Description
South Bend reels have a cult following. There are a bewildering number of reels sold by the firm, but making sense of them has always been problematic. Jim Madden set out in 2000 to help solve this problem by inaugurating a new column in The Reel News, the official publication of ORCA, entitled “South Bend Bits.” This column began to fill the glaring gap in information on South Bend reels.
For the first time ever, all of Jim Madden’s columns have been collected in this volume. Covering everything from the first South Bend Anti-Back-Lash reels, to the glory days of South Bend reels in the 1930s and 1940s, to the later years. In addition, Madden covers South Bend oddities such as tournament casting reels, tokens and other “go-withs,” and left-handed reels. It also includes the pioneering article giving the charts and dates of all South Bend reels, compiled back in 1999 and still “the bible” for South Bend collectors.