I came across an Alvey 50-C1 sidecast reel today at a family run Estate sale. According to the son, his dad wanted to go salmon fishing off a local pier one fall and a salesman at a tackle store talked him into buying this reel. Unfortunately I think the guy mounted it on a 6'6" medium spinning rod which was a total mismatch for this large spool reel. Supposedly he never used it after that day (and it looks like pretty much brand new). So my question is, what would be some good options in a rod/blank and usage for this reel? According to the owners manual the spool diameter is 110mm.

I'm trying to decide if I should build something for this or sell it; I think it will be a tough sell in my market.

[www.alveyusa.com]

A nice 10 foot salmon float rod would be a perfect match for this reel.

Roger

John, i used my Alvey for extreme distance casting to carp and similar long cast styles of fishing.
I used a 12 ft blank for it. I could have gone 14 .
Treat guide setup like a massive spinning reel setup.
You could get one of those 2 piece Steelhead blanks from Utmost at around $40 then you could play around until you work out how those reels work. Then do a final build that suits how you want to fish it.

Some hard learned tips:
ALWAYS put a swivel in your trace with an Alvey you cannot get a more twist prone rig.
Your line choice drives guides more than most other rigs due to twist and larger spool diameter.
You may want to opt for a flexible braid type line with a short top shot of mono to cast with around 20 ft or so. Make that 10 lbs of test for each oz of weight you cast. You need mono under your thumb to cast or you WILL get cut the first time something fouls up.
Expect amazing casting distance when you get it right though.
Expect each retrieve to be like re-spooling your line with an unhappy fish on the end.
Look at some you tube shots of the casting before you settle on a handle, its different.

Lou,

I've had a chance to do some basic research and it looks like the rear grips tend to be 7 1/2" or so and the fronts a little longer at maybe 9"? Distance to the first guide seems extremely long, I'm thinking high frame rings for sure. I take a trip out to Truro/Ptown every year in August, but have never fished from the surf. I might consider a build for that if the beaches there are productive at that time (I've never seen anyone surf fishing when I'm on vacation). So 12-14 ft... hmm... definitely not my usual type of build.

Roger,

I thought of that but I have more rods of that type than I know what to do with. But thatnks for the idea, that is what I asked for.

Get the highest frame guides you can with the largest ring diameter for the first two guides from the reel.

Using the 27X method and a spool diameter of 110mm places the choke at about 9’9”. That means with the Alvey recommended short rear grip of 7-8” you need 10’6” blank just to place the choker at the tip of the blank. An Alvey contact is recommending at least a size 40 first guide but a 50 may be in order here. To get proper loading and stress distribution over that distance, am I looking at (for instance) a set comprised of Fuji TKWAG 50 or 40, TKLAG 30, 25, 20, 16, 12, TKTAG 10, 8 and tip for a 10’6” rod? Of course some more runners for a longer rod would be necessary. Could I realistically consider fewer than this for a guide reduction that stretches out 9’9” in length? I know I'm hitting all just about all the sizes here...

The Alvey reels were specifically designed for surf fishing in Australia using 12 to 14' surf rods to achieve very long casting distance. I made 3 of them, but friends and in-laws talked me out of them. Since I made them for myself I didn't keep records of guide size or spacing. I know that I used size 50 stripper guides on all of them, and they were 12 to 13' in length. Fun to use!! They also talked me out of the reels!!

John,
handle lengths on surf rods are a cultural thing for the most part. They are chosen because somebody else has one like that not for practical reasons.
My observations: US surf rods have handles too long very uncomfortable for me to fish but great to cast.
South Africans have short handles making it harder to get maximum casting distance unless you have the muscles of a rugby player. Very comfortable to fish but very hard to cast.
Aussies have a sort of midway between the two, great for casting so so for fishing to my mind.
So build what works for you as a handle is all i can say.
But if you never tried it get a fishing belt, take out that gimble bar, strap on a knife a small belt bag with a spare hook, weight, bait or lures and start prowling the beach with that. You will be amazed how much more comfortable it is. In that style your reel when butt is in the cup of the belt should be where its comfortable for you, about heart height works for me.

If i was playing with guide layouts,here is one i would try out just to see how it works: Put a large surf type hula hoop/ stainless of around 60 or 70 mm at around 20 inches in front of the reel.
Then one of those large Microwaves from swampland (the 30 mm ones) about 19 -20 inches in front of that. Then the tamer guide from the microwave in a direct line of sight to your first running guides/chocker ( maybe a 6 or 7 minima fly). Space those 2 out over about 16 to 18 inches. Get the rings of guides 2 3 and 4 perfectly inline.Then static distribute minimas to the tip of your chosen blank.. Tape it up and test where you have lots of space.

If transportation is a problem or worry over damaging those large guides, I would go with large dia. folding guides. I did that on two rods, and they worked very well. Maybe some of our Aussie pals can input their knowledge here.

