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Martins
Post 28 Sep 2020, 17:10 • #1 
Guide
Joined: 05/05/18
Posts: 127
Location: US-VT

Some cleaned up Martins. 65 66 67a I really enjoy everyone’s tips on cleaning and tinkering on these old reels. I love the simple design as well.


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Re: Martins
Post 28 Sep 2020, 20:09 • #2 
Sport
Joined: 11/08/13
Posts: 72
Location: Milroy Pennsylvania
Nice collection of Martins you have there VT. Thanks for sharing. Since we’re remembering the sixties, here’s a 63.


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Re: Martins
Post 28 Sep 2020, 20:39 • #3 
Guide
Joined: 05/05/18
Posts: 127
Location: US-VT
Ohhh that’s a beauty!! How do you like the 63?


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Re: Martins
Post 28 Sep 2020, 20:49 • #4 
Sport
Joined: 11/08/13
Posts: 72
Location: Milroy Pennsylvania
It’s a fun little reel though I admit it’s simple clicker is not ideal for handling larger trout; not after using a Marquis for many years. But I learned to control the first run of a decent fish by fingering the line against the grip. This reel is my wife’s childhood reel. She caught many bluegills using it back in the seventies.


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Re: Martins
Post 29 Sep 2020, 19:06 • #5 
Guide
Joined: 05/05/18
Posts: 127
Location: US-VT
That is awesome!! I have a marquis as well!


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Re: Martins
Post 05 Oct 2020, 10:02 • #6 
New Member
Joined: 12/11/19
Posts: 21
Location: Inland Empire - CA
A Martin 65 was my first reel, and I still have it, along with many other Martins in my collection. I routinely use an MG-3 for small creek fishing.


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Re: Martins
Post 07 Jan 2021, 19:45 • #7 
New Member
Joined: 10/01/14
Posts: 22
Location: Sweden
Image

My Martin Classic.


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Re: Martins
Post 08 Jan 2021, 19:39 • #8 
Guide
Joined: 12/28/19
Posts: 129
I love the Martins . A 63 was my first reel and I still have it and a few others .


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Re: Martins
Post 09 Jan 2021, 13:22 • #9 
Guide
Joined: 05/22/16
Posts: 159
Location: US-Eastern KY
Love my MG 7s. This reel is a great match for the Fenglass 5 wt. and the FF75.


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Re: Martins
Post 10 Jan 2021, 09:33 • #10 
Master Guide
Joined: 08/03/14
Posts: 945
Location: central AR
Glad to see some Martin love. I used a MG3-SS on a Phillipson Master on my last trip of 2020.
I am a big fan of all the helical spring drag Martins, probably own more than a dozen from 67s up to the LM series.


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Re: Martins
Post 20 Jan 2021, 15:41 • #11 
Guide
Joined: 12/07/17
Posts: 128
Location: Long Island, NY
I am changing my view point and maybe I am missing something here but I think the reason Martins never commanded a higher level of respect was that their Aluminum frames, side plates and spool were too soft and easily bent especially the SS models Forget it you accidentally drop one. Out of the box they are great but they don’t hold up to years of use and punishment. Their mechanicals were cleverly designed but who ever supplied or procured the aluminum struck out. There are better reels out there that pass the test of time, Pfluegers come to mind. I also think the individual spindly spindles are strong but their base plates which they screw into are weak and deform easily putting the spindle out of dead center and being one cause of frame rub a typical malady of these reels. I can see how the allure of NIB Martins has proliferated but buying used Martins is a waste of time. A DIY reel mechanic working on Martins would need further training as a machinist in flattening warped surfaces.


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Re: Martins
Post 20 Jan 2021, 17:08 • #12 
Guide
Joined: 05/22/16
Posts: 159
Location: US-Eastern KY
Interesting outlook on the Martin reels, Radding. This is one of the reasons I do like my Martins. If dropped and bent I find it fairly easy to bend back in shape with a little patience and a bench vise. I also think the softness of the aluminum will absorb impact better than some harder alloys and certainly better than a cast reel. I'll keep using my Martins.


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Re: Martins
Post 20 Jan 2021, 18:41 • #13 
Glass Fanatic
Joined: 04/20/07
Posts: 8920
Location: US-ME
Like cjtarbox said. Plus if you like use-and-abuse style, you could buy four or five of them to beat up and fix for less than the cost of a machined or cast reel to ruin once for good.

Manufacturing and user philosophy, not quality. People used to fix on things and maintain them. Amply strong in use, strength achieved partly through contour and relationship of parts. Easy to replace parts at low cost. CNC machining, as it became cost effective and eventually, inexpensive, obviated some of this philosophy. Martin also made excellent machined reels. But try dropping any machined reel and imparting a slight bend, chipping it, or breaking the intergral foot. Now the single piece frame, let's say, needs replacement, so you might as well buy another reel. The "part," if available at all, isn't cheap to replace, especially because many machined product lines are only produced for a few years. On a screw-assembled Martin, Pflueger, or several others, the side plate or foot is the sacrificial part, takes the damage, and the stronger pillars remain sound, so the integrity of the structure is still there. The damaged part--whether straightened or replaced--fits and the reel is reassembled good as new. Like Pflueger, Martin parts were available for decades, and interchanged among multiple models.


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Re: Martins
Post 20 Jan 2021, 19:41 • #14 
Glass Fanatic
Joined: 08/25/08
Posts: 1526
Location: Delton, MI
Radding wrote:
their Aluminum frames, side plates and spool were too soft and easily bent especially the SS models Forget it you accidentally drop one.


Quite the opposite. Spend $20 on a stamped reel, drop it, it bends, bend it back or if it’s bad get another. Been there, done that. Spend $300 on a cast or machined reel, drop it, it cracks, ain’t fixing that, go buy another one. Yikes. Been there, done that.

