Ocean City Salt Water Trade Reel Page

  On this page we are starting to gather some of salt water reels that Ocean City made for other companies,  this will take awhile,  since OC probably made hundreds of reels for other companies,  just like Bronson did.  Here we will also need help from everyone just like our Bronson website.  Our Bronson site took us over a year to make it look some what good,  but we had a few years of gathering info on them first.  Where on this site we are going into it blind,  and need your help on pictures and information.
True Temper (or as TT) bought out the Ocean City Reel Co. right around 1960 and slowly started adding their names to the OC reels.  Once we get going on this site with your help and information,  we will add a separate page for the TT brand name reels also.

  Or as A+I,  had several other reel makers make reels for them,  here is an OC 250 yd. salt water reel,  with a free spool and a star drag.  Pictures are courtesy of John Elder

 A 250 yd. size reel.  Made by Ocean City.  Pictures are courtesy of Jeff Johnson.

This trade reel is an Ocean City Fortescue in very good condition and retains most of its black paint which is uncommon. 250YD reel. Click on the pics to enlarge.

Made by Ocean City and sold by Sears,  reel shown is 150 yd. spool size.  Pictures are courtesy of Arne Soland.

 Sold by Sears in a hard to find box. click on the pics to enlarge.

These were sold by the Edw. K. Tryon catalog company of Philadelphia.  Reel is a OC Fortescue No.103 (as seen on the OC Named Salt Water Reel page.)

Salt water trade reel for Montgomery Wards

Two reels with the same trade name,  reel on the left has a level wind,  its the first model Topsail.  The other reel is the Fortescue No.103. These reels were sold with black paint on the front and rear plates but these examples have none left which is common.  Pictures are courtesy of Jeff Johnson.

Not much info on these,  possibly just an OC trade reel to be sold by a OC saleman to anyone!  These OC reels and the Bronson reels look so much like each other,  the best way to tell them apart is to take them apart and look for the differences.  We dissected another Gulf reel so you can view the insides.

Mongomery Wards brand name,  also see Sport King for more MW reels.
Pictures are courtesy of Wayne Benson

The Hermos reels play an important part in Ocean City history. Honestly little is known for sure the exact story but we do know Moskowitz & Herbach were selling these reels in the early 1920s if not sooner. The name, in my opinion, is  nothing more then a clever use of both family names – Her – for Herbach and Mos for Moskowitz therefore you get HERMOS.  Phil White , Reel News July 2003 , shows that the Hermos reels were all initially reels formerly manufactured by Meisselbach & Bros of Newark NJ.  Meisselbach was sold (Phil White , Reel News September 2002) in 1917 to the Otto Heineman Phonograph Supply Co. and that that all of the reels that we find marked Hermos are Meisselbach reels that were dropped from the Meisselbach line at the time of that sale. So that dates Hermos reels to about 1917 to 1922 and Ocean City continued with these same models roughly in the 1922 to 1935 time span. Catalogs are scarce or non existent from this time period and all I have to go off of is the 1922 Moskowitz & Herbach catalog. It has 2 pages of Hermos reels but does not give us any information of their history. Below are ads and pictures of some of the Hermos reels. (First reel below , pic courtesy of Richard Thomann).

  These were made by Ocean City and sold by Sears,  Sears drops the first 3 prefix numbers on the boxes and the reels. Sears had OC make many reels for them over the years, reel shown has a wide spool and it is  a 200 yd. size.  The crank knob looks to be Penn,  yet they are a lttle different,  Sears probably had them special ordered so they would look like a Penn reel?  Would like to see an ad for it?

This has what looks to be a Penn crank knob on it yet it is a little bit different,  Sears probably told OC to have these made special so they would look like a Penn reel?  Pictures are courtesy of Arne Soland.

Click on the pics to enlarge.

  These were sold by Sears,  reels are very similar to a Bronson reel,  we show two different versions here.  First reel has normal looking OC free spool lever and all bakelite side plates,  where as the reel with box has the earlier free spool lever and has the bakelite insert side plates.  Reels shown here have a Native American Indian head stamped on the tail plate.  The logo is an inlay of what appears to be nickel silver because they tarnish.  It was inlaid off set sitting at 1:00 or 2:00.  It was common for OC to put their emblems on off set,  OC did with several of their other reels,  not sure why?  We have just learned that Sears may have had both OC and Bronson make these SW reels.  They appear to almost look the same,  Proper ID would almost be that  you would have to take one apart to tell the difference! That both reels have star drags and a wooden crank knobs.  Both being 250 yd. size reels.  It is also possible the both OC and Bronson had their salesmen sell these reels to anyone.  We have found this out many times!

These may have been sold by Sears?

  MOWACO stands for Montgomery Wards Company,  reel shown is prewar with bakelite side plates,  a free spool,  wooden crank knob and a 250 yd. spool capacity,  also it has a Pflueger leather thumb brake.  Also look for Sport King and Hawthorne these were also MW brand name fishing reels.

  Shown is there Black Diamond Junior 300 yd. reel.  Reel has the diamond logo on the tail plate. Bronson also made a version of this reel. Pictures and info are courtesy of Skip Brooks and Jim Garrett

The difference between the MOACO is the this Premier is a 300 yd. has a star drag

A 250 yd. reel,  True Temper bought out the Ocean City reel company in 1950 or 1960?.  So trying to catalog all of these is going to be very interesting for us.  We have most TT catalogs,  so we are alright there,  just going to take some time.

These were sold by Sears and made by OC,  the reel is similar to the OC No.604 Big Game reel in 4/0 size,  also pictured in this page above.  Pictures are courtesy of John Elder.

Sold by Schulz Hardware and Supply.  Freeport, New York

This reel is pretty much the only later model reel of its kind with a ball type crank knob.

A 200 yd. reel free spool,  star drag,  one thumb screw take down.  Read the description for more info.

A 150 yd. free spool.  star drag,  reel shown has an aluminum fluted spool.  Ad description is from a 1953? Montgomery Wards catalog.  Pictures are courtesy of Arne Soland.

The No.44 is a 250 yd. reel and the no.45 is a 300 yd. reel,  read the description for more information.

A tear shaped LW 200 yd. spool capacity reel.  Notice the error in the spelling of pawls.

Sold by Sears

Tear drop shaped reel,  need description and yardage?

1960’s version,  most likely a 150 yd. size reel.  Pictures are courtesy of Arne Soland

 Standard OC 250 yd.1940 era reel,  sold by Sears,  also came in a leather bound box.
Pictures are courtesy of Jeff Johnson