Index Of Reel Makers: M-Z

MEISSELBACH,  A.F.  A. F. Meisselbach, the son of German immigrants, designed his first fishing reel in 1885. At the tender age of 20 he received a patent on this reel and then convinced  A.G. Spalding & Bros. to sell the reel for him. This reel was a simple single action reel, that we call the Amateur. Demand was brisk, and “Gus” soon convinced his brother, William, to go into the business with him and their Newark, NJ garage was soon humming with machine work. In 1888 they expanded their line rapidly and moved into a larger machine shop. That year they added the Expert Reel, the Universal Rod Holder and their famous line of Spring Bow nets.

In 1896 more innovative reels were added to their inventory, with the Allright and the raised pillar Featherlight fly reels. At this time they also moved into a new three story factory. Sales boomed and soon A.F. Meisselbach & Bro. was one of the largest manufacturers of fishing reels in the country. However, the boom was yet to come. From the beginning, their products were of the finest quality, but very inexpensive. They were all aimed toward the average working man.

In the early 1900s, the Meisselbach brothers patented their most famous product, the Takapart reel and shortly thereafter its smaller brother, the Tripart reel. The initial Takaparts were called “Take-Apart” and were not the familiar tube frame reel that we usually think of when talking about Takaparts or Triparts.

A.F. Meisselbach & Brother finally incorporated in the state of New Jersey in 1906. Until this date they had not stamped their own name on any of the reels or accessories that they were selling. Many of the reels were stamped with model names or patent dates and these are the only identifying marks left to identify your early reels.  Sales boomed from 1900 to 1917. There were over 75 employees in their factory and their products were sold all over the U.S. and Europe. They were also in the general machining business and were one of the largest manufacturers of phonograph parts in the east.

In 1917, the A.F. Meisselbach & Bro. Corporation was sold to the Otto Heineman Phonograph Supply Co. of New York City. Heineman changed the name to A.F. Meisselbach Mfg. Co. and moved the company headquarters to NYC. Gus and William retired to the NJ coast and spent their time
surf fishing. William died in 1919, and Gus died in 1927 at 61 years of age.  Heineman trimmed the Meisselbach reel line to the basic models and in 1921 the reel tooling and production was moved to another factory in Elyria, Ohio. In 1925 the parent company name was changed to General Industries. Some collectible reels came from Ohio, most notably the Okeh series. However, the great depression of the 1930s brought about a lowering of quality and the great old reels of A.F. Meisselbach & Bro. disappeared from the lineup one by one.

With the advent of World War II, General Industries turned their production to war materials and all fishing reel production was stopped in 1941 and was not resumed after the war. This was the end of the Meisselbach name on quality fishing tackle. It was also the end of the name Meisselbach in the U.S. since Gus, married late in life, had no children. William was a life-long bachelor, so there were no descendants left to carry on the name.

[White, Phil.  2005.  “Meisselbach & Meisselbach-Catucci Fishing Reels – Their History and Values.“ Lakeshore Press, Nampa, Idaho]
Research and pictures provided by Roger Schulz with permission of the author.

MEISSELBACH-CATUCCI  COROPORATION  The Meisselbach-Catucci Corporation was founded in 1910 by A. F. Meisselbach and Pliny Catucci. Catucci, immigrated to the U.S. in 1890. Shortly after 1900 he went to work for the Meisselbach brothers and his talent was immediately recognized. He was a great inventor and held many of the patents on Meisselbach reels. He also held many patents for phonograph designs and parts.

The Meisselbach-Catucci Corporation was started to do the custom machine work business (mainly gear manufacturing) for the Meisselbach’s. The Meisselbach-Catucci Corporation also built and sold the Meisselbach-Catucci Gear Hobbing machine. This company was located in Newark, NJ in a building back to back with the A. F. Meisselbach& Bro. facility.  Meisselbach-Catucci was not engaged in reel manufacturing until after the sale of A. F. Meisselbach & Bro. to the Heineman Phonograph Supply Co. When A. F. Meisselbach Mfg. Co. was moved to Elyria, Ohio in 1921, Pliny Catucci decided the Meisselbach-Catucci gear cutting business would expand into fishing reel manufacturing. Many of the reelsmiths from the A.F. Meisselbach Co. went to work for Catucci.

