More fly reel help

Tony Malatesta · Post by **Tony Malatesta** » Wed Mar 08, 2006 6:36 pm

Hi Guys! Need help in identifying another fly reel i just picked up at a garage sale. It has no makers markings on it. The reel is made of aluminum(half lb.) is 5.25 inches in diametre and 1 inch thick between the plates. The brake is 5.5 inches long and the foot is 1.5 long. The tear drops are 1.75 inches long and 1.8 wide. Here are a few photos. Any help would be appreciated. Thank's! canadian

Richard Lodge · Post by **Richard Lodge** » Wed Mar 08, 2006 6:43 pm

Tony,
Looks like a sidemount trolling reel to me, not a fly reel. Reels like that can hold a ton of line, even wire, used for trolling. I'm not that familiar with makers of these reels but Jim Schottenham or others can probably give an educated guess.
Richard

Tony Malatesta · Post by **Tony Malatesta** » Wed Mar 08, 2006 7:15 pm

My mistake. You are correct that its a trolling reel, but i still don't know who its from. Thank's!

Tony Malatesta · Post by **Tony Malatesta** » Sun Mar 12, 2006 7:53 am

NO ANSWERS OUT THERE

Reel Geezer · Post by **Reel Geezer** » Sun Mar 12, 2006 8:25 am

Tony: over the years I've written a couple of times that we need someone to seriously collect these larger wire line trolling reels and do some research. There are many reels similar to the one you show and most are unidentified. Other than the Pflueger, Meisselbach and Ocean City models, there is almost no information in print. Someone needs to study these reels and do some writing about them.

Lillawill · Post by **Lillawill** » Wed Mar 15, 2006 6:49 pm

Hi Guys

This reel is an old AL&W reel. These commonly came with short steel rods with a wire hooped top guide and were commonly used with steel line for heavy trolling. There were several makers of this type of reel but the hole cut outs in the winding plate differ from maker to maker. AL&W sold this reel and the earliest reference I have to it is in the AL&W 1939 catalogue. Now as to who actully made the reel. This is hard to say as AL&W was a large distributer and sold reels made by almost everyone. However saying this the knobs do have kind of a Pflueger look to them.

Bill Turnbull

Tony Malatesta · Post by **Tony Malatesta** » Wed Mar 15, 2006 7:37 pm

You are right about the knobs, except that Pflueger used larger rivets to fasten theirs. Did ALW stamp all their reels or were the trade reels unmarked?

Teal · Post by **Teal** » Wed Mar 15, 2006 8:23 pm

I think it might have been made by Gibbs. I have a 1946 Marshall-Wells (Canada) fishing tackle catalog with a trolling reel like this attributed to Gibbs.

--Dr. Todd

Tony Malatesta · Post by **Tony Malatesta** » Wed Mar 15, 2006 8:31 pm

the mystery deepens

Lillawill · Post by **Lillawill** » Wed Mar 15, 2006 8:36 pm

Hi Tony

The catalogue picture shows it marked AL&W Toronto on the front plate. Howeve I am sure there were unmarked trade reels sold as well.

Bill

Tony Malatesta · Post by **Tony Malatesta** » Wed Mar 15, 2006 8:41 pm

Thank's for the help guys. usa canadian

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