When I was a young teenager just starting fly fishing, I remember ogling a pretty blue Perrine automatic fly reel in the sporting goods store display case. I never bought it, or any other automatic reel until a few years ago, when nostalgia inspired me.

I found a brand new-in-the-box Perrine like the one that caught my eye, plus several other used models of other brands; Martin, Shakespeare, Garcia, etc. This week, I stumbled on a very old automatic that was made in my home state and appeared to be in very good condition. It's "The Utica Reel" by Horrocks-Ibbotson. It seems to have been very lightly used. It's a neat old thing, with the name in a old-timey font and the slogan "The Little Finger Does It!" printed on it.

Here's a photo of a slightly more used one on the TroutJourneys.com blogspot: http://troutjourney.blogspot.com/2010/11/little-finger-does-it.html

I took the cover part-way off and flushed out as much of the old lube as I could, cleaned things up and re-lubed it. It seems to work well, but when I put a line on it, I found that after stripping out a dozen or so feet of line, the spring lets loose with a brief clatter and loses its tension.

Is this something I might be able to repair? Could you pinpoint the trouble area or mechanism? I have hesitated to completely disassemble it, mostly because of the greasy mess, but have completely taken apart other automatics for cleaning/re-lubing with no problems encountered. This reel seems to come apart in a different manner than my other automatics and the mainspring didn't want to come off with the cover or come off the spindle so I could get the spool off and examine the clutch mechanism.

Even though I might use it just once or twice, I'd sure like to know it was fully functional.

The other guess (or maybe another way of describing the same part) is that there is a ratchet-type latch that--unless worn or broken--isn't moving freely. It should click into place whenever winding of the spring is stopped. The spring is wound by rotation of the spool when line is stripped, or manually by grasping the cover as if taking the lid off a jar. There is a release mechanism as well that could be stuck, or damaged/worn.

Nice reel. I forget if H-I automatics were contract made for them by Martin, also of Utica.

Nice pics on the site but very poor description reflecting ignorance, disdain or both for fly fishing as it developed in the U.S. Actually, what "doesn't work very well" is a large arbor reel and superduper graphite fly rod for catching 5" trout, sunfish, bass and so on. Or, really, any fish that has no chance of running more than three feet because of its size or the size of the water it is caught in.

Autos suit and "balance" the heavier bamboo and then fiberglass rods of the time. They were popular and used for multiple duty in boats, ponds, and brooks when a reel was mostly a line storage device and fish were played with the line hand and intermittent winding (automatic or manual) to recover line. A drag wasn't needed, and even if somebody thought it was or made good pictures and advertising copy, it still wasn't needed. Neither was a lot of other technobabble high priced equipment, which still isn't in many of the situations where it is used.

Auto reels were inexpensive. As a practical matter, they would probably receive little care and attention, the annual cleaning amounting to a good soak in the bilge water of a boat and a swipe through the pond. The worked until they broke, and then you got another one. Or they worked until they needed a little fixing like adjusting the line trigger, and then they kept working.

All of mine still do and I bet you'll get yours going. viewtopic.php?p=248067#p248113

I've got a bunch of auto's and really enjoy them. A lot of crick fishin is make three casts, zip up the line, fight your way thru the brush to the next spot.....
Also bass fishing in my boat, most casts are fairly short, and I can zip the line back in quickly and get it out of my dog's way. They really like to "help" land fish.

There is a learning curve to fishing them.

To your question...good luck. I have taken apart many, and some I have repaired. Some of them are a mechanical mystery. Mostly, like whrlpool said above, when one broke I grab another.

I do have a box of junkers if you want some parts Best of luck, let us know

I use auto's a lot for pond fishing (bass and bluegills)----they work well around tall grass. They balance older fly rods well. There is a degree of learning with them----you don't want to bring in the fly up to the tip----also with practice you can feather line retrieve. I find some of the mechanics interesting.
Gary

It does the same thing winding with the knob.

I took it completely apart and think I found the trouble... the small cylindrical (looks sort of like a thread spool) piece that sits inside the center of the coiled spring and has two angled "spurs" to catch the end of the coil spring. One spur is broken off. The other should still be able to get the job done, but I'm wondering if the parts are all original... for the coil spring to fully engage the spur in its slot, the end would have to be narrowed so it fits between the two outside edges of the spool and can sink down between them.

It can't do that now, so the spur just barely engages the slot. It is the spring jumping up off the spur that is making the noise and dumping the tension/energy. The spring jumping free, then whirring around and catching the spur again is what probably broke off the second spur.

I could probably fix it by removing the coil spring and narrowing the width of the last half-inch or so. I'm a little leery of taking the spring out. As it is, It works; it just needs to have the spring manually wound once to get the line all the way in. No big deal.

When I get bored and brave, I'll pull the spring off and try modding it.