What kind of a guy actually saves the owner's sheet for a 5 or 10 dollar product? Furthermore, what kind of a guy would know or pretty much figure that this other guy would have saved something like that? On bulldog's hint above, I can't believe I actually located an owner's sheet for the on-off click tuna can Martin reels. To my dismay, this triggered a memory of throwing out the blister pack, so there goes my daughter's second semester college tuition, having shot the value of my 63, which was an SS until I pirated the rim-control spool faceplate and put a regular style one on instead.
Actually, these are just line winders or panfish reels to me. Two years ago, I showed a teenage acquaintance--he was a pretty good hand with a spinning reel--trying fly fishing with an old Martin starter outfit that included a tuna can 63--this kid, I showed him where to toss a black ugly wooly worm into a foamy pocket thick with big brown trout, some closing on 5 pounds. I had already caught several that day and was ready for a different spectacle. After three casts I told him to put it over another foot and the water exploded. It was the first trout he ever hooked on a fly rod, and evidently he didn't know how to get a fish on the reel, or even hand strip one in, which wouldn't have worked too well anyway with a 3 or 4 lb. fish in fast water. Off went the trout steaming down the rapids, the little Martin complaining about it until the trout stopped dead and spun that thing into a tuna can birdsnest. "Pick that line clear," I told him, but the trout decided to rock and roll again, and it didn't look good for the teen when a coil of line tightened his finger into the spool and the fish broke off. He smiled at me and shrugged, knowing he'd still had a thrilling moment and a rare crack at an outsize trout. "You held the rod good," I said, "but I'll have to show you a little more how to handle the line and reel." All in all a pretty good time, better than if I had hooked that fish myself.
Anyhow, other than that field report of Martin history, I don't know that much about the production history, except probably about 1980, the latch reels had a plastic latch cover, and then the reels became "skirted spool," aka palming rim. The coin-screw ones seemed to be around forever.
On your reel, I'm going to guess that the flat washer goes against the spool, and the dished one against the coin screw. I doubt it much matters which side is up, so long as the screw doesn't come off. Put a little plastic wrap over the threads or a dab of rubber cement before you screw it down and it won't come off anyway. For what clues you can derive (felt or leather washers are easy enough to make if you think your reel should have one, but nothing on these reels is very fussy), see the sheets below. Really, so long as the spool spins and the screw doesn't float right off, you're in business.
Posted: 06 Jun 2007, 03:43 • 
