July 2007 Reel News Review

Hot off the presses is the July 2007 Reel News, the magazine of the Old Reel Collector's Association. Vol. XVII, No. 4 (July, 2007) has something for everyone in the it.



Feature articles include Dowagiac Welcomes ORCA Crew, an overview of the recent ORCA nationals in Dowagiac, Michigan. This article shows pictures of Jim Madden's South Bend display and Laurie Bingham's Ed. Vom Hofe display, which shared 1st Prize for Best Reel Display. Tom Eidson won the classic casting competition in both the Non Level-Wind and Level Wind Divisions. Spinning Reel division went to George McCabe. A follow-up article entitled Heddon Museum Opens to ORCA details how ORCAns got to tour the great Heddon museum in Dowagiac (thanks to Joan and Don Lyons).

Articles in this issue include Charlie Tanner's "Nat Uslan's Little Known Spinning Reel," a nifty piece on the rare Uslan 500 and Richard Lodge's "Collector's Get A Look at Rare Ed Hewitt Reel," which profiles a rare reel from this maker presented to Alfred Miller, better known as Sparse Grey Hackle. This reel will be sold at the upcoming Lang's Auction.

My own contribution this month is "Reels on the 2nd Floor: Macy's Department Store Tackle," an article that details the contributions of Macy's to the fishing tackle world, including marked Macy's rods and reels. Stu Lawson weighs in with Early Pflueger Gem Leads to Catalog Dating, an important article tht helps to better pinpoint the date of release of the Gem fly reel. Jim Madden's article "The Mystery Trio: Wind-Rite, Liberty, and Hummer" gives welcome information on these odd and important trade reels. Bob Miller's Pflueger Pfacts column is entitled "Origin of the Pflueger Reel: Part I--Waiting for an Epiphany," a very significant look at how and when Pflueger got into the reel business. This is among the most important articles written to date on Pflueger reels.

Ed Slane contributed a neat article "A Reel True Fish Story and a Penn 6/0" that outlines a memorable fishing trip and an even more memorable Penn reel. Ben Wright's always excellent Spinning Lines column is entitled Re-issued Repros of Cardinal 33 and 44 and details these repro spinning reels, updating an earlier column. Col. Milton Lorens' The Reel Fix covers the Pflueger Sea Kast No. 2777. The issue ended with a review by Roger Schulz of Richard K. Lodge's Skeletons: A Collector's Guide to Raised Pillar Fly Reels. Schulz declared the book to be "an excellent guide for the fishing reel collector."

All things considered, this is an excellent issue tha proves once again that if you are not a member of ORCA you are missing out on a lot of info that will help your reel, lure, rod, etc. collection. The Reel News is edited by Richard K. Lodge.

--Dr. Todd