ABOUT THIS ISSUE
The August issue of Angling Echoes focusses on the fishing reel. I have been fascinated by fishing reels since my childhood days when I would disassemble my father’s Mitchell 308 on the dining room table at our cabin, and then struggle mightily trying to put it back together before he found me out. Ever since then, there is nothing more interesting to me than a fishing reel.
This collection of articles centers on fishing reels, their function, and their history. There are three articles included here from the dean of fishing reel historians, Dr. James Alexander
Henshall, spanning almost forty years of his appraisal of the state of reel technology. Having designed a fishing reel himself, it’s clear that Henshall was a genius when it came to reels, as he was with many things.
There are some fascinating appraisals of reels in this collection. The earliest is from “Uncle” Thaddeus Norris, the father of angling writing, who gives his opinion on the state of reels in the 1860s. John James Hardy of the legendary House of Hardy offers up his opinion of the best salmon reels (hint: it’s a Hardy Bros. reel), and William Heddon and James Stolley discuss their (harsh) opinion on the quality of Bronson reels.
Yawman & Erbe, Meisselbach, Martin, and the fascinating reel of Dr. Medley are all automatic fishing reels featured in this selection. We don’t get much history of these reels so it’s good to realize that they were incredibly popular back in the day.
Some of the top outdoor writers are included here, including Perry D. Frazer (noted “how-to” author), Lake Brooks (the pseudonym of A.R. Harding), Samuel G. Camp (of the New York Times), Dixie Carroll (Carroll Blaine Cook, the syndicated outdoor writer), Larry St. John (of the Chicago Tribune), and Sheridan R. Jones, the legendary editor of Outer’s Recreation. All of them offer their own unique take on the fishing reel.
My two favorite pieces from this selection are the wonderful history of B.C. Milam & Son published in Connelley and Coulter’s History of Kentucky. It is a very, very pro-Milam article, and as I’ve just finished a book on their great rival B.F. Meek & Sons, I found their bias even more fascinating.
The second is a newspaper article from 1947 in which the author interviewed Otto Henze (the founder of Penn Reels) about the post-war state of reel production. Fascinatingly, he spelled Henze’s name completely wrong in the article.
And of course, we finish this essay with the correspondence of Mary Kefover Kelly on — you guessed it — fishing reels.
As always, we would love to hear any feedback you have on Angling Echoes. Please email us at anglingechoes@gmail.com with your kind (or not so kind) comments!
A Monthly Collection of Classic & Forgotten Fishing Literature
FISHING REELS (1923) By Dr. James Alexander Henshall … 1
REELS (1864) By Thadeus Norris … 18
REELS OR WINCHES (1867) By Anonymous … 36
FISHING REELS (1889) By Dr. James Alexander Henshall … 21
MARVELOUS INVENTION BY OUR OWN CITIZEN (1898) By Anonymous .. 33
AUTOMATIC COMBINATION FISHING REELS (1899) By Anonymous … 37
REELS AND WINCHES (1902) By Dr. James Alexander Henshall … 40
HENDRYX REELS (1904) By Anonymous … 50
SALMON REELS (1907) By John James Hardy … 52
REELS (1911) By Lake Brooks … 56
FISHING REELS (1914) By Perry D. Frazer … 67
REELS (1915) By Samuel Granger Camp … 81
THE PFLUEGER SUPREME (1919) By Dixie Carroll … 88
REELS (1922) By Wilfrid Louis Foster … 90
BENJAMIN CAVE MILAM AND JOHN MILAM (1922) By Connelley & Coulter … 98
REELS (1922) By Larry St. John … 104
THE FLYMAN’S REEL (1922) by Sheridan R. Jones … 114
HEDDON REELS (1928) by William Heddon and James Stolley … 116
REEL MAKERS HAVE DIFFICULTIES (1947) by Anonymous … 119
LETTERS FROM MARY: THE CORRESPONDENCE OF MARY KEFOVER KELLY (1977) …121
