Mitchell or Spheros, what would you do?

[Knackers]

Hi folks,
I am thinking about upgrading my surf reel and this is my dilemma. I have a Mitchell 499 that I have used for 25 years and apart from the annoying anticlockwise rotation is a pleasure to use and has been trouble free. It has copped the occasional dunking in the surf and the usual wear and tear associated with bait fishing and spinning for tailor and jew fishing but is still going strong. The only thing I have ever replaced is a rotor bearing and added a few shims.
I use 15lb mono and have a spare spool fitted with 30lb braid and all things being equal, expect to get another 20 years out of the Mitchell.
Now living on the coast, I am able to bait fish for tailor and jew regularly and would like my next reel to last at least 10-15 years.

The reel I’m thinking of upgrading to is a Shimano Spheros 14000FB.
Some questions that come to mind are:
Am I likely to get anywhere near the same life out of the Spheros as I am with my Mitchell regarding:
Serviceability. Is the Spheros easily serviced?(I can strip, clean, grease and re assemble my Mitchell in 15 minutes, perhaps with the better technology the Spheros won’t need to be serviced as often, although I service my reels at least 6 monthly)
Durability eg corrosion resistance, parts life etc (Will the Spheros be as trouble free over time as the Mitchell has been)
Will I be able to get replacement parts in 10- 20 years time.
What might the advantages of the Spheros be?

Without going into too many details, I don’t think there’s too much difference between them re weight, line retrieval, and line capacity etc.

My concern is that I don’t want to find I have outlaid $ 260 or so on a new reel to realise the improvement is marginal and I’m not much better off.
I made that mistake 13 years ago and bought a 9500SS Penn which although a great reel gave my back grief as it weighed nearly a kilo and I ended up reverting back to the 499.

Any comments or thoughts welcome, particularly those who have upgraded from another surf reel to the Spheros.

thanks,
Knackers

[nigelr]

Knackers, if you were so inclined, for that money you could score another 499.
Quite a few come up on Ebay, including in the US, though the 499s are more prevelant in Aus. Rare to see even a NIB 499 sell for more than $300.
Just a thought, the classic Mitchell 499 is a simple, durable, effective surf reel and not too heavy either.
Another reel you could consider would be the Daiwa Emblem Pro.
Cheers.

[tunaticer]

I would also consider the Quantum Cabo 50PT spinning reel in that group. Specs are well up in comparison to most of the other brands and models and it is a modest price. Will be my next 6-10kg spinning reel i think.

[metaloid]

I was going to say Fin Nor OFS, but I just checked the specs and it's really heavy... The Daiwa Emblem Pro is a fantastic surf reel, but not one for dunking!!!

I think (I don't have one) that the Spheros would be a no-nonsense replacement for the good 'ol 499.

[stonecold]

Mate.....I purchased a spheros 14000 late last year for spining for jew. So far its been fantastic, smooth drag, casts like a dream, lays line well etc etc etc. However during last weeks fishing the bail wire "fell" out. I dont know what happened but one minute i was casting the next i was subconsciously thinking what the hell is going on here. Put the head torch on the reel to be greated with the wire hanging down. Pushed it back in retreived my lure, packed up and went home. It seems the wire is pushed into the bail roller assembly and held in place with a centre punch. I spoke with Shimano the next night and they said they'd replace the bail assembly. Fantastic reel but it puts a question mark over your 20-25yr time frame

[Cheech]

Mate.....I purchased a spheros 14000 late last year for spining for jew. So far its been fantastic, smooth drag, casts like a dream, lays line well etc etc etc. However during last weeks fishing the bail wire "fell" out. I dont know what happened but one minute i was casting the next i was subconsciously thinking what the hell is going on here. Put the head torch on the reel to be greated with the wire hanging down. Pushed it back in retreived my lure, packed up and went home. It seems the wire is pushed into the bail roller assembly and held in place with a centre punch. I spoke with Shimano the next night and they said they'd replace the bail assembly. Fantastic reel but it puts a question mark over your 20-25yr time frame

Same thing happened to my 4500B baitrunner. Shimano replaced/fixed it and has been fine for the last 3 years.

[Noelm]

A 499 Mitchel, what a reel hey! had a couple (but they got stolen) I used to use them exclusively, but moved onto a Spinfisher after the theft, I used to machine the back of the spool and fit a bearing to stop the "chatter" that happened after a bit of wear and a fast fish was hooked, probably about the simplist drag ever invented, best fish was a 58KG Yellowfin on a 499, hooked while jigging for Kingfish, been looking for another one for years to keep for "old times sake" but they seem to be quite expensive tehse days.

[Noelm]

I forgot, not too sure I remember anything funny about the rotation though. I seem to remember it turned the same way as any other reel.

[Noelm]

Kind of funny now thinkiing back, we used to regularly jig Kingfish over 20KG on the old Mitchels, and all this without 30 ball bearings, 50KG of drag from thermo neuclear drag washers, no braid, just 15KG mono, and jigs with the hooks on the bottom, and not just hooks, but trebles in "normal" strength and not microscope sharpened or anything else, makes you wonder how we ever caught anything isn't after watching TV shows.

