Abu Garcia
9 references
ABU began in 1921 in Svängsta, Sweden, as AB Urfabriken, a precision works founded by Carl August Borgström that made pocket watches, telephone timers and taximeters.
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Seven brands carry the entire vintage reel catalog, from pre-war American casting reels to 1970s Japanese baitcasters. The American makers (Penn, Pflueger, Shakespeare, Zebco) dominate the saltwater and panfish ends. The European and Japanese makers (Abu Garcia from Sweden, Mitchell from France, Daiwa from Japan) own the bass-baitcaster and freshwater-spinning ends. Click any brand to see every reference we track.
9 references
ABU began in 1921 in Svängsta, Sweden, as AB Urfabriken, a precision works founded by Carl August Borgström that made pocket watches, telephone timers and taximeters.
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Penn Fishing Tackle was founded in Philadelphia in 1932 by Otto Henze, a German immigrant, and built its reputation on simple, rugged saltwater reels that anglers could service themselves.
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Mitchell reels were made by the Carpano & Pons company in Cluses, in the French Alps, a region known for precision watch and clock work.
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Pflueger reels were made by the Enterprise Manufacturing Company of Akron, Ohio, founded by the Pflueger family in 1881.
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Zebco began as the Zero Hour Bomb Company of Tulsa, Oklahoma, which made electric timers for the explosives used in oil-well work.
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The Shakespeare Company was founded in Kalamazoo, Michigan, in 1897 by William Shakespeare Jr, and for most of the twentieth century it was one of America's largest makers of fishing reels.
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Daiwa was founded in Japan by engineer Yoshio Matsui, starting as Matsui Manufacturing in 1955 and becoming Daiwa in 1958.
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