In 1922, Catucci came out with a pair of casting reels, called “Symplopart” Reels; one a non level wind and the other a level wind reel. By 1924 his Stanton Street factory was making free spool and anti-backlash reels as well and in 1926 he added a line of Bakelite fly reels. All the Meisselbach-Catucci reels were well designed and machined.

By the late 1920s the Meisselbach-Catucci Reel Company was one of the major manufacturers of bait casting reels in the United States and
had a reputation for value and quality. The whole Catucci family was involved in the business, with Pliny’s sons William in charge of sales and Walter working in the factory. Disaster then struck in the form of the crash of ’29 and the resulting depression caught up to him. The reel manufacturing division of Meisselbach-Catucci was sold to the Bronson Reel Company, of Bronson, Michigan in 1931. Bronson continued to manufacture the full line of Meisselbach-Catucci reels with no changes. They even still had the Newark, NJ address on them. Some of the Bronson M-C fly reels are stamped “Mfd by Bronson Reel Co. since June 1931” on the foot. Otherwise, it is very difficult to distinguish a New Jersey reel from a Michigan reel.

The high quality bait casting reels became a casualty of the depression, and were dropped from Bronson catalogs in the mid ’30s. The fly reels lasted until World War II, and then were gone when Bronson returned to reel making following the war.

[White, Phil. 2005.  “Meisselbach & Meisselbach-Catucci Fishing Reels – Their History and Values.“ Lakeshore Press, Nampa, Idaho]
Reel pictures and research provided by Roger Schulz with permission of the author.

MEYER, LOU,

MITCHELL, with permission from Wallace Carney of the Mitchell Museum,  www.mitchellreelmuseum.com

