Garcia Mitchell 307 Service

[emjay]

Hi all


Thought I would share this service that I did on this old reel. This reel belonged to my girlfriend's late grandfather, who was an avid fisherman. The reel was kindly given to me by my girlfriend's mother, who had fond memories fishing with her father. It would therefore have been a shame to toss this reel, or forgot about it in a cupboard, longing for days of salty air. These reels are apparently hard to kill, were made in France, were of good quality and were well-loved by the fisherman of way back in the day. This was before instant anti-reverses and even before silent anti-reverses! The clicking sound this reel makes when you turn the handle is because of the anti-reverse clicking, like a multiplier. You also can't really close the bail manually, as it locks in place, and have to turn the handle for the bail to close automatically. The rotor also turns anti-clockwise, which was a Mitchell thing, unlike modern reels today that have the rotor turn clockwise. Also, the line rollers on these reels never actually rolled much at all when line passed over them, and yet people still managed to fish with them. There is also the 306, which is basically the same as the 307, however the 306 has the handle on the left hand side. There is a version of 307 called the 307A, which is slightly different in parts and has a different line lay system to the 307.

I have never opened up an old spinning reel like this before and was keen to take it apart, give it a good service and bring it back to life.


Schematics are available on the internet

On with the service:

[emjay]

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[emjay]

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[emjay]

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[emjay]

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[emjay]

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[emjay]

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[emjay]

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[emjay]

As this is an old school reel, I thought I would stick to old school things with it. I will load it with good old 7kg Maxima Ultragreen line and will attached the reel to an old school 11ft, one piece rod with cork handles and metal reel seat, which I will also restore. The setup will indeed be used to catch fish once again

[ianf]

Always nice to watch someone who is passionate about what they are doing. I tend to get too frustrated by all the fiddley bits and pieces, especially when I think there was no logic involved in the design (like when you have to replace a headlight globe on a car). Rather pay someone to do it for me. But a great read! Well done

[emjay]

Thanks!

[fishatic]

Emjay,
There are a number of US anglers that replace the bail with a P.U.M set up - manual pick-up, no bail. Just a thought

[emjay]

Emjay,
There are a number of US anglers that replace the bail with a P.U.M set up - manual pick-up, no bail. Just a thought

While researching this reel I noticed that. Maybe one day I'll do it, maybe not on this reel though. It will get used but not often enough for me to modify it, however I did find out that the bail springs on these Mitchells have a tendency of breaking, which would make a manual pick up more attractive