Thread: mitchell 498 series for pier use?

#r- the 298 is 20 oz. 398 is 24oz (I think)... Hard to gauge size from a picture though.

I've all but decided on the 298 with fireline. I've always been a Mitchell fan. Ever since I was a kid and my grandfather would take me crappie fishing. Still fish as much with current model 300s as I do with my Penns for freshwater striper.

Originally Posted by Pier#r

Back in the early 70s I had a brand new Mitchell 498 for about one day of king fishing on the pier.
Found it extremely 'clunky', clumsy and heavy in my hands for that.
Traded it for a Penn 706 (which I still own and use on occasion ;-)

This !!!! Very Bulky , Heavy, Clumsy reel for a pier with wind loop on the manual issues. I've tried to use mine but a 706, 302, or Van Stahl is way better. The older day not as high as today piers were a lot better for those reels. When piers was say 15' ft off the water instead of now 28' ft.

The new reels look a lot different than the pics I've seen of the old 498 reels. The 298 weighs in around 20 oz

the 298 is a little like the current mitchell 300 if the 300 took steroids and bulked up for football. It's a little bigger than I expected, roughly the size (slightly smaller) and weight of the Penn Pursuit II 6000. It's very smooth, will have the line on it soon but probably wont have it on the pier for a few months. Stripers on the river tomorrow if I'm lucky.

I have the new 498 and so far, love it. I have used it about half a dozen times. I bought it for surf fishing and caught a few bonnet head sharks while in New Smyrna with it; the drag was very smooth on the shark runs. I also switched it over to a shorter medium pole and fished off a dock with it while experimenting with some homemade spider weights on a fast moving salt river and caught some nice sized whiting. I consider it a very smooth operating reel. When it is time for me to retire one of my smaller reels I will definitely take a look at the 298.

Wow. The 498 looks big. Fished the 298 this morning with 1/2 to 1 oz jigs and its great. Very smooth, feels like I could cast and retrieve all day. Spooled with 14 lb fireline and an 8' berkely big game rod made the long casts very easy. Didn't catch any stripers though. I did manage to catch half a dozen white bass using one of the ugly stick inshore select rods and 1/8 oz jigs. Those inshore select rods are nice for the price.

Originally Posted by fordguy

Wow. The 498 looks big. .

That's because it is big. I could not imagine casting and retrieving lures with it unless I wanted arms that looked like Popeye's. For me it is either a live bait set up off a pier or surf fishing in a rod holder. I spooled it up with 17lb Sufix Tritanium Plus.