Fly fishing has been well
Friday, April 15, 2011
Thursday, April 14, 2011
Thursday Review: Ben Wright's Spinning Reel Reference & Value Guide
Thursday Review: Ben Wright's Spinning Reel Reference & Value Guide
Back when I was a choir boy of 10+ years experience, we used to really get into singing spirituals. One of my favorites was a moving number called "Great Day (for Righteous Marching)."
What's that got to do with the price of fishing tackle?
It's a great day, that's why. Ben Wright's new book is out.
2011 is really a banner year for fishing books, and it's only April. Why don't you go and add Wright's Spinning Reel Reference & Value Guide to the list of the year's excellent books.
Ben Wright is a pioneer, who saw that the collecting world was ignoring a huge piece of its history--spinning reels--and decided, almost single handedly, that this injustice should not stand. So he took it upon himself to start chronicling the history of spinning reels, and creating a guide so collectors would have a starting point to build collections and establish trade value.
Take a minute to reflect on how many spinning reel makers and models are out there. Then start thinking of where, given the task of outlining the history of spinning reels that date back 100 years, you might start. ABU? Mitchell? Ryobi? Start adding hundreds of names and it becomes overwhelming unbelievably fast.
But Ben persevered and his original book was a landmark achievement, followed by several supplemental volumes. Always, Ben promised to give us a single volume that contained all of this information under one cover. And here it is.
Great day! Great day for righteous marchin'.
Wright's Spinning Reel Reference & Value Guide is a massive tome containing the history of over hundred reel companies and over 6000 separate spinning reels. It's amazing in many ways. How many of us get spinning reels and don't have any idea of their, age, scarcity and value? I just got an email last week asking for information on an Orvis 350 and Ambidex No. 1 spinning reels. With Ben's book, I was able to know immediately the relevant information of both reels.
Organized in alphabetical order, it gives manufacturer, model number, approximate date, and value for each of the reels surveyed.
It is an 8.5" x 11" softcover of 526 pages, with 575 black-and-white illustrations. A self-published book, it is quite polished, although it would have been nice to see the images integrated into the text rather than in an appendix at the end. The images could have used a bit of work, but it's an incredibly minor quibble in a book that offers so very much information that is simply not available anywhere else.
I would suggest that this book should be a standard volume for any tackle collector, whether they collect reels or not. Spinning reels are perhaps the most commonly found item of this kind in the field, and to know the value and date of these reels is to know the difference between a $10 reel and a $250 one. No serious collector should be without this book.
It is the definitive work on the subject and will rightly elevate Ben Wright from a pioneer to a legend in the fishing tackle world.
The book is $59.95 (plus shipping) and available only from the author spinrite@rochester.rr.com. Email for order details.
Great Day, indeed! Hit the music:
-- Dr. Todd
Back when I was a choir boy of 10+ years experience, we used to really get into singing spirituals. One of my favorites was a moving number called "Great Day (for Righteous Marching)."
What's that got to do with the price of fishing tackle?
It's a great day, that's why. Ben Wright's new book is out.
2011 is really a banner year for fishing books, and it's only April. Why don't you go and add Wright's Spinning Reel Reference & Value Guide to the list of the year's excellent books.
Ben Wright is a pioneer, who saw that the collecting world was ignoring a huge piece of its history--spinning reels--and decided, almost single handedly, that this injustice should not stand. So he took it upon himself to start chronicling the history of spinning reels, and creating a guide so collectors would have a starting point to build collections and establish trade value.
Take a minute to reflect on how many spinning reel makers and models are out there. Then start thinking of where, given the task of outlining the history of spinning reels that date back 100 years, you might start. ABU? Mitchell? Ryobi? Start adding hundreds of names and it becomes overwhelming unbelievably fast.
But Ben persevered and his original book was a landmark achievement, followed by several supplemental volumes. Always, Ben promised to give us a single volume that contained all of this information under one cover. And here it is.
Great day! Great day for righteous marchin'.
