Heitman reel

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54bullseye
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Heitman reel

Post by 54bullseye »

Here is a fairly rare reel !! Not to old but not to many made I guess a couple dozen or so !! Dr. Todd did a write up on them and they were mentioned in an article in Saltwater Sportsman years ago !! I found mine on eBay quite a few years ago and have only seen one other. Enjoy the pictures !! I also pictured Dr. Todd's article I hope that's okay.
John Taylor













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1badf350
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Re: Heitman reel

Post by 1badf350 »

Pretty cool reel John
-Chris R.
Dr. Rob
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Re: Heitman reel

Post by Dr. Rob »

Addendum:

In the time since this article was published, Bruce Heitman has died.
I spoke with his son Sean just a year or two ago. He proudly carries the story forth, and still has his father’s reels.

Mark Sosin died last summer.

.
Robert Janssen
Sweden
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54bullseye
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Re: Heitman reel

Post by 54bullseye »

Hi Rob !!
I posted the pictures of the reel the other day because a friend of mine bought a Heitman reel off of a guy in Stuart Fl. a few weeks ago. My friend asked me if I had ever heard of one and if I thought he should buy it. I told him it would be one of the rarest reels he would ever own but not necessarily the most valuable. I also told him to google the reel. I then googled it myself and came up with Dr.Todd's article on it but I couldn't find any good clear pictures of the reel so I thought a few pics of
mine would help tell the story of the reel !!

You live way over in Sweden and know more about what's going on in Florida than we do LOL !!! How is it you have the connection with Heitman was it something to do with Everol reels ?

Thanks for the response Rob ! John Taylor
Dr. Rob
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Re: Heitman reel

Post by Dr. Rob »

Um, no… not then, anyway. For me it all started when someone here at ORCA noticed one on Ebay and found it interesting enough to post it here. That thread is still here on reel talk somewhere, if you search for it.

Which piqued enough curiosity among Dr. Todd, Randy Heller and myself to look more closely.
I guess Pritchard already had one in his collection.

For me it was the dead giveaway of the Everol circlip drag stop that whoever made reel this was inspired directly by that, which is fairly unique.* I’m mostly into the mechanical design history of the reels, you know that. So what other mysteries might such a reel contain?

Dr Todd really did a great job of following up and grabbing hold of the opportunity to find a great story.

I don’t recall who bought that ebay reel. Was it Todd? Or you?

At the time that was all coming together, i was at the national fishing trade show in Las Vegas, with my mind on figuring out the connection between this mysterious Heitman and someone we found online named Mark Sosin. We decided to go for coffee with my friend Chris, Everol rep in the Northeast. Standing in the coffee line like forever, man... never again Starbucks. The guy in front of us in line was chatting up a storm on his cellphone, bla bla this and that... aargh. Worlds longest phone call. Eventually the guy hangs up and turns around to face us. He has a name tag. It says: Mark Sosin.
Well, i'll be darned... imagine that.
So i explain that he was just the man to maybe solve a mystery. Has he ever heard of Bruce Heitman?
Mark Sosin looks at me. Looks at his phone. And back to me. "But... i was just talking to him..." he says.

Small world.
And then Chris pipes up, ”oh, Bruce? Yeah, i know Bruce…”

And now, some fifteenish years later, I have this other quest revolving around Everol in the early days, which led me to chase down Bruce and his business partner Billy Carlson, who is a veritable dynamite keg of east coast fishing history. Sean Heitman updated me, and also sent a pic or two of fishing trips with the Heitman reels.

.

*only one other reel maker has dabbled in that, as far as i know. Maybe stuff for a future Reel Talk?
Robert Janssen
Sweden
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Midway Tommy D
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Re: Heitman reel

Post by Midway Tommy D »

Great & interesting story DR. Rob! Thanks for sharing!
Love those Open Face Spinning Reels! (Especially ABU & ABU/Zebco)

Tom DeLong, NE
ORCA Member - 2027
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