Pacemaker Fishing Forum

I've always loved the old Mitchell reels.  Recently, Ernie dropped one by that had see time in salt and needed allot of luv.  I didn't know if I was up for the task and let him know.

But these old reels are bullet proof so I gave it a shot. 

In addition, I had my Dad's old 300 that's been needed some love.  Also, Bob dropped one off.

After doing allot of research, I went after the one Ernie brought over.  Spent allot of time cleaning it up and it now reels sweet as a kitten.  Since it has some corrosion on the spool and bail, it will never cast as far as it did new, but still when you set the anti-reverse, the clicker works and it reels smooth.

Took Dad's reel apart and this one took no time at all because it was rarely used, and when used, only in high mountain trout streams or fresh water lakes.

Before I started on the one Bob dropped off, I decided to take pix.

Here's a pix of the two finished reels.  The one on the left is the one Ernie brought over and the one on the right's Dad's.  I was unable to determine their age, but Ernie's allot older.  The anti-reverse cam on Ernies is metal while the newer reel had a plastic anti-reverse cam. 



I next talked Bobs and noted something different.  First, it was a 301 and not a 300.  I realized quickly the 301 is Mitchell's south paw version.  Instead of modern reels where you just move the handle to the other side, back in these times (circa late 60s early 70s) reels were made for right handed reelers and left handed reelers and were not interchangeable.

Bob's reel was pretty dirty, but no corrosion, so after all the dirt was cleaned up, the cleaning of the guts were pretty easy. 

One thing about these old reels is there's not many parts and I was pretty much able to strip them down with the help of the Mitchell Museum YouTube videos.  Here's a pix of Bob reel disassembled and all the parts clean.



The next pix is the parts all greased up and in inside assembled



And the last pix is the finished left-hander reel



Pretty fun little project to do on a windy day.