[stonecold]

Crack up Noel..I remember those days...and fish scales on your gear was a bloody great thing

[Noelm]

yep, needed a few scales on your gear, we didn't even wear funny gloves without fingers in them, oh for the simple life again, when you could catch a few fish, keep a few, toss away any you did not need, and no one ever called you a radical greenie for tossing them back, or a dam fool redneck killer for keeping a few, using bait was an acceptable way of fishing and using landmarks worked to find your fishing spot, handlines were fine for catching Snapper and Flathead, geees how far have we come hey!

[stonecold]

Mate im sure I read a post on here somewhere a few months back saying something to the effect that it wasnt possible to catch snapper on a handline ;D ....I can still vividly remember the sting of the line cuts in the finger joints.....that was before some smartie discovered bike tubes for finger stalls

[nigelr]

Good point stonecold, big $ these days for a reel that will last 25 years + around the rocks/surf......specialised saltwater reels like ZeeBaas, Van Staal both well over a grand, the French hand-made Bam, hard to obtain and not far shy of a grand......or back to the old reels of the 60's like these!
Cheap, strong, heavy, old tech but with simple maintainance my son will use them after me!8-)
These reels only have one bearing, a stainless roller the size of a 20 cent piece, plus two marine bronze bushes, stainless pinion gear, marine bronze crown gear, tungsten line roller, cast ali bodies, all form the mid 60's when they built them to last more than 5 minutes!
Cheers!

[Noelm]

the beach and rocks open up a whole new kettle of fish when it comes to reels, there is no tougher place to fish than the beach, I dont care how many ball bearings and how many kilos of drag a certain (expensive) reel contains, or how many 50KG GT's someone has caught on one, a cheaper mid range reel is a far better option for the knock about sandy conditions encountered when on the beach or rocks, the simpler the reel the better (enter the Alvey) but the old Mitchels and Shakespears and Gold Diawas are the leaders in this type of fishing, I have two old Shakespear Titan Whiskers (which were the fashion about 25 years ago) and I use them on the beach and rocks all the time, I have wrecked a dozen expensive reels in a few trips, but the old ones just keep on turning, a simple strip down and clean once a year with some simple hand tools and they are good to go for another season.

[Knackers]

Thanks fellas,
I appreciate all your comments. It certainly has given me food for thought. I’m still open to other comments, but at the moment I’m leaning towards sticking to my 499, perhaps because it’s proven itself.

Nigel: I know you love the Mitchells so thanks for your input. Mine is still going strong though. I had thought of the Emblem Pro but wasn’t sure re its ability to cop dunkings and those other issues mentioned, which is inevitable in the surf. Loved the pics of the old reels.

Tunaticer: Thanks for the heads up on the Quantum, It’s one I hadn’t thought of and will follow up.

Metaloid: Good point Thanks for your input.

Stonecold and Cheech: you’ve got me having second thoughts re the Spheros. I think I’ll have to have look at the bail to see if it’s a design fault and if it has been fixed.

Noel M: what a good idea re the bearing set into the spool. I might turn one down myself. Re the annoying rotation. I like to sit the line on my index finger and the 499 rotation goes anticlockwise which means the line comes around behind the index finger and I have to be aware when it comes around to catch it. With a clockwise rotation, the line travels towards the finger and the line automatically runs up my outstretched index finger. This little quirk may not bother other folk.
I assumed most spinning reels are meant to be wound in the left hand and Mitchell used the same components on the 499 and just swapped the bodies over from left to right. Anyone have any thoughts on this? I don’t recall my 498 rotating anticlockwise and my 410 doesn’t either.

Any how tight lines,
Knackers

[Noelm]

I am not too sure how handy you are with machining the spool and stuff, but it is a snap to do, and the bearing that is exactly the right size to fit the shaft and does not have a big outside diameter was from a Victa twin cylinder conrod, now whether you would ever find one these days would be anyones guess, the twin Victa has not been made for years and years, but I would reckon a trip to a bearing supplier with the reel will source something the same, I just found the bearing was a snug fit on the spool shaft, and only needed the spool machined out a tiny bit to be a tight fit, grease the bearing and your set for years of 499 bliss without the chatter, I do believe the 499 pro had a brass bush fitted to stop the problem. Now with all that being said, I am sure there must be a thousand cheapish reels around these days that will be good for beach fishing and almost be disposable after a few seasons.

[nigelr]

Knackers, re you last para, makes sense and would account for the rotation - here is a schematics link in case you need one, there are heaps of Mitchells on here.
http://www.networkdimension.com/gmschematics.htm (http://www.networkdimension.com/gmschematics.htm)
Mitchell made a few RH models, all ending in odd numbers.
I only ever had a 305, long since gone so can't comment on winding directions, but apparently the great majority of intended users wound with the left hand, the RH winders were seen as an aberation, I think! I taught myself to wind left hand when I gave up the Alveys, so I could access the comparatively cheaper and way more abundant large LH wind surf reels.
Cheers.

[Noelm]

As I said way back, I certainly don't remember anything unusualy with the rotation, but then I am a pretty simple guy.