Thursday Review: 19th Century Fishing Reels Web Site

Today I should be all caught up reviewing some great new web sites on fishing, fishing tackle, and fishing history. We end our recent survey with a fabulous new web site on vintage fishing reels by Jason, an active ORCA member. It's called

19th Century Fishing Reels and it is an aesthetically pleasing and informative way for you to get introduced to some truly rare and beautiful Victorian reels.


The site is divided into sections: Ball Handle Reels, S-Handle Reels, Fly Reels, Side Mount Reels, Reel Patents, and Modern Tributes. If you aren't sure what those terms mean, poke around a little and you'll get the picture.

Speaking of pictures, the strongest aspect of the site are the truly professional photographs. All of them are well-lit, sharp, and in focus -- which is rarer than it sounds for web sites these days. Along with Dean Smith's web site (reviewed here last week) hopefully Jason and Dean will set a new standard for photo quality for tackle web pages.


A Small size 5 Abbey & Imbrie reel with an interesting handle, from Jason's site.
The site doesn't have much information on the background to makers like Crook, Bate, etc., but then it isn't really designed for that. It's function is as an introductory primer to some really, really rare nineteenth century reels, and in this goal it has succeeded marvelously.

I hope for numerous updates, as it is a site I will check regularly, if nothing else just to ogle the bevy of beautiful nineteenth century reels.

You can find 19th Century Fishing Reels by Clicking Here, or by using the link to the right.

-- Dr. Todd