Anyone have the manual for a Cortland 444 fly reel?

[TimMurphy]

Dear Board,

I recently acquired one of these reels and it's a nice reel but set up for RHW. I simply don't do things that way

I'm sure there is a process for switching it to LHW and if anyone has any knowledge or tips to share I'd appreciate them a great deal.

Regards,

Tim Murphy

 

[RLeep2]

Just a shot in the dark...

I've never seen a "444" reel, but in their day (70's and 80's), I had a half a bushel of Cortland's LTD series graphite reels. To switch the retrieve on that reel, you removed the spool and there was a graphite "washer" for lack of a better word, mounted on the shaft that had indentations on it that fit into the sprocket (or gear thingie with teeth, whatever you call it) that determined the amount of drag. I can't recall whether the washer sat on top or underneath the sprocket. In any even, you flipped this washer up one way for RHR and the other for LHR.

That's all I remember and at my age, that's pretty good...

 

[TimMurphy]

Dear rleep,

Thanks to someone on the fiberglass rod forum I got it figured out.

It's actually quite simple to reverse the retrieve. You hold the reel upside down with the spool removed and tap the reel on a hard surface like a table top.

The drag mechanism is contained in a metal drum. When you tap the reel on the table the entire drum will slip off the spindle and then all you need to do is flip the drag stack over and replace the drag drum.

On my reel the drag stack was kind of stuck and it took a little bit of prying to get it out of the drum. I lubed it lightly and everything is working fine now and back I'm reeling left handed!

Regards,

Tim Murphy