MITCHELL’S

Aftermarket Tournament Reels

 

By: Dennis Roberts                                                                                                       Epilogue 

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 We conclude our series of the tournament reels with a review of aftermarket samples of modified reels to that of  quasi tournament casters. These custom “home built” competitive casting reels became icons of a bygone era. Only recently has competitive casting come back in vogue with professional casters experimenting with “turning” special tournament spools for their casting reels; i.e. Daiwa, Shimano, Mitchell to name a few.

  The builders of these special spools and in some cases, multi tiered line guides, produced very efficient and competitive versions of the original factory offerings and drew on non-conventional wisdom in their design.

 What made these particular reels unique was the fact that they were standard “over-the-counter” Mitchell models that had major conversions completed to the spool and line guide system to enhance performance. The internals were refined and clearances made tight.  The addition of a new casting spool with either a conventional or multi-tiered line guide culminated into a very nice and capable entry that often proved quite effective during competition. These aftermarket tournament spools and other appendages were also produced for Abu, Zebco, Cardinal, and Dam-Quick, as these companies also produced tournament versions for their respective reels. 

During the period of 1961-1976, professional casters dabbled with converting standard reels into distance / accuracy casters. It was a short-lived endeavor, only arousing interests with competitors for approximately 15-20 years. However, the results during that period were impressive; many tournaments were won and records broken. This is not to detract from the success of the real tournament casters used during that same period, but the number of custom versions in circulation were far greater than their pedigree counterparts therefore the increase in their success rate. 

During the early 60’s and late 70’s, demand far exceeded supply for these original tournament reels prompting competitors to take matters into their own hands and produce aftermarket concept reels.  The spools were the key element; therefore, assorted sizes and types were developed at the request of the owner to the spool producer usually a single person enterprise. It is important to note that a number of spools were “home built” by the owner and some by machine shops (job shop) and some by Mitchell!  Trying to segregate spools by manufacture or who built what is next to impossible with aftermarket spools. One of the draw backs of that time  was line technology has not yet come of age.

The aftermarket spool designs proved to be quite capable in its realm.  Spools were made from industrial grade aluminum turned into the desired shape and height. It has been noted that some spools were made from titanium.  The titanium was used because of it’s “low” coefficient of drag and light weight, thus increasing line release more effectively which increased distance. Titanium spools were extremely difficult to obtain and costly for the private user in the early 70’s which accounts for why very few were made with this material.

           It would be very extremely difficult to estimate exactly how many of custom configurations were built during this period. Most collectors agree, based on some known facts, that there were three prominent builders that we know of  that made spools and multi-tired line guides. The actual network and extent of suppliers, for the most part, are unknown making exacting info unavailable. Too many years have since passed to uncover this information. 

It is important to stress that the reels are pure genuine standard Mitchells modified by the addition of an aftermarket custom built casting spool and special line guide. The owners of these reels wanted to exercise their own design configuration and experimented with new concepts that satisfied their competitive needs.  The primary reason why competitors optioned to reconfigure their reels was do to limited availability of factory built tournament casters. Only select individuals had access to these factory built originals. This prompted many to dabble in aftermarket.

What is interesting is the fact that these odd and controversial home built casters developed a life of their own with collectors.    Awareness that these reels are not authentic has not deterred both investor and collectors alike from paying large sums of money to own one of these reels.  Without doubt, collectors have contributed to their overall high value by increasing demand for ownership. 

It is also very important for you, the collector, or investor to be very careful when purchasing these units!  In todays’ world technology and easy access to materials and equipment, one can produce fraudulent copies that mimic the actual spools made by the manufacturer during that period. As the old saying goes: Buyer beware!!!   Approximately 8-10 different spool designs were conceived over a 25 year period.  This is only a small sample of the varied types that were produced. 

It is still possible for individuals to produce the exact aftermarket spools / line guides as were originally manufactured during this period.  The seller should disclose that the spool / line guide is an aftermarket product and when it was built as that will go a long way in determining a collector’s value and provide proper identification.