A depository for information on the history of fishing tackle.

I will be at the Romsey Tackle Fair this sunday details below.

March 8th 2009 – The Romsey Tackle Fair, Romsey, UK

Romsey Community School, Greatbridge Road, Hants, SO518ZB

9am – 3pm, £2 entry, Tables £30, free parking, refreshments/tea/coffee/fresh rolls available

For more information contact Steve Draper

Email: stevethecreel@hotmail.co.uk, Tel: 02380 739921

I was asked if I was interested in doing a book review for Classic Angling, I was and it was published in issue 63 January 2010.

Click on the thumbnails for a better view.

Book review

Book review

There has recently been much discussion on the Ustonson reel featured in Graham Turners book Fishing Tackle The Ultimate Collectors Guide. Graham Turners view was expressed in Classic Angling. In the next issue they published an article by Micheal Brabin expressing his views and this was followed by Roger Still two months later.

[Read more →]

Mullocks next auction will take place at the Clive Pavillion Ludlow on Saturday 20th March with 780 lots of tackle.

I was speaking to a friend recently who was looking to collect something “different”, well he could start with a Walker Bampton Wallace Watson reel. These unusual reels sell for anything between £200 and £300 and I think there are only three models to collect.

Wallace Watson Reel

 For further details and the online catalogue follow the link below.

Mullocks Auction

James William Young

James William Young was born in Redditch in 1870. His father William Young joined the firm of Samuel Allcock in 1874 as a tin maker. In addition to making boxes and cans he also made the tin lining for packing cases.

Three months after his arrival he was the company’s principle reel maker. However because of his tinsmith duties he would often come into work at three o’clock in the morning to make the various tins, boxes and other items required of him before starting on the reels.

[Read more →]

In the 1907 catalogue the model 413 had changed sizes to fall in line with the rest of the reel models, as per the list in the first part of this article. This reel was a single action model and in later years would be called the Cascapedia, named after the North American River. This was also the name that Hardy Brothers would use for their ebonite multiplier introduced in the 1930’s. [Read more →]

I recently bought a quantity of reels at Angling Auctions for a friend. He was only interested in two of them and so we came to an agreement regarding the other four. Three were nothing special but one was intriguing.

Called the Expert it was made by the River Company in Gothenburg Sweden, this company was in turn owned by Malte Blohm.

The River Expert Reel

I started to play around with the reel and eventually decided to dismantle it. What I found was amazing and gradually I formed an opinion of how it worked. After cleaning and reassembling the reel I thought it was time to put some line on and try it out. [Read more →]

Some time ago  I wrote a piece about Tunny fishing and Mitchell-Henry. I have continued to research Big Game fishing and in the last eighteen months I have twice come across a reel that intrigued me.

The reel is a size 6/0, 4¼ inches diameter, and capable of holding 600 yards of line. This size is just about big enough to be called a big game reel.

Mitchel- Henry Reel

 
The first time was at the Moor Allen auction last February. I decided to leave a bid on it and check it out fully when I had won the item. [Read more →]

The final event of the year will take place as usual at the Abbey Sports Stadium Redditch on Sunday 22nd November. There will be plenty of table with lots of tackle for sale in a wide range of prices.

For further details of the fair contact John Andrews tel 07980 274 383 or email johnandrews@btinternet.com

This Saturday Mullocks autumn sale will take place at the Clive Pavilion Ludlow racecourse. There will be 800 lots of tackle with many fine and rare examples for those who have deep pockets.

As usual there will be tables traders there for Friday and Saturday. I look forward to seeing many of you there.

For more information follow this link.

Farlow Biliken Reel

Lot 68 a Farlow Biliken reel in fitted wooden case.