Wright's Spinning Reel Reference & Value Guide is a massive tome containing the history of over hundred reel companies and over 6000 separate spinning reels. It's amazing in many ways. How many of us get spinning reels and don't have any idea of their, age, scarcity and value? I just got an email last week asking for information on an Orvis 350 and Ambidex No. 1 spinning reels. With Ben's book, I was able to know immediately the relevant information of both reels.
Organized in alphabetical order, it gives manufacturer, model number, approximate date, and value for each of the reels surveyed.
It is an 8.5" x 11" softcover of 526 pages, with 575 black-and-white illustrations. A self-published book, it is quite polished, although it would have been nice to see the images integrated into the text rather than in an appendix at the end. The images could have used a bit of work, but it's an incredibly minor quibble in a book that offers so very much information that is simply not available anywhere else.
I would suggest that this book should be a standard volume for any tackle collector, whether they collect reels or not. Spinning reels are perhaps the most commonly found item of this kind in the field, and to know the value and date of these reels is to know the difference between a $10 reel and a $250 one. No serious collector should be without this book.
It is the definitive work on the subject and will rightly elevate Ben Wright from a pioneer to a legend in the fishing tackle world.
The book is $59.95 (plus shipping) and available only from the author spinrite@rochester.rr.com. Email for order details.
Great Day, indeed! Hit the music:
-- Dr. Todd
Wednesday, April 13, 2011
Free Salad and the Mystery Meats
They say you can only eat what is on your plate, and I did not want to make anything at home. That makes my plate empty in a big way. I decided to take a trip down Main Street to Hollydale's world famous Pat's Diner. They have a terrific special on Wednesday ... a free salad ( with diner card ) and a mystery meat dinner for 4.99 What is a mystery meats plate? Well, you get whatever is fresh off the grill at the time you order. That is the part I love, because you sit there wondering what could be on the way until it arrives at the table. My grub ended up to be two chunks of meatloaf, with some extra brown gravy poured over the top and a pork chop. Pork chops and applesauce ... "who said that"!??
My waitress Laurie was a bit drunk and smoking lots of cigarettes, which sounds offensive at first, but she had a sweet romantic kind of attitude and was calling me "babe" a lot. I started calling her "pork chop". After my mystery meats plate, I had some pie and coffee. That was when the shit hit the fan.
Say, can someone tell me what the heck happened to the Blogger WYSIWYG editor? Every time I write code in the html tab, then look at the layout in "compose", all my text and code is smashed up together. DAMMIT!
At least I had some great chow, thanks to Pat
Carol (to Mike): "Guess who's coming to dinner?"
Mike: "A psychiatrist, I hope."
Carol (as Peter walks in): "I think it's Humphrey Bogart."
Peter tells Mike: "We're having 'porkchopsh and appleshaush."
Mike: "There's only one Humphrey Bogart. Doubt there'll ever be another one."
UPDATE: Immell's Lure Retriever Pictured
UPDATE:
Chris Slusar sends us a great photo as an update for the piece we had on Tuesday on Omer Immell's lure retriever. He says it's the only one he's ever seen on the card.
An excellent piece! Thanks to Chris for sharing it.
-- Dr. Todd
Chris Slusar sends us a great photo as an update for the piece we had on Tuesday on Omer Immell's lure retriever. He says it's the only one he's ever seen on the card.
An excellent piece! Thanks to Chris for sharing it.
-- Dr. Todd
52 Trade Houses Part 2: The Wyeth Hardware Company
Over the course of the next year, we'll be detailing the history of 52 companies that sold branded fishing tackle. 52 trade houses in 52 weeks -- some obscure, some famous, and all available exclusively here on the Fishing for History Blog! If you have any items from the week's entry you'd like to share with us, please send it my way and I'll make sure it makes it on the blog.
For a discussion of what exactly trade tackle is, Click Here. Enjoy the 52 for 52!
