History – 1760 to 1815
During the late 18th century and the early 19th century, reels were used in other European countries, but the British Isles became a fishing reel manufacturing center. No Colonial or American reel manufacturers operating prior to about 1815 have been identified.
The earliest British reels were made of brass and often contained permanent clicks (also called “checks”). A click provides resistance to a running fish and also alerts an angler if a fish began to run with a bait. An angler could not cast a bait directly from a reel with a permanent click but would have to pull line off of the spool prior to a cast, much like a modern fly reel. The first multiplying reels, which used gears to increase the rotational speed of the reel spools, were probably invented in the mid-18th century, possibly by an English craftsman named Onesimus Ustonson.
By the early 19th century, some reels were being built with frictional spool brakes or stops, which could be switched on and off with a lever, and which further constrained the potential backward motion of the spool. The downside of a spool stop (which literally stops the rotation of a spool) is that if a big fish is on the line and the stop is thrown on, the fish can break the line.
These early reels, often called winches, were attached to rods using fine leather bindings, clamps, or spikes, which extended through a hole in the rod handle.
History – 1816 to 1865
During this period, the fishing reel became an integral tool in delivering a bait and playing a fish. This was also when some of the most important fishing reel features were introduced. The manufacture of reels began in the United States, so that increasing numbers of sports fishermen there would no longer have to use imported British reels. Domestic manufacturing began in New York and Kentucky.
Brass British reels from this time period look similar to earlier reels, but there is an important design change. Very few multiplying winches from this time period had permanent clicks. This meant that a bait could be cast directly from the reel, albeit not as smoothly or easily as from the best engineered contemporary American reels.
In the 1830s and 40s, free-running, wooden spool, single action reels from which line could be directly cast began to gain popularity in England. Called “Nottingham reels,” after the city where the wood-spool reel manufacturing was initially located. They have remained popular in the British Isles for over 175 years.
The earliest known reel maker in the United States was a Kentucky silversmith named George Snyder. He and his sons made smooth-casting multiplying reels, beginning around 1815. Those reels inspired the birth of a small industry in the Bluegrass region of Kentucky that crafted exquisite and widely renowned casting reels for nearly a century. Most of these reels are 4-to-1 multipliers: one rotation of the handle rotated the spool four times. Most have clicks and/or simple spring brakes and single-knobbed dog-leg handles. The inclusion of a frictional brake (or “drag”) instead of a stop is important because it allows the angler to fight the fish with less concern of the fish breaking the line.
Meanwhile, machinists and clockmakers in New York City also began to make fishing reels around 1830. What we now call “New York-style reels” were generally heavier than their contemporaneous British counterparts. Like their Kentucky counterparts, the New York multiplying reels were designed to facilitate smooth casting and playing a fish. New York gearing couldn’t compare to Kentucky gearing. Almost all of the early New York multipliers had a 2-to-1 multiplying ratio: one rotation of the handle rotates the spool two times. The cranks of both single-action and multiplying reels were often counterbalanced. Many used spherical counterweights on straight cranks, and these reels are referred to as “ball-handled reels.” Other balanced cranks were serpentine, or “S-shaped.” Most of these reels were made without brakes or clicks except on special order. As the popularity of fishing grew over the decades, reel production in New York and other northeastern states increased.
Some of the important reel design features that first appear in American reels during this period include:
- Jeweled bearings and bushings at pivot points in reels to facilitate smoother and longer cast (designed apparently independently by Snyder or his sons in Kentucky and John Conroy in New York, between the 1820s and 1850s)
- Disengaging the crank from the spool during casting (“free spool”) to facilitate smoother and longer casts (John Conroy, during the 1830s)
- Adjustable spool brake (John Conroy, during the 1840s)
- A lightweight, well-ventilated reel designed to facilitate line preservation (William Billinghurst, from Rochester, New York, in 1859)
- Plated reels to protect against corrosion (multiple New York reel makers prior to 1860).
- A “level wind” device to evenly distribute line on the reel spool during line retrieval (Mark Palmer, from New Bedford, Massachusetts, in 1860)
By the end of this period, American-made freshwater and saltwater reels, both single-action and multiplying, made of brass or nickel silver, were available to fisherman all over the country and were being promoted internationally.
History – 1866 to 1900
Fishing reels diversified and became more specialized for different types of fishing during this time period. Reels were made with a widening variety of construction materials. Although brass and nickel silver continued to be used for major components, makers plated more of their brass reels with nickel. Hard rubber—corrosion-resistant and very light—was used to construct portions of reel frames and crank knobs. Towards the end of the period, many high-quality reels had frames constructed of aluminum—light but quite expensive. Reel frame designs evolved; raised pillar reels—in which pillars holding the reel together are attached to nubs on the reel frame—were introduced and became extremely popular. The design allowed for more line on a reel with a given spool diameter.
