American Museum of Fly Fishing Announces New Commemorative-Tackle Program

In an effort to repeatedly carry fly-fishing historical past to mild in new and attention-grabbing methods, the American Museum of Fly Fishing is kicking off an thrilling program to create commemorative items of basic American sort out in partnership with a number of the world’s most interesting reel-makers, rod-builders and artisans. As a result of important quantity of effort and time it takes to create these commemorative items, AMFF is producing them in very restricted portions, with a purpose of 1 new launch per 12 months. By way of this program, AMFF hopes to make clear a variety of historically-significant gadgets that comparatively few anglers learn about, however which have closely influenced the sort out we nonetheless use at present. For the primary launch, AMFF’s curator Jim Schottenham selected an extremely uncommon and essential instance of American reel-making, a c. 1850s Morgan James Reel.

Morgan James, like many different early-American reel makers, was a notable gunsmith from New York. Whereas AMFF continues to be working to accumulate a Morgan James reel for its assortment (solely 3 or 4 are recognized to nonetheless exist), they had been in a position to mannequin their commemorative reel after one in every of his authentic “Pillbox” type reels on mortgage from a collector. One of the vital attention-grabbing elements of the fly reels from this era (1850-60s) was that they had been nearly all “side-mount” reels. Right here’s an excerpt from an public sale catalog, written by Bob Lang in 1999, which explains why these reels are so essential from a historic perspective:

The side-mount reel takes its identify from the truth that it’s mounted horizontally (actually on its aspect) reasonably than vertically, as are most typical fly reels at present. The non-horizontally mounted reel now survives solely within the trendy computerized fly reel, however in the course of the late nineteenth century, it was a very fashionable single-action fly reel.

Not like, for instance, Kentucky Baitcasting Reels, little has been written about side-mount fly reels. One of many few research is by Jim Brown, “Aspect-mount Fly Reels: American Classics”, The American Fly Fisher (winter 1985). The image that emerges from this and different sources means that the aspect mount reel is a distinctively American product with few, if any, British antecedents. It additionally seems that simply because the birthplace of the American bait-casting reel is now considered Kentucky, the origin of the side-mount fly reel could be very probably in New York.

This regionalization of fishing reels is simply starting to be understood however what is obvious is that side-mount reels characterize the nation’s earliest authentic efforts to make reels appropriate for fly fishing. William Billinghurt’s 1859 patent birdcage reel is now usually accepted as the primary American fly reel and a sort of stylistic prototype for the numerous side-mount reels to comply with. The vast majority of these side-mount reels are true classic antiques, being over 100 years previous and as one would possibly count on many are very uncommon.

In reality, due to the early time interval there are some exceptionally attention-grabbing “home-made” side-mounts. There have been comparatively few industrial reel makers in America previous to the Civil struggle and a really sturdy custom of beginner tackle-making. In an age when retailer purchased manufactured merchandise had been each troublesome to acquire and costly, it made sense for anglers to both make reels on their very own or go to the native gunsmith, clockmaker, or jeweler to have reels made for them. Such reels are sometimes unsigned however could show a powerful sense of design and craft or a folky primitivism that could be very interesting.

AMFF is producing simply twelve reels, with No. 001 going into the museum’s everlasting assortment and Nos. 003-012 being provided as a part of a brand new lifetime membership package deal that’s already bought out. Nevertheless, reel No. 002 was reserved for AMFF’s remaining raffle of the 12 months, so everybody can have an opportunity to personal this unimaginable piece of historical past. The grand prize package deal consists of the reel, a customized field and a sturdy set of period-accurate equipment to finish the total historic expertise in the event you win. The package deal additionally features a lifetime AMFF membership, and tickets begin at simply $20 with all proceeds benefiting AMFF and the essential work they do.

Click here to see the full set of specs and to purchase tickets