Spinning reel with no drag? Why?

[Brian Goldsmith]

I purchased a Shimano MLX 300 quickfire reel from a garage sale, thought it would be a good to put on a rod I had lying around to use when I had friends come to visit, Anyway I set it up with 30lb braid and took it out on a trip to the nearby islands. The first fish I hooked just snapped me off as I had'nt checked the drag setting....but wait, the reel has no drag mechinism!! only a pin through the shaft to locate the spool!! Am I missing something? What are these reels made for? Kites? not for my type of fishing thats for sure.

It only cost me $11.00 so I'm not worried about that, I'm just curious to know what it's intended use is/was???

Any ideas...anyone??

Edited December 3, 2012 by Captain Jack

[rockfisherman]

I googled some images, and they seem to have some sort of drag knob on the front of the spool, does yours look like it has one?

Post a pic if you can.

Fishingphase

[ron.c]

it's a bloody old reel you will be very lucky to get any parts for it now. and yes it does have a front drag.

have a look here.http://www.nutterrodandreel.com/pdf/Shimano/1987/mlx-300.PDF

[Brian Goldsmith]

Ron c, Thanks for the link, I had a look, mine is almost the same, except for the drag bit! I took some pics, but they were too big to post and I don't know how to make them smaller.....I uploaded them to Youtube instead.

Take a look and tell me what you think, you can see the pin in the shaft that locates the spool onto the shaft, and you can see in the first pic that there is no rear drag.Also, the spool is definatly one piece, there is no drag mechinism in the spool. I'm taking it to a bloke I work with who once repaired reels at a takle shop to see what he thinks...I'll let you know what he says.

These reels were built about 1981.

Edited December 7, 2012 by Captain Jack

[Brian Goldsmith]

Mystery solved!!!

I took the reel to a tackle expert, It seems that sometime in the last 31 years, that the original spool with the drag mechenism was removed and a spool fitted from a rear drag reel. So basicly it has the wrong spool.

[rockfisherman]

So it's a Frankenstein

Fishingphase