Thread: advice for fishing with old 302/402s

I grew up fishing for crappie with my grandfather, actually, it was more like religion than fishing. We were up well before dawn, we fished almost exclusively with yellow curlytail jigs, and we used Mitchell 300 series reels that were from the 50's and 60's. There wasn't much that could go wrong with those old Mitchell's, and what did go wrong Grandpa could fix in a minute or two (except the massive tangles and knots generated by a 5 year old learning to fish). Anyway, Grandpa isn't around anymore, and last summer I found myself looking at some old mitchells and remembering the time I spent fishing with him as a kid. I ended up buying several 300s and 302's in rough shape and buying parts to return them to a factory original condition. I've never fished the 302's, and I've never caught a king. I'd sure like to though.
Are there any special considerations to be taken with those old Mitchell reels while soaking an ly or other baitfish for kings?

Mono only - easy on the drag, and let them kings run till they ware out.

I did upgrade a few of them to carbon fiber drag washers, but I don't notice a lot of difference in how smooth the drag is. Maybe it will wear in and smooth out with use?

The main problem with some of the older bailed models is the line roller does not work so it's best to use a little larger mono like 20lb. I take it you are familiar with the drag system because most those things are as complicated as Chinese arithmetic. If the reel has a screw at the top the drag knob, tighten the drag all the way then grab the spool and turn it in the opposite direction(I think) to unscrew it from the shaft. If you take it to a tackle shop to have spooled, take in the spool only or they might remove the screw thinking that is how the spool comes off. Check rotation of rotor, some of those reels go backwards so as you reel you will be letting line out. Last thing adding to what Ram said, do not let somebody spool the reel with a lot of tension. Mono stretches and those cast spools will blow up if the line is put on too tight. Trust me, those three things have gotten us into hot water more than once at J&M.

Thanks for the advice John, I started putting line on by hand on one of the bailed 302's last year and stopped when I noticed what it was doing to the line. When it runs across the line roller (that doesn't have a roller) under tension it generated some coils that looked like a slinky from previously limp line. I ended up finding a few manual pick ups (one of them a Mitchell original) and only spooling those models. Managed one of the bailed models, but i ended up making a drill attachment to do it. Not sure if I did it too tight, but now that you mention it I suppose I should check it. I'd hate to have it blow up while I had a fish on!

Good deal.