Tournament Casting Collection Find

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RonG
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Tournament Casting Collection Find

Post by RonG »

I was fortunate to acquire tournament casting collection and it was only a 3 hour drive from my house.The person I got it from told me he was given this collection over 30 years ago by an elderly person he was doing home repair work for. He said the person was about 80 at the time and gave the collection to him because he had said he liked to fish. It includes Jack Welch narrow spool tournament reel and a Jack Welch level wind reel. Also included were a box, box instructions, original handles replaced by the tournament handles on the reels, spare parts, leather cases, casting rod with various rod ferrule adapter sizes. He also had a Hardy Uniqua fly reel that has an Abercrombie & Fitch badge attached to it. The thing I think is unique about the Welch reels is the way the nickel silver has oxidized over the years giving a color contrast against the aluminum end plates. It reminds me of the contrast seen on the Leonard bi-metal fly reels. See photos below.








Both reel were squeaky and in need of oil. When I took them apart and compared the two drive gears, you can see that Jack Welch was very conscious about rotary inertia reduction and had turned down the tournament reel gear.

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Bill Muth
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Re: Tournament Casting Collection Find

Post by Bill Muth »

Great find Ron! Congratulations and thanks for sharing.
Wanted: Horton, Bristol & Meek reels, reel boxes, and catalogs!!!!
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Mike N
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Re: Tournament Casting Collection Find

Post by Mike N »

Great find, Ron. The tiny JW caster is awesome. I’m assuming the Florida salt air and humidity took their toll. Glad you came along to rescue them. Thanks for the photos.

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john elder
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Re: Tournament Casting Collection Find

Post by john elder »

Amazing score, Ron! Congrats!
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Specializing in saltwater reels...and fly reels...and oh, yeah, kentucky style reels.....and those tiny little RP reels.....oh, heck...i collect fishing reels!...and fly rods....and lures
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reelsmith.
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Re: Tournament Casting Collection Find

Post by reelsmith. »

Nice pick up Ron. Handsome reels.

Thanks for sharing.

Dean.
Wanted: Kosmic Items, Small Leather Fly Reel Cases, Early Fishing Related Bottles, Fly Reels and Pre-1900 Angling/Casting Medals.

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kyreels
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Re: Tournament Casting Collection Find

Post by kyreels »

Really nice find, and great historical significance. It all appears to be contemporary (late 1950-mid 1960) tournament casting rigs. I have similar handles in my collection, although mine are aluminum color and not anodized or painted. The Jack Welch box and papers are very neat. It would be great to read them. Most tournament casters participated in the fly and casting accuracy events. The distance events typically evolved into more specialized casting equipment, not shown in this set of material. Although, you could certainly be competitive at distance with these reels at some events. Are there any specific dates present in the material?
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RonG
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Re: Tournament Casting Collection Find

Post by RonG »

Sorry, no background information was available. The guy couldn't remember about the owner from 30 years ago.
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Re: Tournament Casting Collection Find

Post by Paul Roberts »

Wow. Nicely arranged and photographed too. A museum display right there.

Love the turned down drive gear. Since I've been flirting with "super-tuning" some of my old reels for fishing, I find that impressive. I won't be so tempted though as I suspect that such a gear would not be rugged enough for fishing. One reel (Shakespeare 1922) I bought, described as "excellent", had a cracked drive gear! Someone must have really been cranking on it! I replaced it with a gear from a $4 1920 and it is now truly "excellent", but it's not going to win any distance events.
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KIWI
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Re: Tournament Casting Collection Find

Post by KIWI »

Damn GURU, What a nice Find ! Some history there for sure. D
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Mike N
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Re: Tournament Casting Collection Find

Post by Mike N »

Interesting that the Reel Research here at ORCA https://www.orcaonline.org/reel-makers/notes that Jack Welch once worked for Meek, before Talbot and Heddon.

“WELCH, JACK, over the years, Jack Welch served as a factory supervisor, reelsmith, reel designer, inventor and holder of several rod & reel patents, among other things. The early part of the 20th century saw him employed at both B.F. Meek & Sons and W.H. Talbot, where he no doubt learned a few things about high-grade reel production.

In 1919 he was hired by James Heddon’s Sons to supervisor their new reel making operations, where he would stay on until about 1931. During his tenure, Heddon produced some of the finest precision reels ever built, many of which were from Welch’s own designs.

After leaving Heddon, Welch started producing his own line of hand-made casting reels, made solely in his basemen workshop. He built both level-winding versions and non level-winding Tournament models, supplying many famous tournament casters of the period. They were of the highest quality, and coupled with the fact that production was very limited (only offered from about 1932-1936), are extremely valuable and sought-after by today’s collectors.

Research by Mark Williams.”
Last edited by kyreels on Wed Feb 10, 2021 10:55 pm, edited 1 time in total.
Reason: Update Reel Research Link
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