Picked these up on eBay

[Mike N]

A former national casting champion and Hall of Famer recently listed some tournament casting items for sale and I was lucky enough to pick up this distance casting reel, and 8 custom handmade tournament spools with separate shafts. Two of the spools are aluminum, three are wood composite, two are wood/aluminum and one appears to be magnesium. I also purchased two large spindles of the thin spider line, the first time I’ve ever seen any.
The casting reel and each of the spools came with their own first-class, hand-sewn rawhide leather case (see below).

[RonG]

That's a great buy Mike. The tournament caster looks like he was very serious about casting and had all sorts of mods he could make to the reel. Did you by chance ask the seller if there were any of the medals or other items from the caster's early casting days?

[Mike N]

These little reels and their spools really are works of art.

[Mike N]

You realize why they call it spider line when you unravel a bit and then see that the spools come in 24,000 and 20,000 yard sizes.

[Mike N]

That's a great buy Mike. The tournament caster looks like he was very serious about casting and had all sorts of mods he could make to the reel. Did you by chance ask the seller if there were any of the medals or other items from the caster's early casting days?

Ron, I did not, but I will message him to ask if he will be listing other items.

[joe klaus]

Wow! That's a great acquisition Mike.

[john elder]

Great score, Mike! Sure fits nice into your displays. That line is great to look at but i’d be too much of a chicken to try and cast it!

[reelsmith.]

Way to go Mike !

You are building quite a nice collection.

Dean.

[reeltackle]

Love the crazy homemade reels. Nice find Mike!

[kyreels]

Just a note on the marking of the size of the nylon on the spools. The marking of 24,000 means that there are 24,000 yards per ounce. It means the line is very, very thin. When it is spooling onto spools, it is very hard to see. I have small spools marked with 20,000 and 24,000. I understand casters stopped with 28,000. A cast only counted if the line did not break off, and of course it frequently did. But I was surprised at how strong 20,000 line actually is.

[Mike N]

That’s great info, Matt.

What size casting weight would they use for the spider line to keep it moving but not break it in distance events?

Thanks

Mike N

[kyreels]

I spoke with Colby Sorrels, and change my post to the number of ounces rather than pound, sorry for the mistake. 24,000 marking means 24,000 yards per ounce. Maybe we need to weigh some line to prove that, but that is what we think at this juncture.

It is important to understand that when casting the unrestricted distance with spiderweb line on light spools, the shock leader would consist of some feet of stone monofilament (say 15 lb) and some feet of silk or nylon thread of say 5 lb test, followed by the spiderweb line. The exact formulas are documented, and we can post some for the various events and weights. The spiderweb was known as a trailer line, sometimes referred to as a kite line. It just connected the caster/reel to the weight, it was not involved in the casting action.

The events for unrestricted distance revolving spool were 5/8 revolving spool, 3/8 revolving spool. But there were also fixed spool distance and surf events that used the term unrestricted that did not involve spider line. It is pretty convoluted.

[blf]

mike: if the reels came from Cinn, ask him if he know's who mfg them.
pretty sure i know who. marks on spool to hold were only 1 gentleman.
no 1 told me about rubber/leather thumbing devices. still have scar on thumb. happened at my 1st national. almost could not compete.

f.y.i. wooden spool were gone before my time. old timers from 30's/40's used to talk about spool bursting during the cast. ouch.
aluminum came next
then magnesium Bill Burke told me he blew up several magnesium spool's.
believe he stopped and tried ball bearing's which were never competitive.

cheers
b.l.f.