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.
As Spring makes way for Summer and the mayflies fly off, we are still catching trout on the weekends. We went out early on Saturday morning. Before I even had my bait in the water, Tom had his first trout on the hook. Tom caught two 32cm rainbow trout. I also brought home 2 for the pot. We actually stopped fishing due to the rain that seemed to fall only over the lake where we were. As we drove off at about 10:30, it cleared up again. We left wet, but very content.