The Wyeth Hardware Company of St. Joseph, Missouri was one of the numerous wholesaling concerns that sprung up in the nineteenth century in the Mississippi Valley. This is because the river served as the demarcation point for Westward Migration, and firms like Wyeth, Blish-Mize & Silliman, and the many St. Louis wholesale hardware concerns got their start outfitting settlers.
This particular company was founded by William Wyeth in 1860. Wyeth moved to St. Joseph, Missouri in 1860 with his wife Elizabeth and founded W.M. Wyeth & Company. He grew wealthy very quickly, and notably commissioned in 1879 a 43-room Gothic mansion that stands today as a museum and as exemplary of this style of architecture. It is known today as the Wyeth Tootle Mansion.
Born in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, William Maxwell Wyeth (1832-1901) had been in the dry goods business since the early 1850s, but got into the hardware line in 1856 with Lewis & Wyeth, a firm located in Chillicothe, Ohio. As an early Missouri history stated, "Wyeth settled in St. Joseph, Missouri, selecting it above the other localities which he inspected during…weeks of travel."
He chose St. Joseph because, as the magazine Do It Yourself Retailing declared in 1986, it was "the greatest wholesale outfitting point [for wagon trains] west of St. Louis. The wagon trains needed everything — pots, pans, tools, water barrels, lanterns." Wyeth supplied them with the goods needed to build the West.
After a disastrous fire in 1866, the company rebuilt in larger quarters and dealt specifically in hardware until 1872, when he expanded into saddle and harness making. In 1881, the company was incorporated as Wyeth Hardware and Manufacturing Company.
By this time the firm was one of the the most prosperous in the state, and joined by his son Huston Wyeth, the pair were two of the most prominent business men in the whole region. In 1901, when William Wyeth died and was replaced as president of the firm by Huston, it was one of the twenty leading wholesale hardware firms in the nation, with business in ten states and a massive saddle making subsidiary. In 1910, the company issued a Golden Anniversary history detailing its half century of growth.
Like most wholesale hardware concerns, the company sent out massive catalogs, often 1500-2000 pages in length. These show up occasionally for sale.
Wyeth Hardware had two major trade names. The first was WYCO, which was used on everything from hammers to shotguns. The second was the "Wyeth Shield Brand" which was sold with the pithy slogan, "Wyeth Shield Brand, the Goods in Demand." This was used on everything from household to hardware items.
What is not known is whether it was branded on any fishing tackle. I suspect if might have been, but I have not seen it to date.
What I have seen, the only actual branded piece of Wyeth tackle I've run across, is a great line spool marked "100th Anniversary Braided Nylon Casting Line." At some point, Wyeth began backdating the founding of the company to 1859, so this particular spool dates to 1959.
Wyeth Hardware and Manufacturing Company became The Wyeth Company after World War II, and managed to survive the 1960s, which put many such firms under. However, it did not survive the 1980s. The last reference I can find to it was 1986.
However, the company was in business for too long to have so few pieces of fishing tackle. There has to be more than just line spools. They clearly sold tackle for many of the 120+ years they were in business, and if they were like other similar firms, somewhere there must be a reel, rod, or other piece of tackle marked WYCO or Wyeth.
Have you seen any Wyeth fishing tackle?
-- Dr. Todd
Tuesday, April 12, 2011
The World's Most Collectable Snagged Hook Releaser?
The World's Most Collectable Snagged Hook Releaser?
The Patented Fish Hook Releaser of Omer Immell
A few months ago we ran an interesting history of Omer Immell, the creator of the iconic Chippewa fishing lure -- perhaps the most popular collectable lure in history. While most people attribute the Chippewa lure to around 1910, I found a really neat ad dated August 1908 that advertised a different kind of Immel product. It advertised the Immel "Snagged" Hook Releaser, a device for unhooking a bait from an underwater snag. It was made in two sizes and was sold by the Immel Manufacturing Company, meaning the firm that made the Chippewa was in business as early as the summer of 1908.
Immell eventually received Patent #892,730 for his fish hook releaser, issued July 07, 1908 (applied for only ten weeks before on April 24, 1908).
