Does anyone know who, or what companies, manufactured Herter's spinning reels?
I recently saw a Herter's 1240 spinning reel in a local consignment shop; it was a decent looking burgundy colored reel that looked very similar to a Shakespeare 2052 and seemed to be pretty solid. I also saw a different Herter's reel online that looked very much like a D.A.M. Quick.
I'm not particularly interested in buying one, just curious about them.
I know they sourced a lot of stuff out of Japan. I bet Tommy would know a lot more.
Frank
Herter's outsourced all of their spinning reels. I've never heard of a Herter's 1240 but various Herter's reel models were made by Zangi of Italy, Dam Quick of Germany, J.W. Young of England and some by Japanese reel manufacturers.
Back in the bad old days (before online retailing), Herter's was one of the bigger mail order outfits for sporting goods. Headquartered in Waseca, Minn., they had shops later in other Minn. towns, as well as SD, Iowa & I believe Wash. state. I do not ever remember seeing a Herter's catalog (back then, my favorites were Netcraft [now Jann's] and Sears to a lesser extent), but I've heard tell it was a big deal for a lot of folks. See the catalogs up for sale on the big auction site often. I believe the company went bankrupt in the late '70s or early '80s & Geo. Herter died a few years after that (still has a cult following for some of the books he wrote). Supposedly, the company got overextended & hurt by rules that cut into the shipping of ammo & guns by mail. I understand Cabelas got the Herter's name & still sells some stuff using it.
Here's a little packing envelope I have from Herter's; I think it had some spinner parts or sinkers or something in it once. Despite what it says, I really wonder if Herter's did much manufacturing; the history of the company was always in retailing stuff & not making it.
Frank
It might be interesting to find an old Herter's catalog and see how many familiar looking reels they had made for them.
Those catalogs were reputedly a real interesting read. If anyone has an old one, like wfjord said, it would surely be fun to see some of the reel pages.
Frank
Still have a couple --
Interesting thing...these catalogs actually have more factual information than the original manufacturers ever offered.
So I think that the Editors and compilers of these catalogs had deep experience in sporting goods and equipment.
This is from 1971.
About an inch thick -- everything from fishing, hunting, clothing, camping, fly tying, rods, reels, firearms, snowmobiles, mini bikes, archery, and a ton more.
Never get tired of reading these.
Keep one next to the upstairs John.
Best,
Fred
Wow! That's impressive! Look at all those old Quicks and Mitchells. So they didn't just outsource copies under the Herter's name, they carried top of the line name brands.
Fred, somehow I'm not surprised (well, maybe a little bit) that you were able to actually produce a Herter's catalog. Looks like they carried everything for the outdoorsman --and I'd wager most of it is made of metal and organic materials.
I like the line at the bottom of the front cover -- "Old World Craftsmanship -- New World Production." It's too bad that during our lifetime that standard, with maybe a few exceptions, has largely faded into history.
So a Mitchell 300 was $1.10 more than a D.A.M. Quick 220. Interesting.
Got ahold of one of Geo. Herter's books "Professional Fly Tying, Spinning and Tackle Making" and for anyone interested in fly tying, there are some interesting and seldom seen patterns in there. Almost 600 pages. All kinds of fly patterns. He stated in the intro that no single individual's opinions dominate the manual, but, true salesman that he was, the Herter's business name is referenced more than a few times.
Frank
I noticed that book is available on Amazon. Seems George Leonard Herter had his hand in a lot of things and produced numerous books.
The Herters cork body duck decoys were the best thing going. I don't know if they made them but nobody else had anything similar.
-steve
Quote from: wfjord on December 07, 2017, 04:57:11 AM
Seems George Leonard Herter had his hand in a lot of things and produced numerous books.
Some of his books had little, if anything, to do with fishing. He was a bit of a Renaissance man.
Frank
Resurrecting an old thread here, does anyone know(Midway Tommy especially) if South Bend or the Gladding Corp. make any spinning reels for Herter's?
This reel advertised on Ebay looks identical to an old SB my dad used during the early 1970s. I gave it to my nephew several years ago and he was fishing it last time I asked. If so, it's larger than a Mitchell 300 but smaller than a 306.
I remember having the big Herter's catalog and ordering some things from it but not reels.
Fred I had that very Catalog and I ordered a bunch of stuff, lure making parts, arrow making parts. Herters was my go to. what memories.
The first fly reel that I ever bought, a single action South Bend, is pictured on the upper left of the left page.
I bought a Herter's catalog for a dollar back in the late 60's, a few years later, after I bought the South Bend HCH (later a 7 Wt.) fly rod and reel set, from a Thrifty Drug store.
Quote from: festus on March 21, 2019, 03:10:13 PM
Resurrecting an old thread here, does anyone know(Midway Tommy especially) if South Bend or the Gladding Corp. make any spinning reels for Herter's?
This reel advertised on Ebay looks identical to an old SB my dad used during the early 1970s. I gave it to my nephew several years ago and he was fishing it last time I asked. If so, it's larger than a Mitchell 300 but smaller than a 306.
I remember having the big Herter's catalog and ordering some things from it but not reels.
South Bend nor Gladding ever made any spinning reels. All of their spinning reels were outsourced. Herter's outsourced all of their fishing reels, casting, fly, spincast & spinning.
That 930 has some similarities to Daiwas from that era.
Quote from: basto on March 21, 2019, 08:27:50 PM
That 930 has some similarities to Daiwas from that era.
That era had a bunch of lookalikes. I have a Shakespeare 2200 and a Compac 89, they look identical other than color of the rotor, side plates, housing, and spool. I think Pflueger also had one almost identical.
Quote from: festus on March 21, 2019, 08:44:02 PM
Quote from: basto on March 21, 2019, 08:27:50 PM
That 930 has some similarities to Daiwas from that era.
That era had a bunch of lookalikes. I have a Shakespeare 2200 and a Compac 89, they look identical other than color of the rotor, side plates, housing, and spool. I think Pflueger also had one almost identical.
During that time frame there were a limited number of Japanese reel manufactures, and some of the major, well known, names came out of the same factories.
Tommy's gotta be right; rather than Gladding/South Bend making reels for Herter's, probably all three sourced a reel or reels from the same Japanese manufacturer.
I read somewhere once that Shakespeare made some reels for South Bend and SB made some rods for Shaky. That may or may not be true, but could be another case of a common source providing gear to multiple retailers.
I have seen literature (i.e reel schematics) that have the South Bend and DAM Quick name on them. Likely another case of SB acknowledging the source of some of it's gear.
Frank
I remember that Herters catalog! Great reading!
One article I remember above all, and it might have been or near the front or back page, was about how WWIII was going to start: Memory is from long ago but I seem to recall the author (Herter) believed the triggering event would be that the Russians would send over a nuclear bomber to the US, but skillfully marked with Chinese markings. The bomb would blow up and we would react against the Chinese! Taa daa!!!
Memories, indeed!
Sounds like an old Richard Widmark film (the name escapes me), where the ChiComs painted up a B-29 in US markings, and intended to bomb Japan with it. Widmark, in an old "sewer type" Japanese sub, landed on the island where the bomber was and the sub crew ended up blowing up the whole works. Action at it's 1950s finest!
Frank
I think the movie is "Hell and High Water"
I recently bought a Herter's Professional 940 at a garage sale. It's in like new condition and would like to use it. I wonder if Foakes would mind looking in his catalog for the specs, mainly range of line weights. I'm thinking 10 to 15, but it would be nice to know. Thanks