Browse by era · 4 decades

Eras

Every reel in the catalog is filed under the decade its design began. The 1940s page also holds the oldest designs (the Medalist, the Senator, the Squidder and Shakespeare's casting reels). The 1950s brought the Ambassadeur, the Zebco 33 and the Garcia Mitchell; the 1960s the ball-bearing 5000C and Penn's first Spinfishers; the 1970s the high-speed Ambassadeurs and Daiwa's Millionaire. Click any decade to see its references.

Era

1940s

13 references

This era page also holds the catalogue's oldest designs, which predate the 1940s: the Pflueger Medalist (1929), the Pflueger Supreme and Akron casting reels (1920s), the Penn Long Beach name (1933), the Penn Senator (1936) and the Penn Squidder (1938), along with Shakespeare's Kalamazoo casting reels. In the 1940s itself ABU of Sweden turned from watches and timers to fishing reels, dating its first reel, the Record, to 1941, and in 1948 Mitchell introduced the 300 spinning reel in Cluses, France.

Era

1950s

9 references

ABU launched the Record Ambassadeur 5000 in 1952, followed by the deeper-spool 5000A and the larger 6000 in 1955, and from April 1957 Mitchell reels sold in America through Garcia were inscribed Garcia Mitchell. Zebco introduced the 33 push-button reel in 1954 and adopted the Zebco name in 1956. Penn added the Jigmaster boat reel in 1959, Mitchell's ultralight 308 arrived at the end of the decade, and Shakespeare's Direct Drive casting reels were in production in Kalamazoo.

Era

1960s

7 references

Penn introduced its first spinning reels, the Spinfisher 700 series, in 1961, leading to the 704 and, from 1966, the 710. Zebco was bought by Brunswick in 1961 and launched the 202 the same year. ABU began making the ball-bearing Ambassadeur 5000C in 1966 and moved its frames from four screws to three in January 1968. Mitchell added the high-speed 410 in 1966 and the 386 and 486 saltwater reels later in the decade, and in 1966 Shakespeare bought Pflueger.

Era

1970s

7 references

ABU added high-speed Ambassadeurs, starting with the 5500C in 1973 and followed by the 6500C, and introduced the big 7000 and the automatic two-speed 9000. Medalist fly reels moved from Akron to Asian factories from 1970, Mitchell began its letter date code in 1971, and Zebco launched the premium Omega line in 1973. Daiwa's Millionaire baitcasters and Silver Series spinning reels such as the 7000C arrived from Japan. In 1978 Garcia, the American importer of ABU and Mitchell, went into Chapter 11.

Eras