Hello,
I'm not really passionate about fishing or fishing gear, although I occasionally attend fishing competitions in my home country of France. I'm particularly interested in the history of C.A.P. and Mitchell reels, as it's closely linked to my family history. Indeed, in 1931, the Rochards and Joanny Charou, in Lyon, founded the La Canne à Pêche factory in Angers, the company that created the C.A.P. reel (the acronym for La Canne à Pêche) and marketed the first Mitchell reel from Carpano & Pons (the Cluses engineers having worked on improving the C.A.P. reel since 1939).
I published an article on the Mitchell Reel Museum to share the history of my ancestors' company and to correct some errors due to my ignorance. However, its website is now inaccessible, and a new one is work in progress. I've read some inaccuracies here about the C.A.P. reel, showing that the information wasn't getting out, which is why I signed up for this forum.
So, if you don't mind, I'll chime in when the history of the C.A.P. reel and the Mitchell reel is discussed, and if you're interested, I'll post photographs of the commemorative version of the millionth Mitchell reel, dedicated to Emile Rochard, the first owner of La Canne à Pêche (and a fisherman as passionate as you).
Kind regard
Paul Rochard
Welcome aboard, Paul!
We look forward to your historical insights regarding the C.A.P. reels.
I have a couple of large bins of CAP reels, plus lots of parts for them.
Best, Fred
welcome!!!!
Welcome Paul. Never heard of a CAP before today, but I'd like to see that 1 millionth commemorative reel. Rick
Hi. Information is always appreciated.
That sounds interesting,I do hot have any CAPs yet...but the 304 is one of my favorite reels, simple & dependable.
welcome from another newbie
I read the history article in the Mitchell Reel Museum site a-while before it shut down. I would love to hear more, including important details that you could add and corrections that need to be made.
In fact, if the administrator and moderators approve, maybe you could start at the beginning in a series of posts.
Personally, I find too many history publications kind of lacking in interesting detail. This morning I read an article about the history of an American baseball team. Riddled with syntax errors, it was written like a Grade-Schoolers report that he/she didn't wanna have to do, and this was on a major American News organization's website.
Thanks Paul, now that you have had a chance to review, your history off the Mitchell story, it would be very handy, for many of us, and welcome from Sunny Western Australia, cheers Don.
Howdy!!
Thank you for your welcome.
As promised, photographs of the version commemorating the millionth Mitchell reel are available for viewing.
I don't claim to know the entire history of the C.A.P. and Mitchell reels (as some gray areas remain), although I can rely on the testimony of Emile Rochard's son and documents from La Canne à Pêche, unfortunately many of which have been lost over time. Nor do I claim to have a complete understanding of the technical evolution of the C.A.P. reel and the Mitchell reel. I simply believe that my knowledge and documents complement the history written by the Mitchell Reel Museum and definitively correct errors due to a lack of sources, such as the belief that C.A.P. stands for "Carpano And Pons" rather than La Canne à Pêche, or that the latter company was founded in Algiers (rather than Angers).
I don't know if I should tell you about it, so I'll say little, but rest assured that work is underway to gather sources and evidence on the history of C.A.P. and Mitchell reels, as well as looking at the relationships between the companies that contributed to the commercial success of the Mitchell reel (notably Carpano & Pons, La Canne à Pêche, Impecco and Garcia) to best reconstruct the story that was.
Greetings, Paul, from Minnesota USA. It sounds like you have a lot to share & I look forward to hearing more from you on this AT site.
Frank
Welcome Paul from Southern California! - john
Bienvenu, from Dominick, San Mateo, CA.
Good to have you on board Paul. Bill