Mitchell Reel Forum

Hello, I have a 302 that is experiencing problems with the handle hitting the bail wire every few turns. It will get stuck because of how close they are together at the same amount of revolutions of the handle, and the only way to continue reeling is to lift the bail slightly.

This happened sometime after fighting a pretty powerful eel, not sure if that did anything, but my guess was, and I'm not sure if this is possible, maybe the pinyon gear slipped or something? Or maybe on that same day somehow the reel hit something and either the handle or bail wire was bent. The handle looks fine though. I added some photos of the issue, any help on how to fix this would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks, from Okinawa Japan!







Let me know if the photos are not working please.

My bet is that it the bail wire, I've heard of slightly bending it in place.
And no I can't see your pictures.

This was a known problem out of the factory on early full bail 302 reels. The fix was to extend the shoulder on the crank handle to alleviate this. So you either have an early 3O2 handle or the handle or bail wire got bent somehow.

Sandman

Roger on bent bail wire.
So many get dropped, or bent by a gremlin.
Most I ran into just play with the bail wire.
Kinda funny so many reels get bent bail wires.
so simple but people change springs for nothing.
Just remove bottom screw and bails work great, then bend wire where it should be.

Just wondering if you fixed the problem with your reel. I've got a 3-0-2 early model and it has a black rubber bump stop. If that bump stop comes out or disintegrates due to age that will also cause the bail to ride to low and hit the handle. It's the same way for the 3-0-6 reels as well