4" JJS Walker Bampton & Co salmon reel

 

I have received my Walker Bampton reel that I bought soon after the Walker Bampton rod. The rod will follow soon as there was another purchace from the same seller. What a great reel - hopefully it will work well with the rod and compliment the classic lines of the split-cane whilst out on the river.

4" diameter (100mm) traditional aluminium salmon reel. Probably made for Walker Bampton by Dingley, circa 1930.

With strong fixed click check, ebonite handle knob with brass fittings, nickel silver line roller, aluminium foot mounted with 4 steel screws. The reel is quite heavy by today's standards, but it is very solid and looks like it will last for another century or two.

The reel has been stored in a dusty box somewhere for ages, but has very old grease keeping the mechanism in good working order.

It arrived with an old olive-green braided line, probably a backing line on the spool.

 

The stamp says: "J.J.S. Walker.Bampton & Co - Makers - Alnwick"

The variable brake and ratchet system. Optimised for right hand retrieve which is fine for me. It clicks when the spool turns both ways, a little stiffer when the line is pulled out obviously. Not much difference between the maximum setting either way - I don't thing the fish would notice.

Vintage flies

Whilst on the topic of vintage fishing tackle and prices, why not talk about vintage flies and how much they are worth. What is the value of a particular fly? An old design can always be made again - right? So is it worthwhile or wise to spend money on old vintage flies?

How can you put a value on flies? Can you test the fungi, rot and mildew? Are some old patterns not made any more? Are certain flies tied in a certain way? Is there a surplus value on the old in some cases?

 

I recently picked up a collection of old salmon flies. I based my decision to buy on the price of modern flies and I think that I got a good deal. They are about 50 years old so is this good? We'll see if they catch fish. Or else they just may end up in a framed box on the wall...

Vintage reels

What about vintage reels? Is the idea of paying thousands of Pounds, Dollars or Euros for and old and dusty reel worthwhile? I sometimes think that Fly fishing is a sport taken up by the super-rich and these guys feel that if they are not spending £600 on a reel then it must be crap.

I do collect various things. I do understand that collectors are willing to pay high prices to satisfy their desires to own one of every model of a particular brand.

I have a romantic desire to catch a large brown trout on a cane rod.

I'll show some vintage stuff soon.

Vintage rods

I'm now suckered into this hobby. If someone had warned me at the start that it was going to get expensive then I may have taken up train-spotting, but I started of with good cheap products from Decathlon and as I'm fishing more, and reading about fishing online when I'm not fishing, then I'm getting pulled down into the vortex of hi-tech modern, authentic classic rods and expensive equipment.

I see a split-cane rod on eBay. It sells for about £100. The same rod - as it is very specific - sold at an auction house a month earlier for £30 together with a couple of other rods. It seems the home shoppers are paying top dollar for items that cost quite a bit less if you are prepared to do some leg-work.

eBay is a wonderful place to shop as it is all there, but you are not buying vintage items cheaply. It is the guys that go to the smaller auction houses picking up equipment from the estates of the deceased that are getting the deals, but then they sell the items straight on to mugs like me...

Look at any old Hardy rod in good condition. It will sell for £70 to £300 depending on condition and rarity. There are more expensive ones and there are the roughed up damages rods that go for nothing, but there must be thousands of old rods sitting in attics all over Europe. Fishing was and probably still is the most wildly practised hobby amongst the boys and men of Europe.

I now have a J.J.S. Walker-Bampton & Co rod and reel. Probably made in the 1930's in Alnwick, Northumberland. What did I pay for them... go figure!

Fly Reels

I've had a couple of fly reels that I've used over the last 10 years. I've been happy with my good value Decathlon rods and reels. The Decathlon #5/6 'May Fly' branded reel (left) with a diameter of 80mm has worked fine over the last seven or eight years. Priced at 229 Francs (€34.91) in about 1999. Decathlon is a great first stop for anyone starting out in a new sport and you can get full equipped without breaking the bank.









#5/6 BFR SuperFly-75 reel (right). Bought from Decathlon and also priced at €34.91 seven years ago. 88mm in diameter. Recently have I been looking at the market as a whole and seen the scope of what is available. As I've been expanding my rod collection recently, I've bought two new reels too, one relatively cheap Blazer 5/6 and a reasonably prised Vision Koma 6/7.










The #5/6 Blazer (left) looks nice and shiny, but is actually a cheap, die cast, low cost reel sold on eBay for under £15 (€22) and promoted as a higher quality reel. It works fine, but would make a good present for a kid with aspirations of getting into fly fishing. A smaller reel with a diameter of 70mm. I think my son will use this reel until he asks for something better.










The #6/7 Koma reel (right), made by the Finnish company Vision, has a good retrieve rate with its 97mm diameter spool. Anodized to a titanium finish these reels not only look the part but also out perform any other reel in their category (so says the blurb). Semi-machined - so I suppose semi die-cast too. Priced just under £50 (€74), it is a reasonably priced good reel and I think that it is excellent value for money. My main reel is loaded with Greys GRXi Floating WF#6 line.








This (left) is the spare spool of the Vision Koma that is loaded with Greys GRXi Intermediate WF#6 clear line. Both spools have 75m green 30lb backing.

In the big scheme of things, all these reels are very affordable. The quality amongst them is mainly fine, although I can arrange these reels from cheapest to mopst expensive and there is a direct relation with their quality. So what of the Hardy, Greys, Orvis, G Loomis and Loop reels. Can you justify £250, £400 or even £800 or more for a fly reel? So are we to assume that the expensive reels are that much better? Perhaps so...





I wonder if I will ever justify the purchase of a new Hardy Angel, Bouglé or Cascapedia reel - not just to the wife, but to myself!