Welcome to The Retro Angler's Blog

Welcome to the Retro Angler’s Blog which begins with me using my newly bought Olympic Match13 rod and a Shakespeare Cosmos 2001 reel which I keep as a spare. The reel looks really small on a 13 foot fibreglass rod it’s the nearest I’ve got to a vintage reel at the moment! A cloudy but enjoyable session on 6 September with my nephew at Kilburn Lake where we were catching Roach and Perch float fishing in the margins and I managed a 3lb Carp which impressed my nephew!

On 9 September I was fishing at Longford on a sunny day with some cloud, this time with my fishing mate Geoff who fishes with his old Shakespeare International rod and Mitchell Match reel. I was enjoying my Match13 rod and Cosmos reel again, although I’ve been looking at vintage reels on the internet including Mitchell reels as Geoff swears by them! I caught my first descent Tench of about 2½lb and some nice Bream and Carp on light ledgered luncheon meat.

I fished at Longford on 16 September under cloudy skies, this time with my new-old Mitchell 300 which I bought on the internet and I’m dead chuffed with it. I went off to Mill Dam on a lovely sunny day to give it a run where I caught some Roach and Bream.

I’ve been lucky enough to find four Mitchell reels locally and I’m now the proud owner of a 410, 410A, 324 and a 206 which I bought along with an old Black Prince for £20, bargain! I cleaned all the reels and gave them a good greasing and the 410 needs a new spring and bail arm screw but I used the 410A at Longford on 23 September and caught Bream all day.

Finally, for this very exciting first month of retro fishing, I was at Beechwood with Geoff and I caught some Roach, Perch and a nice 7½lb Carp put a nice bend in my Match13.

During my blogs, I will also include information and links which hopefully you will find interesting. The first is a link to the Mitchell Reel Museum website which is an ideal source of information for anyone interested in Mitchell and vintage reels.