Rod reducer ?

Hello Andrew,
Captive or telescopic reducers are a feature on a few rods now, (I have an uptider with one), but the very first one I ever saw was many years ago and guess who made it?.......Harry Barker. (I'm sure it was yours Harry!!).

Anglers and the big casters that used to fish the beaches with the reel low down always had problems taking the reducer in and out between casts and letting sand get in the spigot or dropping and losing the reducer altogether.
Many anglers fixed the reducers in permanently but I remember seeing the one that Harry made and it used a cam to make it a twist and lock type action.

Harry was one of the very first pendulum casters in the North East and a very good engineer.

I prefer to fish with the reel up for a lot of reasons, not least because I'm a shortarse and like to use my rod butt as a wading stick and don't want to dunk my reel. It also suits me and my style of fishing.

Regards Ian

Yeh, I'm a reel up guy also, I suppose that removes the issue of not using the rod at it's full length but I reckon there's a price to pay, your leading hand is not only used to put the power into the cast but also to control the reel at the same time so reel down will get better distance I would have thought. In the right hands like.
 
i had my own theory awhile ago about reducer....it reduced my ability to cast when i could not cast the right way....its reduced my fishing enjoyment when it was stuck and i could not get it out. it was then reduced to a mere decoration in my fishing box when then decided to cast reel up again ...i then had a casting lesson and was told by casting the right way with the reducer in i would create the arc needed to load the rod and finish the cast better therefore reducing the formation of bad habits in the cast....there u go my reduced understanding of the reducer....nothing based on actual historical fact just my experience with the reducer....
 
Harry your name rings a bell did you do casting lessons on one of the university rugby fields in Durham through Sea Dangler in the late 1980's?
 
Yeh, I'm a reel up guy also, I suppose that removes the issue of not using the rod at it's full length but I reckon there's a price to pay, your leading hand is not only used to put the power into the cast but also to control the reel at the same time so reel down will get better distance I would have thought. In the right hands like.

Hello Gordon,......you wouldn't have said that if you ever seen the unbelievable
Paul Kerry casting reel up.
he was amazing guy,his distances on the tournament field were way ahead
in terms of yardage.
He used a Daiwa 7ht loaded with 0.35 running line and a Daiwa 11.1/2 ft short
rod.
His speed was unbelievable, don't blink when Paul was casting.

But after saying that he was a bit of a one off.
 
Yes I did mate.

Well a belated thankyou. I had some lessons from you as an 18 year old lad, I remember you tasking the dipstick out of you car engine to oil my bearings as I had WD 40 in them at the time.

I packed in fishing for about seven years in the 1990's after moving to Portsmouth then went back and had lessons from Mark Jakins in Hamshire but it was thanks to you I got into casting and did my first 180 yard plus cast at the old Seaham casting club at Rickleton.
 
Hello Gordon,......you wouldn't have said that if you ever seen the unbelievable
Paul Kerry casting reel up.
he was amazing guy,his distances on the tournament field were way ahead
in terms of yardage.
He used a Daiwa 7ht loaded with 0.35 running line and a Daiwa 11.1/2 ft short
rod.
His speed was unbelievable, don't blink when Paul was casting.

But after saying that he was a bit of a one off.

That is good crack Harry.
I think any youngin these days watching the guys on shields pier for example will automatically adopt the reel down position beacause most of the guys on the pier use it and that's the fashion and it's effective. Maybe in 20 years time it'll be reel up:D
 
That is good crack Harry.
I think any youngin these days watching the guys on shields pier for example will automatically adopt the reel down position beacause most of the guys on the pier use it and that's the fashion and it's effective. Maybe in 20 years time it'll be reel up:D

That's the way a went mate.

I first started using a multiplier, an Abu 7001 left hand, when I was around 11 years old. After that reel was unfortunately stolen :(, i moved on to fishing with Penn 525's, slosh's, etc for my 13th birthday. That's also around the time I got my first decent rod, a greys Pz match.

I began fishing shields pier more and more after getting confident with my casting, where i met the likes of 'waco' and 'fishfingers', who gave me good hints n tips and habe now become lifetime friends :).

With using the reel up the rod i was casting well, but just couldnt seem to get that bit extra distance. I started fishing with the reel down the rod when i was 14 after seeing many people people using and casting well this way. It was a bit weird to start with but in quick succession I was casting well this way and began getting a very good distance for my age. :)

After doing this I've never went back to using the reel up rod and continue fishing this way to date.
 
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Harry, glad to hear you are well hope to see you at Lynemouth again this winter.
Agree about Paul Kerry so fast but he was a very short man and as much as I tried, I could not get his style. It was John Holden for me in the early 80s and Owen Meek down in Portsmouth who taught me to cast, the happy days of the Solent Raiders. My opinion is depending on the length of your modern rod and your casting style and your distance needs, 16ft rod overhead thump or unitech, reel up, pendulum casters reel down . It is as said before by Malcolm and Harry it is all in the length and therefore the drop = your ability to lock the blank for all you full half and fishing pendulum casters, cant twist the body any more so fishing pendulum for me and my trusty reducer. When fishing for hounds at Selsey we used to use boat but pads and no reducer.
 
Well a belated thankyou. I had some lessons from you as an 18 year old lad, I remember you tasking the dipstick out of you car engine to oil my bearings as I had WD 40 in them at the time.

I packed in fishing for about seven years in the 1990's after moving to Portsmouth then went back and had lessons from Mark Jakins in Hamshire but it was thanks to you I got into casting and did my first 180 yard plus cast at the old Seaham casting club at Rickleton.

rickleton in the eighties was that when john the digger and baydon was running them.

i used to take reducers out for casting but leave them in all the time now just lazy cant be bothered to take in and out.

as harry says it does help if you take reducer out so as to pull rod butt hard down to bottom of rib cage hard tucked in.
 
Yes I did mate.

hi harry can you remember the guy who had a knife stuck in the bottom of his butt rod butt that is newbiggen cliff tops, i think it was same guy for some reason got angry and laid his rod on a rock and jumped up and down on it smashing it to smitherings. been thinking about this a few times recently.
 
rickleton in the eighties was that when john the digger and baydon was running them.

i used to take reducers out for casting but leave them in all the time now just lazy cant be bothered to take in and out.

as harry says it does help if you take reducer out so as to pull rod butt hard down to bottom of rib cage hard tucked in.

Andy Byrom was running the club in those days John, think Kevin Richardson was involved as well.
 
That's the way a went mate.

I first started using a multiplier, an Abu 7001 left hand, when I was around 11 years old. After that reel was unfortunately stolen :(, i moved on to fishing with Penn 525's, slosh's, etc for my 13th birthday. That's also around the time I got my first decent rod, a greys Pz match.

I began fishing shields pier more and more after getting confident with my casting, where i met the likes of 'waco' and 'fishfingers', who gave me good hints n tips and habe now become lifetime friends :).

With using the reel up the rod i was casting well, but just couldnt seem to get that bit extra distance. I started fishing with the reel down the rod when i was 14 after seeing many people people using and casting well this way. It was a bit weird to start with but in quick succession I was casting well this way and began getting a very good distance for my age. :)

After doing this I've never went back to using the reel up rod and continue fishing this way to date.

Only ever fished reel down once mate and that was when I slashed my thumb on a first chuck, blood ****i*g everywhere etc so had to move the reel down to continue fishing. At first it was allien but by the end of sesh I was getting quiet used to it. As soon as the wound healed I was back to reel up though.
 
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