Got one.

[WildCarpFisher.]

Managed to get a really nice Grice & Young Avon Royal Supreme off E-Bay this week. For it's age I would say it's in excellent condition. I've seen one with a dealer in the same condition for £129 with a box. Mine has no box an I paid £45. I did offer the dealer £109 be he declined, I so pleased he did!!!!!!!!

It will be loaded with 8lb line and go alongside the Mitchell 300 I got from Nobby some weeks ago. Still waiting for the cane rod however. Roll on June when it should be ready. I will upload some pictures of everything once it's all together.

Thanks to all for the help and advice re-reels and E-bay.

Richard.

[Vole]

Nicely netted! A good, robust reel that will cope with any task British freshwater angling can demand of it. Enjoy!

[Grubenreiner]

I got one myself and must say i even prefer it to my Fred Crouch Match Arial. I like the non-metall backplate for winter-trotting and the position of the ratchet lever is just ingenious and perfect for one hand use. (mine once belonged to Jan Eggers, the dutch Pike-guru, if that rings a bell).

Great reel for a even greater price! Congrats!

P.S. i also love the fact that theres a spare ratchet part included inside the reel. Only thing i dont like is that if you remove the lineguard those srews tend to stick out a bit to far and sometimes catch the line, but thats really a minor problem.

[Vole]

They must vary a bit; mine has a cast aluminium back.

[RobTheRake]

Good show! The Grice and Youngs reels are good trotting tools for the most part - not just margin big fish specials. A pin doesn't need to be able to spin for ten minutes to be free-running enough for floatfishing on rivers. Both the Royal Supreme and Gypsy D'Or which I've owned have been great trotters on the swift Northern streams where they've been used.

[Grubenreiner]

They must vary a bit; mine has a cast aluminium back.

Hmm, dont know. Mine seems to have some kind of glasfiber backplate (and reelfoot) if i am not completely mistaken. Says Avon Royal Supreme on the box that came with it.
Does yourse have a drag, too?

[Nobby]

Grubenreiner, yours will be a later reel made after the American firm Noris Shakespeare took over. They switched the backplate to a hard plastic material.

It gets frowned upon by some purists, but it is a bit lighter, I'm told.

[Grubenreiner]

It is quite lightweight though weight is not an issue, but as said i like it for freezing temps as its nice to the fingers.

Sorry for kind of highjacking the thread.

[Vole]

Absolutely - I have a plastic backed Shakespeare "Eagle" and a "Lincoln" for cold days -if I can be bothered - though now, I mainly choose wooden reels in the cold, if I can get away with them.

Richard, which sort did you get? and what colour plastic ware on the front? Some had bright red handles and release caps, which made them look very cheerful and Christmas-like.

[WildCarpFisher.]

This one is a later one, black with a hard plastic back plate. I've tightened the front screw as I'm not wanting it for trotting but margin fishing for carp. However when slack it does run smoothly, nice. It looks very tough, almost bomb-proof.

I think it's a 1974 model. They made them up to early 1980s I gather?