in on this and went out to the pub for a meal with my mates. Came back home and I had won it. I don't know much about intrepid reels. But for £1.50 for unused and inbox reel, I'm sure I've done okay.



http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/gladding-intr ... true&rt=nc

Can anyone tell me anything about when these were first made, when they stopped production and if there is a way to date them? I think they were made in the 70s?

How reliable were they? Does anyone have any memories of using them, or use them now?

Even though it is in a good unused condition it will still eventually end up, where it belongs, on the bank. Perhaps during the Easter holidays!

[Snape]

My boyhood reel. Very basic but functional. I wouldn't use one today but I still have one and the 'clunk' the bail arm makes as it closes takes me straight back to being about 10 years old catching gudgeon and ruffe on the Thames.

[MaggotDrowner]

Snape, do you still catch ruffe in your neck of the woods? I've only ever caught them once in my life. I hit on a shoal of them about 8 years ago, when I was about 12. I had no idea what I was catching until I looked them up in a book when I got home! I've never had them since. That was also the only time my Dad has caught them in coming up to 50 years of fishing this same river.

Thanks for the link, Stuart. I'll have a good look when I get home this evening.
Haven't caught a ruffe since the mid 70s on the Thames near Kingston. We used to catch them all the time but as it suggested by another thread (mini fish) their numbers may be in decline.

[Nigel Rainton]

I remember these reels well; we sold hundreds and got loads of complaints and returns. The metal castings tended to contain air bubbles, don't drop it !

[MGs]

I think most of us would have had one. I had mine until fairly recently, when it disintegrated. They certainly go back to the late 1960s

[AshbyCut]

I had a spool split in two once ... a bubble in the plastic.

Be gentle with it, young Sir, and it will serve you well. I wouldn't use it for anything bigger than small roach or the like ... 2lb or 3lb line maximum ... and it would make a great gudgeon reel !!!

[Woodytia]

Cheap and cheerful, my first proper reel which I got with my first proper rod, early 1970's.

[Shaun Harrison]

My first fixed spool reel, £1.95 new I seem to remember in the 70's. Purchased mine from Horseshoe Tackle on Station Road Long Eaton. Can't remember it having a folding handle though. Sure it simply un-screwed.

[Nigel Rainton]

Be very gentle, keep it in the box and buy a Mitchell . . . . he he he :-)

[MaggotDrowner]

Be very gentle, keep it in the box and buy a Mitchell . . . . he he he :-)

I have three mitchell 300s. One has a bad paint job and will be stripped back to the metal and polished. Another I will keep original and the third, which I picked up on eBay very cheaply, will be sold or swapped at some point.

I'd quite like a 304 or a 308. I like the round body shape. I need to look into the difference between the two before I decide which to try and get though.