A terrific piece of Immel history, I'd love to see one of these. Does anyone own one?
As an aside, Immell was a creative inventor, and also patented a gaff hook he called a "Fish Grapple" in 1916:
-- Dr. Todd
UPDATE:
Terry Larsen writes:
Yes I own one and I have seen others. They are marked Immell Mfg. Co. on the lead around the base of the bullet-shaped weight. They were originally individually attached to a card but I do not have one on the card. I bought mine years ago at the first National in Pheasant Run. I travelled hundreds of miles to buy one when they were made 30 miles from me. Kinda ironic.
The Patented Fish Hook Releaser of Omer Immell
A few months ago we ran an interesting history of Omer Immell, the creator of the iconic Chippewa fishing lure -- perhaps the most popular collectable lure in history. While most people attribute the Chippewa lure to around 1910, I found a really neat ad dated August 1908 that advertised a different kind of Immel product. It advertised the Immel "Snagged" Hook Releaser, a device for unhooking a bait from an underwater snag. It was made in two sizes and was sold by the Immel Manufacturing Company, meaning the firm that made the Chippewa was in business as early as the summer of 1908.
Immell eventually received Patent #892,730 for his fish hook releaser, issued July 07, 1908 (applied for only ten weeks before on April 24, 1908).
A terrific piece of Immel history, I'd love to see one of these. Does anyone own one?
As an aside, Immell was a creative inventor, and also patented a gaff hook he called a "Fish Grapple" in 1916:
-- Dr. Todd
UPDATE:
Terry Larsen writes:
Yes I own one and I have seen others. They are marked Immell Mfg. Co. on the lead around the base of the bullet-shaped weight. They were originally individually attached to a card but I do not have one on the card. I bought mine years ago at the first National in Pheasant Run. I travelled hundreds of miles to buy one when they were made 30 miles from me. Kinda ironic.
Monday, April 11, 2011
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News of the Week: 11 April 2011
Don't have time to read 50+ fishing and tackle collecting blogs and web sites? Well, let us do it for you! Follow all of the latest news, articles, and stories on our Whitefishpress Twitter account! Hint: You don't need to be a member...just bookmark the Twitter Feed Page or click on latest links to the right!
Longtime collector Andy Foster gets profiled…the joy of gravel pits…a good season for Michigan Steelhead?…stopping gilnetters on the Columbia…saltwater anglers off the hook when it comes to saltwater fee…stream etiquette…remembering Blood Hook…Larry King is new Wal-Mart tackle spokesman?…Bill Eshelman, custom rod maker…Paddlefish snaggers…Mitch Keller remembers Stan Bogdan…how to teach an Orvis fly fishing class…Sylvie Malo-Clark ties a mean fly…a father's tackle box sparks memories…it must be THE NEWS OF THE WEEK!
The Big Lead: One of the truly good guys in the collecting world, Andy Foster, gets profiled.
Why gravel pits offer up fishing treasure.
Michigan Steelheaders could be in for a long, productive season.
New bill would limit salmon gillnetters on the Columbia.
New York saltwater anglers off the hook when it comes to fee.
Ken Coleman opines on stream etiquette .
Joe Cermele explores the beauty that is Blood Hook.
Is Larry King Wal-Mart's new fishing tackle spokesman?
The Palmyra NFLCC show gets a bump, with a great photo to boot.
Bill Eshelman's custom rods are getting popular.
Paddlefish snaggers put in WAY too much work for a fish that doesn't take a lure.
Mitch Keller remembers Stan Bogdan.
How to teach an Orvis fly fishing class.
This Western professor offers a workshop on fly casting.
Sylvie Malo-Clark shows you how to master the art of fly tying.
Finishing with a Flourish: Dad's old tackle box .
-- Dr. Todd
Sunday, April 10, 2011
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1000 Words
1000 Words
The Anonymous Angler
So many fish photos are unattributed; one can search any auction site and find hundreds of them. They capture a tiny fraction of time and space, and they leave behind questions that will never be answered.