Break a flat spring, you’re done, break a coil spring, it still partially works. Break a flat spring, expensive to replace, break a coil spring , go find a pen with no ink.

Funny how people see the same thing and walk away with a very different mindset. I like my nice reels but give me a Martin any day. I’ll be extremely grateful. And I highly recommend them to beginners especially. They are worthy of all the praise they get and more.


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Re: Martins
Post 21 Jan 2021, 09:45 • #15 
Guide
Joined: 12/07/17
Posts: 128
Location: Long Island, NY
Good points all and my condemnation of Martins came from frustration on not being able to find and repair spool or frame rub on an LL Bean Angler DS, Trophy SD 910 and 71SS.


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Re: Martins
Post 21 Jan 2021, 11:56 • #16 
Glass Fanatic
Joined: 08/25/08
Posts: 1526
Location: Delton, MI
I’d say you’ve had extremely bad luck to experience the same exact problem with three reels from the same manufacturer or you need to stop buttering your bread with your fingers:-)


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Re: Martins
Post 21 Jan 2021, 18:48 • #17 
Piscator
Joined: 08/10/05
Posts: 19078
Location: downtown Bulverde, Texas
I've straightened out a few of them, and the SS reels are more prone to it than the cage reels.
Martin spindles are kind of spindly.


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Re: Martins
Post 22 Jan 2021, 00:52 • #18 
Guide
Joined: 12/07/17
Posts: 128
Location: Long Island, NY
Crusty I use a knife but not the same exact problem. The ll Bean Angler DS was dropped on a concrete floor, the Trophy DS910 was bought on eBay and came with dents in spool, maybe missing parts and a bad diy job on the handle and the 71Sss has taken years of abuse in sand, rocks and salt water.


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Re: Martins
Post 22 Jan 2021, 08:28 • #19 
Piscator
Joined: 08/10/05
Posts: 19078
Location: downtown Bulverde, Texas
shop better?

There was a guy on B-R forum complaining about the line roller binding up on his 12-y-o Shimano spinning reel.
I don't like Shimano's line roller, and I replace every one of them with a spendy better design part, but after 12 years of use and neglect, even I'm going to give Shimano a bye on that one.

My dad's pet peeve on television commercials was when they showed a product suffering through and surviving abuse that was totally non-sequitur for its intended use. He would have said, when I want a reel to throw like a shotput, I'll buy your brand.


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Post 13 Feb 2021, 15:55 • #20 
Guide
Joined: 12/07/17
Posts: 128
Location: Long Island, NY
Spins like a top , drag as smooth as silk


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Re: Martins
Post 14 Feb 2021, 04:40 • #21 
Master Guide
Joined: 07/12/17
Posts: 390
Location: SW B.C.
Excellent points, Radding! This is from somebody who has a pile of Martins and uses them more than any other brand. For example, the MG-7 is perfect for most of my 7'6" rods. I can love them and acknowlege their shortcomings, such as the fact that the naked brushed aluminum oxidizes terribly the first time the reel sees water. There are only two finishes for Martin reels—NIB and tarnished. :)


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Re: Martins
Post 19 Apr 2021, 21:19 • #22 
New Member
Joined: 02/19/21
Posts: 8
Personally, I kinda have very little respect for the Martins. Some of the designs are good. I like the drag design on the SS's especially but the reels were so cheaply made just too many compromises with materials. They used a lot of iron on these reels they actually will rust.. I have sold a few of the anti-reverse reels they made and don't understand why they command high prices, the quality standards are just the same as the other Martins I have seen. Locally the lifters, a form of snagging used on the Lake run rainbows and steelhead in their spawning tributaries first developed on the NYS finger lake tribs, could always be spotted with their Martin 72's and Fenwick 8 1/2' 10 weights. The Martins were lined with 20 lb. monofilament and the largest split shot and largest legal hook that had a bit of sponge on it or not. I hated those guys with a passion so I might have a bit of prejudice against those Martins.


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Re: Martins
Post 20 Apr 2021, 03:21 • #23 
Administrator
Joined: 01/10/06
Posts: 7811
Location: Holly Springs, NC
Actually, the inexpensive punched construction with common parts across many reels was part of the genius of the Martin (they were not unique in this regard). As whrlpool mentions above several Martins could be purchased for less than one Hardy. In their heyday, Martin parts were available and the reels were repairable. If not, it was not a great financial loss. A new fly fisherman can learn a lot with cheap tackle. Still, a little oil and care goes a long way.


Tom


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Re: Martins
Post 20 Apr 2021, 06:34 • #24 
Piscator
Joined: 08/10/05
Posts: 19078
Location: downtown Bulverde, Texas
It would be erroneous to say Hardy never produced an ill-thought reel.
This one was ill-thought from its you're-kidding-me poor function to its embossed politics brushing aside the King who would lead Britain through WWII.
(and what's with the plastic latch cover that looks like a little castle - rhetorical)
Image Image

Sticking to Martins that haven't been thrown against the wall.
Image Image
Image Image

While I personally have no use for any caliper-clicker reel (v. clockwork click-pawl), tough to deride the striking good looks of the M-68.
The M-72 is handsome in its own right, and hard to argue with its function for cost ($35 when new in the '80s).
Image Image


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Re: Martins
Post 20 Apr 2021, 11:56 • #25 
Guide
Joined: 12/07/17
Posts: 128
Location: Long Island, NY
Right Bulldog hard to argue with their cost. I picked up a 71SS in the eighties for around 35 and it’s still going but some some of the rivets holding handle and clicker corroded away and have been replace by small stainless machine screws. eBay has inflated their value but some Martins bought there recently at a good price and barely used including an MG72, MG10, Trophy SD 1213 and 77WS work perfectly and are incredible gems


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