Issue 97

You can increase the value of an old reel by cleaning it – or make it worthless by doing so wrongly. We look at the correct way to do it.

A centrepin built by Richard Walker has turned up on eBay, decades after it was thought that the reel had been lost for good.

Charles Thacher admires arguably the finest of all salmon books: Charles Phair’s 1937 work Atlantic Salmon Fishing.

Jack Simpson, who actually built the Fred J Taylor roach rod, clears up all the controversy about its handle length and design.

A prototype Seamaster fixed spool built by the estimable Bob McChristian surfaced among a box of junk on eBay – and sold for $10,000.

The UK’s Natural History Museum has turned down an offer to display the British record carp, nicknamed Two Tone, which died in August 2010.

Abu’s 2500C reel has generated 60 offspring since its 1975 launch. We look at the models created during the ‘Olympic era’ of 1989-93.