Here's a favorite of mine. Undated, place unknown, boy angler unattributed. But it could just as well be anywhere, at any time between 1930 and 1960.
The Anonymous Angler is all of us. That's why these photos are so neat.
Here's to the unknown angler. May their pictures always reflect a simpler, and happier, time.
-- Dr. Todd
The Anonymous Angler
So many fish photos are unattributed; one can search any auction site and find hundreds of them. They capture a tiny fraction of time and space, and they leave behind questions that will never be answered.
Here's a favorite of mine. Undated, place unknown, boy angler unattributed. But it could just as well be anywhere, at any time between 1930 and 1960.
The Anonymous Angler is all of us. That's why these photos are so neat.
Here's to the unknown angler. May their pictures always reflect a simpler, and happier, time.
-- Dr. Todd
Saturday, April 9, 2011
Deconstructing Old Ads: Shoff's Casting Mouse (1931)
Shoff's Casting Mouse
With a huge thanks to Jerry Martin
From the pages of the May 1931 issue of Sports Afield comes today's ad (compliments of Warren Platt) for the Shoff's Casting Mouse. At first glance this bait looks like many flyrod deer hair mice. A closer read shows that this is no flyrod lure, but rather a baitcasting lure in both a Bass size (1/2 oz) and a Muskie size (3/4 oz). The ad claims it is a floater. Having experienced the tendency of deer hair flyrod baits to sink after a while, this seem remarkable to me. Not knowing all that much about the Shoff bait, I asked my friend Jerry Martin to give us some facts. Though I am seldom surprised by the depths of Jerry's knowledge when it comes to the history of flies and the companies that made them, I was not prepared for the amount of fascinating information Jerry provided. What follow is all Jerry Martin. After reading it you will know why I sure wish he'd publish that book he has been working on for many years...
"Clarence Shoff is recognized as the inventor of the clipped deer hair mouse. He filed for a patent for a “method of making a fish bait and the product thereof” on November 24, 1930. United States Patent No. 1,953,692 was granted on April 3, 1934. The patent taught the method for making clipped deer hair mice. Shoff found that the color and texture of clipped deer hair was ideally suited for creating realistic mouse imitations. He introduced the first fly rod deer hair mouse call Shoff’s Mouse in 1930. In that year a full page Shoff Tackle Company ad appeared in the Sporting Goods Journal Catalog. The first Shoff mice featured natural colored clipped deer hair bodies, black bead eyes, either leather or cord tails and deer hair whiskers. Tufts of deer body hair represented ears. Before the year was out the mice were tied with brown leather ears. Shoff mice were always nicely done—finely proportioned with densely packed hair. Shoff’s pioneering deer hair mouse established the general shape and conformation of the numerous mice of other manufacturers that were to follow. An all-white mouse was introduced in 1933. Advertisements appearing in 1936 said, “The New Shoff Mouse—Now made of reindeer hair.” Reindeer and caribou body hair yields dense, closely packed bodies with superior floatation properties. The hair, however, is more fragile and not as durable as deer body hair. Shoff apparently sold a lot of mice. Except for the musky size, which is very rare. Early fly rod Shoff mice were packaged in orange, two-piece, lift top, pasteboard boxes, printed in black. Later mice were packaged in plastic tubes with metal screw on caps. Shoff’s mouse is readily identified by the body shape.
Shoff's mouse is the classic deer hair mouse and other makers emulated or copied the lure in violation of Shoff’s patent. I suspect that Shoff found that the financial returns of the deer hair mouse market did not warrant the legal costs associated with challenging in the courtrooms the host of copycats.
Clarence Shoff was born in Kent, Washington on April 30, 1894. He died on May 24, 1975 The Shoff Tackle Co. was founded in 1922. In the beginning the company sold fly tying supplies and artificial flies (standard patterns, bass and trout bugs) tied by several local women. The first national advertisement found for the Shoff Tackle Co. appeared in 1925. As the company grew most of the production was distributed to the trade though jobbers and large retail outlets, including Sears, Roebuck and Co., Western Auto Supply, Dave Cook Sporting Goods, Marshall Field and Co., to name a few. Until the mid-1939s Shoff’s bother-in-law, Ed Madsen, served as plant manager. At this point Shoff established a second plant, called Wesco Tackle in Portland, Oregon. Madsen managed the Portland operation until his death in 1959.