Manufacturers increasingly designed reels for specific species and fishing techniques. A plethora of new narrow-spool fly reel designs began entering the market during the mid-1870s. In 1881 Loomis and Plumb, from Syracuse, New York, introduced a spring-loaded, automatic fly reel that retrieved line with the press of a lever. In the late 1880s and early 1890s Edward Vom Hofe introduced a series of nickel-silver and hard-rubber trout and salmon reels that were the standard by which fine quality fly reels were judged.
“Kentucky-style” multiplying bass reels—copies of handmade reels from the Bluegrass region of Kentucky—were produced and sold throughout the U.S. In the mid- to late 1890s, two commercially successful bass reels with level-winding capability were introduced—a sign of things to come. With population and tourist growth in Florida and the Gulf Coast, saltwater multiplying reels were produced and marketed for tarpon fishing.
With improvements in American infrastructure, manufacturing equipment, and delivery services; fishing reels became more accessible and affordable to the public and, as a result, more popular. Fishing reels had been mass produced in England and exported since the mid-1800s. In the 1870s, mass production of American-made reels commenced. Many reel makers ran large manufacturing plants: in 1889, Malleson employed 140 factory workers (which included reel, rod, and bow manufacturing) and Julius Vom Hofe employed 45 workers. Connecticut developed into a reel manufacturing hub which thrived for nearly fifty years. Reelmaking expanded in multiple locations in the Midwest.
Reel innovations were also occurring in Great Britain. Plate wind reels – a single action click reel with the handle knob directly attached to a cover plate – entered the marketplace in the late 1870s and quickly developed broad and loyal proponents worldwide. In 1891, William Hardy, a British gunsmith who morphed to a fishing tackle magnate, introduced the Perfect model one of most revered and smoothest fly reels ever designed and still in production.
British ingenuity was not confined to fly reels. In 1884, Peter Malloch patented his Sidecaster reel, the first commercially successful spinning reel. The Sidecaster facilitated longer and easier casting than contemporary brass multiplying winches and wood Nottingham reels. It gained widespread popularity across Europe and the British colonies, but never really caught on in the U.S.
History – 1901 to 1920
Mass production of fishing reels in the U.S., which commenced in the late 1800s, cranked up a notch during the first few decades, with three large firms Montague, Pflueger, and Shakespeare capturing a lion’s share of the market. As sport fishing increased in popularity, manufacturers produced reels to match all budgets and quality demands. In 1908, a double multiplying casting reel suitable for lobbing a bobber and worm from a dock could be purchased for 35 cents ($12 equivalent today). A quadruple multiplying reel suitable for casting a lure or minnow short to medium distances cost 94 cents ($32.25 equivalent today). But a top-of-the-line handmade Talbot Kentucky-style bass reel, costing $50 ($1,715 equivalent today) was only a pipedream to all but the most affluent anglers.
This was a period during which the accessibility and variety of artificial lures increased orders of magnitude. Anglers no longer had to gather bait before a fishing trip. Fishing had become easier, and fishermen were looking for easier fishing reels – easier to service and easier to cast. Fishing reel manufacturers addressed these desires by introducing reel models that were easy to take apart and service without tools during a fishing trip and models that incorporated anti-backlash mechanisms that helped anglers avoid line tangles while casting.
The following shows four circa-1906 reels that are easily disassembled without tools. To open the reels (from left to right): the front rim of the Meisselbach Takapart is unscrewed; the button at the tip of the front rim of the America No. 2 is depressed, and the head cap is turned counter-clockwise; the front bearing cap of the Meek Bluegrass 33 is unscrewed; and the two side pillars of the Shakespeare Standard reel are turned counter-clockwise.
The following shows a circa-1912 South Bend Anti Back-Lash Casting Reel and a circa-1915 Pflueger Redifor Anti Back-Lash Reel. The South Bend reel has a thumbwheel controlled, spring loaded anti-backlash device, and the Redifor has internal spool brakes that activate during a cast.
Affluent anglers along both coasts were increasingly chasing larger fish. Prior to 1900, there were very few reels that could stand up to the stress that a fast-running 100+ lb. fish will exert. During the first two decades of the 20th a number of reel features such as strong, adjustable drags and mechanisms which prevented the backward rotation of the reel handle while fighting fish (anti-reverse) were introduced on large reels, capable of holding the great lengths of heavy line needed to land 100 lb. fish.
In England, Alfred Illingworth introduced a new, lighter spinning reel design which facilitated longer casts with less line maintenance. His initial commercial design was introduced to the public in 1907, with improved models being released in 1910 and 1914. Most modern spinning reels are based upon Illingworth’s 1914 No. 3 model. It was so effective at presenting baits and lures that it was banned from use by a number of British fishing clubs. Illingworth’s reels sparked the rapid growth of a spin-fishing revolution in Europe. But it would be another 30+ years before American anglers developed an appetite for spinning reels.
Next Period – History – 1921 to 1945