Early Lew Perkins distance casting reel

[Mike N]

I bought this on eBay from the same former tournament caster as the last reel I posted. I’m told it’s an early reel made by Lew Perkins (of Dayton, Ohio) in the 1960s, so it’s about 60 years old.

[john elder]

Neat construction! Do you pull the handle out for free spool, Mike?

[reeltackle]

Very cool reel Mike, thanks for sharing your latest contraption.

[Mike N]

Neat construction! Do you pull the handle out for free spool, Mike?

John,

Yes, extracting the handle disengages the gear shaft drive from the spider line spool, as shown below.

Mike

Engaged:


Disengaged:

[Mike N]

Very cool reel Mike, thanks for sharing your latest contraption.

Thanks, Ed.

Colby Sorrells was kind enough to send me a photo of Lew Perkins this morning. He and Matt Wickham are hard at work on a new book that will focus on the these tournament casting reels and their makers. I can’t wait. The reel shown would fall into what is known as the “unrestricted” category.

[Mike N]

Here is a link to a 2016 Reel Talk thread on this topic that Brian F. and a few others helped make very interesting:

viewtopic.php?p=85972&hilit=Perkins#p85972

[RAM]

We have several such excellent posts about distance casting reels, but these guys needed a rod to cast. Any input about distance casting rod types? Were they special? Inquiring minds....

Bad Bob

[kyreels]

Yes, there is lots of info on the Distance Rods in the Netherton casting books and Earl Osten Fly and Bait Casting books. Earl speaks from the 1946 era and says of split bamboo rods "5 and 5 1/2 ft rods, heavy musky action, power plus performance". Use a one piece stick. The general practice was to buy the blank and build the ferrule and guides on it.

I brought several modern (1980's) graphite distance rods to the national. I also purchased three Lew Perkins owned distance rods from Jay Klenk, in bamboo, fiberglass and graphite. I have now 8 rods. All are less than 5 feet, but you have to add the handle size into that, which is generally 9 to 10 inches. They are all about as stiff a rod as you can imagine.


I will post some better photos later.

[RAM]

Thanks Matt. Seems obvious then that the weights did the work with such rods. As little friction as possible as little wind resistance as possible, just flail the heck out of that rascal (with finesse, of course) and see how far it goes!

BB

[colby sorrells]

The distance casts are violent. Verification ? See Matt's write-up of BLF and the hole in the Volkswagen door! CS