In 1952 Clarence Shoff founded Lamiglas, Inc., a rod manufacturing business. Clarence's son Dave managed the Lamiglas operation from 1954-1959. Beginning in 1959 Dave assumed management of their retail store. Dave found he enjoyed retailing and assumed permanent management of the retail operation. The Shoff operation supplied several noted anglers of the time with flies including Zane Grey, Enos Bradner, C. C. Fields, Marvin Hedge and Eddy Bauer. Shoff also established a retail store in Kent. Dave was still alive a few years ago."
Thanks Jerry!
-- Bill Sonnett
Friday, April 8, 2011
late night worst post in history
this blog post contains zero html hyper language (sorry google bot)
ok, i added a picture that is not mine, so the no html thing was a lie, or at least it is a lie in the near foooooture. someone might leave mean comments about the picture, because it is not mine, but that will be ok
i thought this wheaties fuel cereal would be good, but it sucks, do not buy it, because it sucks!
yes, i took a nap, and now i am up late, and yes I work tomarrah, yes, i like to misspell tomorrow now my cat is watching me, seems very interested in paw typing
in the news, a budget deal was struck in washington to trim .00001 percent of the deficit, boy they really do know what they are doing after all !
do i look like a turtle ??
my new vest is in the vestibule
The Friday Funhouse
Video of the Week
Unlucky fisherman snags a whale.
12 Things I Would Buy If Only I Could Afford Them
This G.M. Skinner Gananonque Turkey Wing spinner is super, super, super rare.
One of the rarest sporting magazines ever offered on eBay is this January 1900 Field & Stream -- issued less than a year after the magazine began.
This is a great Paul H. Young bamboo fly rod.
The Van Staal VS 100 Christmas Edition is a great saltwater fishing reel.
This Canadian Lucky Strike is attracting tremendous collector interest.
When was the last time you saw a Pontiac Radium Minnow #1909 for sale?
A Samuel Friend Pardee Minnow in any shape is desirable.
Is this the rarest Heddon Magnum Hedd Plugg ever?
Love this Heddon Punkinseed 742X in the box!
A vintage Paw Paw Spoon Belly Wobbler Minnow is a great find.
A ten-tine vintage eel spear is a thing of beauty.
I've been telling people, vintage Zebco reels are exploding.
As always, have a great weekend, and be good to each other, and yourself!
-- Dr. Todd
Unlucky fisherman snags a whale.
12 Things I Would Buy If Only I Could Afford Them
This G.M. Skinner Gananonque Turkey Wing spinner is super, super, super rare.
One of the rarest sporting magazines ever offered on eBay is this January 1900 Field & Stream -- issued less than a year after the magazine began.
This is a great Paul H. Young bamboo fly rod.
The Van Staal VS 100 Christmas Edition is a great saltwater fishing reel.
This Canadian Lucky Strike is attracting tremendous collector interest.
When was the last time you saw a Pontiac Radium Minnow #1909 for sale?
A Samuel Friend Pardee Minnow in any shape is desirable.
Is this the rarest Heddon Magnum Hedd Plugg ever?
Love this Heddon Punkinseed 742X in the box!
A vintage Paw Paw Spoon Belly Wobbler Minnow is a great find.
A ten-tine vintage eel spear is a thing of beauty.
I've been telling people, vintage Zebco reels are exploding.
As always, have a great weekend, and be good to each other, and yourself!
-- Dr. Todd
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and this is why our president and all of us, really, cannot relent either.
It's our way of American life vs. theirs. No less.
Our frame, our vision benefits all Americans.
Theirs benefits the wealthiest 2% of Americans.