Pflueger

Pflueger reels were made by the Enterprise Manufacturing Company of Akron, Ohio, founded by the Pflueger family in 1881. Its best-known reel is the Medalist fly reel, introduced in 1929 after a 1928 design-patent application: a simple single-action reel with a click and an adjustable drag that became the standard American trout reel and has stayed in production ever since. Pflueger also made casting reels for generations of bass and river anglers, from the premium Supreme, which first appeared in the 1920s, to the everyday Akron, whose model number 1893 is often mistaken for a date. Shakespeare bought Pflueger in 1966 and kept making Medalists in Akron until the end of the 1960s; from 1970 they were made in Asia, and letter codes after the model number help identify the later reels. Akron-made Medalists with early features such as a round line guide or a patent-pending marking are the collector tier, and later Medalists are inexpensive, dependable fishing reels. The Pflueger name lives on today on imported reels.