EclecticGuy

As I’ve mentioned in past blogs, I was asked to contribute to a fishing exhibit being created for the Martin Van Buren National Historic Site.A group of 5 of us – The Van Buren Boys – are creating a period rod, reel, horse hair line, creel, flies and baits. Our ringleader, Dr. Todd, is documenting the work and Van Buren’s fishing history in a book that will be offered at the museum.

My contribution is the reel and a horse hair line. I’ve already blogged about how I rediscovered line making, so I won’t cover … Continue Reading

I’ve just completed the cover design for my book The Reelsmith’s Primer! I am now completely done with everything. I wanted to feature a photo of some of my reels on the back cover so I set up this photo. I call it a “family portrait” since it includes my very first reel (the one sitting on the deerskin pouch) to my most recent (the black and brass one).

I also took this photo of my most recent reel.

This … Continue Reading

Richard, one of my early reel customers and as it turns out, a neighbor, fished one of our local streams yesterday (Sunday). In fact, this is the stream that this reel model is named after – the Squannacook. Richard had a successful day and sent me two “family portraits” of his reel with a nice Rainbow and with the Prince Nymph he caught it on.

My new friend from Texas emailed me a few reels from his collection of early fly reels to photograph and measure. I’ve been looking for an early clamp foot reel to photograph and measure with the thought of reproducing them. I would like to have a few to fish with my wood strip rods that I make.

Well, the reels arrived today! They are much smaller than I imagined. The largest is only 1 11/16″ in diameter! One of the reels is a clamp foot and is dated to the late … Continue Reading