Mitchell Fishing Reel History
From the origins of Mitchell in the Arve Valley of France, through its formative years in 1939, to its launch in 1942 and meteoric rise for “30 Glorious Years”, to its place today in 2013 as one of the greatest fishing reels ever made! This is the story of how it all happened beginning in Arve Valley, Cluses, France in the year 1310.
From 1310 to 1937
Snuggled in the Arve Valley by the French Alps is a city named Cluses in eastern France, the birthplace of “The Mitchell” spinning reel. The French word “cluse” means a gap between mountains. This narrow gap is where the birth home is. The city was formed in 1310 when Baron Hugues de Faucigny Clusiens granted a Charter of Franchises, an act of empowerment that sets the municipal borders, the rights of Clusiens, and created
the first form of governing elected officials.
In the early 18th Century an economic adventure began in Cluses when a man from the valley named Ballaloud first introduced watch making to Clusiens. He learned the art of watch making in Germany and started making many variations thus creating many jobs.
Throughout the century, the watch making industry increased. In 1848, the Piedmont government created a school in Cluses for Royal watches called Ecole Nationale d’Horlogerie de Cluses (Cluses National School of Watchmaking) that quickly became the center for teaching the clock making art. In the mid-1930s, Charles Pons, now owner and CEO of Carpano & Pons employed Maurice Jacquemin, a top graduate from the French National Mechanics College in Paris France.
During this same time, a fishing tackle company called La Canne à Pêche located in Angers, France started developing a reel they named after their own company called the C.A.P. They contracted Carpano & Pons for further development. Maurice had helped Mr. Pons with this reel but at the same time he worked on another  reel.
Maurice, now chief engineer, believed the could produce a reel that was not just a simple container to hold fishing line, but a precision tool that would cast at a greater distance with precision and be able to recover the fishing line without tangling. After years of research and development, the Mitchell spinning reel was born, a marked departure from the reels of its day in mechanics and appearance.
The revolutionary design incorporated special gearing and a longer axle to accommodate a wider spool between plates. In other words, the reel was designed around the spool. Due to the axle length required for the spool, the classic elongated “egg-shape” body was designed. The oscillation had to be increased by about 30% and extreme level-wind gearing was used. This reel was named after Maurice Jacquimin’s son Michel but French law prohibited proper names to be used as product brand names thus the “Anglicized” name Mitchell.
From 1937 to 1962  Carpan & Pons began production of the C.A.P reel in 1937 and by 1939 both reels were in test run production now called first versions but in fact; they were pilot or test reels. In 1942 the first Mitchell second versions were produced
for sale in France with several minor design changes up to 1946. The Mitchell third version started in 1946 and due to the forthcoming success, clock making was gradually lost and then completely disappears behind this new industry.  Export was quickly put in motion in 1946 by Jules Gumprich, owner of Impecco, Paris, an established import/export company with close ties to Carpano & Pons and La
Canne à Pêche and his brother Otto Gumprich, owner of Charles Garcia & Company in America. Otto and Jules had been working together starting in 1937, selling large quantities of Silkworm Gut. Demand was high since the varieties used for surgery and for leaders came in various lengths and diameters. Fishing lines of various sorts were also imported including the special double tapers for fly-fishing and the common braided lines, which were the only ones available for fishing reels at the time.
Other imports included various raw materials such as Lamb Gut for tennis and badminton rackets as well as for stronger sutures, Kapok and other natural fibers used for domestic wares such as mattresses, carpets and so on. Before the war, Jules had sent both reels to Otto with the suggestion they would be desirable products.
Initially the first Mitchell reels made and owned by Carpano & Pons were only made with the Mitchell name engraved but starting in the early 1950s the range grew with models covering both fresh and salt water of various sizes including the new Mitchell Salt Water, the Mitchell Otomatic and the Mitchell Rapid.
Carpano& Pons privately announces the first Mitchell “milestone” in 1955 by celebrating 10,000 crates of Mitchell reels being exported. Each crate contained 60 reels for a total of 600,000 reels!
It was then reported in The New York Times that “Mitchell reels were brought here shortly after WW2 by servicemen” and that “300,000 spinning reels came (imported) here in 1955, mostly Mitchell” and last but not least; “Garcia promoted this reel shortly after invention of mono-filament line”, a profound statement if you think about it!
Carpano & Pons again privately celebrates another Mitchell milestone in 1957 with the 1,000,000 Mitchell reel. This privacy was very well kept! Doug DeSimone, surviving son of Louis DeSimone, only revealed these reels in 2007, 50 years later
By 1958 the Mitchell 300, Mitchell 302 (Salt Water), Mitchell 304 (round body), Mitchell 306 (intermediate), Mitchell 308 (ultra-light),
Mitchell 330 (auto-bail) and the Mitchell 350 (high-speed) series reels were being marketed worldwide. Many other models evolved throughout the years from these original seven, too numerous to mention.
From 1962 to 1978  1962 marked the time of 5,000,000 Mitchell reels being made. In 1966 Mitchell privately celebrated 10,000,000 Mitchell reels sold. The 1966 10-Millionth Medallion shown was presented to Robert Lenk, VP of The Garcia Corporation for his valued
contributions to Mitchell. Bob was Tom Lenk’s Brother.
By 1968 Mitchell was now producing several new models including the big game fishing reel series that had been in R&D for several years. At the time it was as if nothing could stop the Mitchell brand. Every angling schoolboy aspired to owning a Mitchell, every match angler certainly had at least one and many had more!
The sterling silver Mitchell 300 shown was presented to a few top National Agents to commemorate the worldwide sale of 20 million Mitchell reels. The other commemorative reel is referred to as the Mitchell 410 20-Millionth Global and was also presented to a select few top executives.
In a 1971 press release it’s reported by Carpano & Pons that out of 83 counties importing Mitchell reels, The Garcia Corporation was importing 65% of all exports. “Each week, 25 tons of reels are dispatched from Cluses bound for the American fishermen.” This article also states they were currently making 10,000 Mitchell reels per day with 15% of these being sold in France. The 83 countries were selling to over 5,600 retailers.
The Garcia Corporation was a dominant and revolutionary force in the fishing tackle market and purchased “Mitchell” from Carpano & Pons on June 17, 1974. To celebrate this occasion a very special Garcia Mitchell 300DL was made in France and presented to a few top executives. Suffering from over diversification, in 1977 Garcia had to sell the majority stock in “Mitchell” back to Ets Carpano &
Pons and the primary focus was placed back on selling Mitchell fishing reels but it was too late. On August 10, 1978 The Garcia Corporation declared bankruptcy and closed forever.
From 1978 to 1990
Starting in 1978, Carpano & Pons and Impecco had been meeting with various tackle companies to find another North American distributor for Mitchell. This included Browning and many other interested tackle companies including Garcia Tackle, Garcia Canada and Zebco but by 1980, exclusive distribution rights was awarded to Browning. Abu Sweden purchased the Garcia Tackle (USA) assets and most important, the Garcia
name. Distribution of all Abu products in North America moved to Fairfield, New Jersey under Abu’s new name, Abu Garcia, Inc.
Mitchell, a separate company owned by Carpano & Pons, continued suffering from the tremendous financial losses from Garcia’s bankruptcy. This along with the loss of Garcia’s perfected marketing skills, service and pipeline and many other factors led to bankruptcy in 1981. Mitchell was reestablished as Mitchell Sports, a solely owned and operated company who would eventually become the sole distributor of Mitchell reels worldwide.
The French assembly plants started closing in 1988 and though a few good reels like the Mitchell 300 PRO 45th anniversary reel were still assembled in France, most parts were sent to Thailand for assembly. The engineering quality, for which Mitchell, France was famous, and the quality of their Mitchell reels has never been surpassed. They built many millions of reels and there has never been a range of any other major item of fishing tackle, be it rods, reels, lines, that has achieved anything like the same quantity for a single brand and producer. In 1990 the Mitchell “company” closed its doors in France forever. After that and until this day, Mitchell is just a great brand name.
From 1990 to Present Day In 1990 Johnson Worldwide Associates (JWA), a successful company well known for their Johnson line of fishing reels and other tackle purchased Mitchell Sports. At this time they claimed over 30-million Mitchell 300 fishing reels alone had been sold!
In 2000 Pure Fishing purchased the Mitchell brand as part of their JWA fishing products acquisition. Pure Fishing with locations worldwide still owns the Mitchell brand name but has also acquired many other famous fishing tackle brands including Abu Garcia, Penn, Shakespeare and many others. Pure Fishing, Inc. is a subsidiary of the mighty Jarden Corporation, headquartered in Rye, NY.
Wallace Carney – Le bénéficiaire du prêt – on record Archives municipales de Cluses
With Special Thanks To: Florence POIRIER – History of Cluses – Archives municipales de Cluses – August 24, 2000 Groupe Carpano & Pons – 1893 ~ 1993 100 ans d’Aventure Industrielle, d’Eau et d’Electricite Doug DeSimone ~ JP Gumprich ~ Barrie Welham ~ Mike Read
~ Dr. Todd Larson  Research by Wallace Carney.

