Old CFO Reel Switching from right to left hand retrieve?

I just bought an Orvis CFO Reel from the for sale board, and it is in awesome condition. The seller was very honest, and shipped fast!

The reel is the older style click and pawl drag, and it is set up for right hand retreive. I want to switch it to left hand, and am not sure how to do it. I tried just switching the little triangle clickers from the right to the left, and that seems to work, but the drag is very tight for my tastes. Is the click and pawl supposed to be so tight, or am I just spoiled with those fancy disc drag reels with light start up? Thanks all


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Jude
Late to bed,
Early to Rise,
Guide all day,
Tie more flies!
www.customflys.com

Riverdancer:

Tight is a subjective term but reversing the pawls is the way to do the right hand/left hand conversion. Old timers often times take out one pawl to loosen up things a bit.

I have two 70's vintage CFO's and I love them!

So, I believe I did it the right way. When I say tight, I mean that it is a little to taught to prevent some break offs on the strike of 6x or 7x material with a size 24 midge. Those are pretty exact circumstances, so I'm sure it will be fine for most of my fishing.

So, if I take the right side pawl out. The pawl is the triangle shaped thing right? The drag will be even less at start up?


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Jude
Late to bed,
Early to Rise,
Guide all day,
Tie more flies!
www.customflys.com

Dear Jude,

I tried to find the mamual for my CFO but I couldn't. I'll bet if you call Orvis they can send you directions or at least talk you through it.

Mine is set up for left hand retrieve and it works fine on a one weight with light tippet.

One thing you can try if you have switched things properly and still find the drag too tight is to take a pair of needle nose pliers and carefully compress the drag spring a few times. This will decrease the amount of pressure the spring can apply and reduce the amount of drag.

*** NOTE ***I looked at my reel again. If you hold the reel in the palm of your hand with the spool out and the reel foot in your fingers the triangular pawl on the left side of the spindle should be turned so it rests on it's rounded edge against the spring. The pawl on the right side should be resting on a flat side with the rounded edge pointing towards the spindle.

Regards,
Tim Murphy

[This message has been edited by Tim Murphy (edited 13 August 2005).]

Of course you have the drag knob turned to its lowest setting. The CFO's I have are very light at the lightest setting. By doing what Bamboozle suggests you are taking tension off the spring which should lighten pressure on the existing pawl. I have filed the pawls down with a Diamond Lap hook hone, the kind with the groove. Just lay the pointed part in the groove and hit it a few licks.....the reel I did it on was a $30 LLBean...it worked. I would exhaust every other possibility before I would do that to a CFO.

I scanned my copy of the CFO owners manual. I hope this works.

http://www.myfishingpictures.com/sho...hp?photo=70495

I'm not sure why the photo is not showing up (I've done it successfully before), but you can just right-click on the box with the red "x" in it, and get the URL from the "properties", and copy and paste it into your browsers' address bar.

Jeff

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I work only so that I can afford to fish

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[This message has been edited by Catch 22 (edited 14 August 2005).]

Thanks all,

You've once again shown why this is the best online web site for fly fishing!! I was able to do it right, and I'm excited to try the new reel!


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Jude
Late to bed,
Early to Rise,
Guide all day,
Tie more flies!
www.customflys.com