G'Day John It's been a while since I made a rod for the Alvey reel & if my memory serves me correctly I used a lower grip of 6"-7" & a stripper guide of 40mm mounted about 1/2 way up the blank & the rest using the Cone of flight method .All the suggestions made by others are certainly worth trying & if you want to see some in action just do a web search for "Fraser Island fishing where you will see dozens of blokes lined shoulder to shoulder fishing for Tailor

Regards Baz

Bundeena
NSW Australia

Good post Baz!! Knew we could count on someone from Down Under!! :>)

Hi John,
Not an Alvey fisho or builder but a lot of Aussie beach fisho's swear by them. They are really good for casting light or unweighted baits a long distance. Lou has got most of it, definitely use the best swivel you can lay your hands on or you will get a lot of line twist. Most Aussie rods have got a big stripper, 40 or 50 about half way up then cone of flight as Barry indicated. Lou's idea of a big microwave for the second guide has a lot of merit and would definitely work as well as saving weight on the upper half of the rod. Being in direct control of a fish with a 1:1 reel has a lot of merit. The things are basically bullet proof and a lot of guys maintenance consist of a wash in SALT water when they get some sand in them and nothing else. I would be washing mine in fresh if I owned one!!

ESFNEM Col
Port Kembla, NSW
Australia

Hi guys. I'm missing something. I am assuming the alvey reels rotate so that you wind in very much like you do on a fly reel. If that's not correct, then my question is moot. However if that assumption is correct and the line comes straight into the reel as on a fly reel or even a baitcaster, where is the line twist coming from?

G'day George the line twist comes from the cast .You flick a lever & rotate the reel 90deg. to the axis of the rod so that when you make the cast the line comes off the reel in big coils . When the cast is completed you flick the reel back to the fighting position the line comes back in a straight line. If you don't have a swivel or 2 on the line you will eventually finish up with a line that is completely useless .

Also I should have added in my first post a gimble belt or rod bucket should be considered

Regards Baz

Bundeena
NSW Australia

Thanks Barry.

Barry, the amount of folks in the states that that use a bucket or belt while fishing from the beach is low.

My idea for an Alvey guide layout partially comes from Alvey themselves: back in the 60's there was a version of the Alvey that had a 100 or 150 mm ring attached to the frame and it sat about 10 inches in front of the reel. It tamed the coils going out( we used maxima back then and it was STIFF).
It also helped with retrieval and line laying which has its own peculiarities on an Alvey.
They were not popular for many reasons but i used one with a English sourced highframe match style guide after that first ring: I got close to 200 YARDS with that rig with a 2 oz weight plus bait.

Not sure what is driving the current Alvey rod builds where anything up to 6 ft of line is flapping around before the first contact with a guide.
I reckon a bit of testing and modern guide technology and those reels could get dramatically more distance than they already do.

G'Day Lou I remember the reels with with a ring attached but they were out of fashion when I started to build .The reason I suggested a rod bucket or a gimble belt is to take some of the strain off your back & arms .In those days if i wanted a smoke the rod was supported with the rod bucket that I used . when you wandered up & down the beach casting & retrieving all day the certainly helped .If your fishing style was to jam the rod into the sand & sit under a tree you didn't need one .The type of rod thst I built was very species specific (ludrick) where you used a Butterworth (MT3144) blank which is a multi taper 3 wrap & 144" in length .The other one I built few of which were Butterworth "MT5144) targeting the black drummer .I think you could be right about trying the modern technology but I am getting too old to climb down to the rock platforms at the bottom of the cliffs that are a feature of the sydney coastline

Regards Baz

Bundeena
NSW Australia

John, when you do your guide test setups, try going with a 50, 30, 20, 12, then 8's the rest of the way out.

Chris,

That is actually what my initial thoughts were, until I worked out the choke point.

On another point, I have noticed looking at a lot videos over the past few days that almost all the pros seem to be using larger models. Even the larger models have a low retrieval speed; at some point Alvey introduced a new handle design where the two knobs are at different distances from the enter shaft. This creates a sort-of two speed handle, one for power, one for 30% more speed (or maybe 30% less effort for the same unladen speed may be more accurate). Being that this is comparatively a small spool i don't think this would make a reasonable plug casting reel. This may be why the original owner used it once. It just has too slow a retrieval speed for many applications.

I've also been looking over some of the reviews of the various CTS, Century, and Lamiglas offerings (mainly the new Infinity series). So, It looks like if I go ahead with this, I'm realistically limited to a bait fishing rod. It would have to be a two piece blank as this would be a vacation only rod and must travel well. I suspect that I would have more opportunities to fish from sandy beaches as opposed to a rod more sited to fishing from rock outcroppings.

Would anyone like to suggest some specific blanks and your reasoning and/or personal experiences?

Hi John,
I've got no idea of the conditions or species you guys chase off the beach and I'm not an Alvey fisho but I have a bit of an idea. If you are going to be throwing light weights then a slow rod that bends a long way down is better. If you are throwing a heavy weight then a much faster blank can be used. Most Aussie blanks for Alveys are in the 12 - 14 foot range. I prefer beach rods to be 10 foot which is another reason why I don't use them but a lot of Queenslanders would sooner part with their spouse than their Alveys.

ESFNEM Col
Port Kembla, NSW
Australia