MEYER, LOU COMPANY, (Kenosha, Wisconsin) Here’s a case where the reel is more recognizable than the company. The Flo-Line Universal Reel, also known by some as “the pencil sharpener reel,” was supposed to be both baitcasting and spinning.  The reel had a base latch allowing the reel to pivot 90 degrees for casting like a spinning reel and return the position then for retrieval. In the retrieval position, it can be used as a baitcaster. The swivelling feature could also be used to make the reel usable left or right-handed. A drag wheel was also present under the handle. One can see now why the moniker “universal” came from. (For more information, see Reel News back issue Spring of 1999.)

MORRITT, K.P. LTD. (England) This company made the Intrepid Sea Streak sold by South Bend from 1969 to 1972.  The light weight, ball bearing reel did have some unusual features that allowed for casting or trolling, and was mostly designed for big water. The cast control worked well, the free spool rim button automatically engaged, and a 4-way star-type wheel allowed four combinations of click and free spool. Unlike most larger trolling reels, it was made for backlash free casting with its “Thumatic” automatic centrifugal thumb control. At $50 it wasn’t going to be a hit for long. (For more information, see ORCA Reel News back issue Winter 2000, and article by Gary Quick.)

OHIO TOOL CO (OTCO),  This company made the Ashaway Slip-cast reel, an unusual open faced spinning reel that was used on top of the rod. It It was reportedly situated on the top because Americans were slow at picking up on the spinning reel popularity in Europe where reels hung underneath. The Slip-cast has been called the “missing link” between baitcast and spinning. The reel design is credited to Charles Ritz (of the hotel dynasty) and Paul Mauborgne (inventor of the French Luxor spinning reel). When the reel was presented to Julian Crandell of Ashaway Line and Twine Mfg. in Rhode Island, a separate company was set up to avoid some unspecified patent problems. The company was called Ashaway, Inc.  for marketing the reel. In 1947, the Ohio Tool Co (OTCO) of Cleveland, Ohio, was contracted to manufacture the reel and received permission to sell the Slip-Cast as well.  It was presented to buyers finally in 1948. The reel in its two sizes that went into production in 1947. Both had a unique thumb lever that held the line before the cast. The reel did meet with some success, but when OTCO ran into financial problems productions ceased, and it appears there were no new takers for manufacturing job. (For more information, see Ed Corwin’s Spring, 1998, back issue of ORCA’s Reel News from which most of this information has come.)