Vintage Rods and Reels
Jake, a trout camp regular, is a purest when it comes to fishing equipment. He uses a variety of vintage reels and sliding-ring cork handle spinning rods. Maintaining these reels, mostly vintage Shakespeare models from the 1950s, is not an easy gig. These are tiny complex machines made with somewhat less than durable parts. For him, looking for vintage reels at garage and estate sales is second nature. Not just looking for a prize unused, boxed reel, but finding reels to use for replacement parts.
Part of Jake’s enthusiasm for vintage equipment is the simple casting mechanics the complex engineering provides: Pinch the line against the cork handle of the rod, backwind the reel handle one quarter turn to release the line, cast releasing the line with your finger, then wind the lure in. The body of the reel is placed close to the rod so pinching the line is made simple. If you can master the underhand flip cast, pioneered by Jake Lucas, a consultant to Shakespeare in the 50s and 60s, the line next to the reel has another advantage: you can pinch the line to stop the lure in flight when it reaches the stream bank or piece of cover holding fish on a trout stream. (For more on Jake Lucas use the blog search tool).
This week I went though my big box of old fishing stuff and found several vintage Shakespeare reels. Models 1755, 1756 and 1810. I did some testing to see which reel had the best drive train and decided on the model 1755 FF. I put some fresh lube on the main gears and swapped out the round dowel handle for a flat one, put it on a sliding-ring cork handle rod and tested it in the driveway. Whoa. Smooth. The Michigan trout season starts the last Saturday in April. Looks like two of us will be time traveling back to the 50s this spring.
Fichigan 