GOING FISHING with Kotare

Press, Volume CXV, Issue 33804, 29 March 1975, Page 11

GOING FISHING with Kotare

I wish you could see this reel. It has just about everything a fisherman needs for a lifetime of trouble-free fishing.

If that sounds like advertising I’m not surprised. Any angler left alone with a reel like this must inevitably end up extolling its virtues. Far less efficient reels have been priased to the skies for years.

Sure, no reel is perfect, and this one exhibits a failing that might put some fishermen off. It weighs 81oz. That’s a fairly hefty lump of metal to carry around, especially on the end of some of the wands you can buy in fibreglass these days. The only other disadvantage I can see is its diameter. The spool is three inches across exactly, certainly a suitable diameter for most of the fly-fishing in New Zealand.

But the width of the spool is just under one inch, and it carries one hundred yards of 121 b backing, plus the fly-line, with ease.

It doesn’t take you more than about 10 seconds to see that this reel is virtually indestructible, unless you took a 141 b hammer to it.

The body, or cage, is of heavily chromium-plated stainless steel. Two traditional pillars make a plat-

form to which the reel seating is welded. Three more pillars provide the only other supports for the cage in which the spool sits. The perfectly polished round chromed “wire” of the cage and its pillar-supports is absolutely smooth. You just couldn’t damage either line or leader on it even it you tried. The spool is made of anodised aluminium, and is furnished with a single reel-handle turning on a pin which seems to be welded to the spool.

Does this sound a fairly ordinary, but somewhat heavy fly-reel, so far?

Just hold on. Have you ever lost a screw from a reel? Have you ever had trouble with ratchets, adjustable drags, conversion to right or lefthand wind, sticking reelhandles, over-runs, removal of spools from bodies?

You won’t with this one. First of all, there isn’t a single screw in its construction. So there’s nothing to work loose or drop off. You never have to face that bleak prospect of the reel that falls to pieces while you’re playing your biggest-ever trout.

Strictly speaking, there’s no mechanism in this reel at all. There’s no ratchet, or check. It works in complete silence. Now, is that another disadvantage? Many fishermen couldn’t do without the music of the reel, especially when a running fish makes it, so perhaps reel-silence is not necessarily golden unless you want to keep your whereabouts or the fact that you’re catching fish, quiet. Maybe you’re the kind of fisherman who objects to reel-noise? I know I am. So when I reverse or remove the ratchet mechanism from reels on which this operation maybe performed, I know I’m probably letting myself in for some over-run problems in future. But not with this reel.

You’ve guessed? It’s a magnetic reel. Well, that’s

what it’s called. It’s not actually magnetic in that you can use it as a flybox, but the spindle on which the spool turns is a permanent magnet. The outer end of the magnet firmly holds the spool in position. You just can’t pull the spool out with the reel-handle, although it’s simple enough to break the “seal” once you’ve read the directions.

So there’s a permanent drag built in to the reel. It’s sufficient to make over-runs impossible, but not heavy enough to make winding anything but easy. Trust the Americans to make such a reel and a most attractive packagebuy. It’s in a box which contains the reel itself in a soft bucksin bag, and a spare spool. The spool on the reel is already furnished with 100 yards of 121 b nylon backing. As well as the usual instructional leaflet, there’s a guarantee.

Whoever heard of a guarantee for a reel?

This one’s not for a year, or even 10. It’s a lifetime guarantee. I’m not surprised.

I am surprised, though, that this carefully-pre-preserved magnetic-reel package is probably at least 20 years old. I’m surprised, too, that Deni-son-Johnson, Inc. of Mankato, Minnesota, no longer makes this reel. Maybe Denison-Johnson, Inc., no longer exists. As manufacturers, they obviously never heard that built-in product obsolescence is a condition of survival.

It says on the box that patents" are pending. Did thev ever secure them? Even if they did, they surely didn’t bother about New Zealand. So what about it, some enterprising engineering firm? Make New Zealand a magnetic reel in three sizes and you’ll become the Rolls-Royce of reelmanufacturers. Only, confer at length w'ith fishermen and wholesalers first, and try to reduce reel-weight by about four ounces. And don’t forget the lifetime guarantee. We like that.