Thursday Review: Skeleton and Joe E. Pepper Web Sites

Technology has made it easier to create a web site today than ever before. Web sites like Weebly and others are not only very easy to use, but in some cases are actually free. As a result, we are getting a proliferation of fishing tackle and history web sites. Today we'll take a look at two recent ones.

The first is Richard Lodge's Skeleton Fly Reels web site. Richard, the author of the acclaimed Skeletons: A Collector's Guide to Raised Pillar Fly Reels, who has taken a good deal of information on this mysterious reels and put them on-line for us to view.



Richard's web site has a ton of great information, picturing models from Yale, Bronson, Montague, and others who manufactured skeleton fly reels. The information is concise and useful, and Richard promises to update it regularly as new information comes to light.

A second really interesting new web site comes from "Pepper" Jack Gallagher, author of the great book The Peppers of Rome, N.Y.. His web site, naturally, is dedicated to the Joseph E. Pepper bait company.


Jack has been researching and collecting Pepper for a long time, and the depth of his knowledge shines through. Jack covers the various categories of Pepper lures -- metal, composition and wood -- as well as a great section on miscellaneous Pepper pieces. Many of these items have rarely pictured before; I'd only seen one other "Pepper's Detachable Frog Hook" on the card before, for example.

Both the Skeleton and the Pepper web sites fill a great need in the collecting world. As it's never been easier to create a quality web site, I encourage everyone to learn from Richard and Jack's experiences and jump into the digital age. Outstanding sites like these two only enrich all of our experiences, and disseminate knowledge to the wider world.

-- Dr. Todd