Humphrey's Denver Spinning Reel

Keith Gann · Post by **Keith Gann** » Fri Jul 02, 2004 3:13 pm

Have been buying alot of old fly reels lately, and found one in the latest batch that is a closed face spinning reel, all stainless steel, marked "Humphrey's Denver" on reel plate, and "Model 3A" on bottom of foot. It is very heavy and very well made. The closed face is ninty degrees to the left of the rod plane. It came aprt easily, and after a little cleaning, workd great. Does any one know what I have?

Guest · Post by **Guest** » Sat Jul 03, 2004 4:12 pm

a "spin-fly" reel. There were several made in the 50s and 60s. UCO, Magic, a few others, including Johnson (sorry, the model escapes me). You can use it as a mooching reel on a flyrod - for baitcasting or spinning with monofilament. I'm sure there are others here that can give you a much better historical answer than mine.

Ron Mc · Post by **Ron Mc** » Sat Jul 03, 2004 4:14 pm

I did it again.

Ron Mc · Post by **Ron Mc** » Mon Jul 19, 2004 7:57 am

ran across a Johnson 40A sidecaster on ebay this morning: 3688524774

reelland · Post by **reelland** » Mon Jul 19, 2004 11:58 pm

The Humphrey 3A reel was first introduced in 1947 though a patent was not granted until 1952 (#2,584,020 on Jan. 29,1952). The model 4A was introduced about 1952. Both were manufactured in Denver, Colorado and were first marketed by Whitney's Sporting Goods. Wright McGill, Humpal, Fre-line (interestingly all Colorado companies) as well as Shakespeare and Johnson all produced similarly designed reels later. Their collecting value is about twice original value ([at]22.50)of about $40-50. This information and more can be found in Gary Carbaugh's and Dick Spurr's book, Colorado Reels and old fishing Tackle. Hope this helps, Bill.

Ron Mc · Post by **Ron Mc** » Tue Jul 20, 2004 10:19 am

here's another one, a Goodall sidecaster - 3689640501

Reelman · Post by **Reelman** » Tue Jul 20, 2004 3:24 pm

SPINN-X Is another Company from Colorado with the same style reels. Here is a salesman sample case of SPINN-X reels.

http://members.tripod.com/~Merv/index-4.html

fishawks · Post by **fishawks** » Mon Apr 05, 2010 8:15 pm

If you check out a "The Fisherman's Encyclopedia"-Stackpole & Heck-C. 1950, or "The Standard Book of Fishing"-The Greystone Press-C. 1950, you will be first introduced to 2 basic types of spinning reels with pictures. These were the earliest made American Spinning reels-The Humphreys, and The Bache Brown Mastereel. I have to disagree on the date for the introduction of the 4A, the larger of the 2 Humphreys. I believe the evidence I have shows that they both came out in 1946. The booklet I have "Modern Spinning" was written in 1947 and there is complete discussion there of the 3A and 4A. Dan

Humphrey's Denver Spinning Reel

Humphrey's Denver Spinning Reel

Humphreys reel

Humphreys reels