Who was first?

[Willsmodger]

I'm going to stick my neck out here.

The Abu closed face reels were originally designed for spinning yes?
By the time I started in the mid 70's they were well established.
I'm curious however as to who thought they would make a good match reel.
I'm assuming it was a river matchman.
There must have been a time when somebody started using one. Other anglers must never have seen anything like it before. I can imagine the reaction.

Any ideas? Thanks.

[Catfish.017]

There is a photo in Benny Ashursts Match Fishing book of Kevin Ashurst landing a perch and clearly using a closed face reel. This book was written in the late Sixties.

[BeechmereLake]

Without being 100% sure I would say one of the Ashurst's , probably son of Bennie Ashurst, Kevin, he was for sure one of, if not the first, match men to use the 505. He used the reel in 1964 to win the Angling Times Winter League final on the river Suck in Ireland with 56lb of Bream, this was 2 years after the release of the reel. On pages towards the front of the Abu Golden Jubilee 505 book which I co - edited with someone else you can also see another great angler in the shape of Ray Mumford with Ken Booth discussing the reel in general.

Not sure what year it happened but a guy called Bobby Watson held the Irish record catch of 134lb of fish from the river blackwater using a 505 and also a guy named Colin Naylor, a Leicester match man, won the A.T Winter league Championships also using the 505. If you can think back the reel was only released in 1962 and at first was sold as a spinning reel before becoming a match reel due to its failure to work properly using heavy gauge lines so I wouldn't of thought too many others got to see one let alone use one.

One other thing of note is the reel was advertised in the 1963 Tight Lines Catalog and I also believe the 1962 version which is when we could say the reel was released, for sure it was in the 63 cat as I had it, never did see the 62 one though. Another point is Abu didn't open there sales office in Glasgow till 1963 where rather than employ a single person to do the job they blanketed the UK with Abu's total UK advertising budget for that year solely on the 505, product research had shown Abu the reel was going to be a huge hit with the Match angler.

In the short term many thought that putting such a budget behind one reel was complete insanity but it proved the competition wrong, it also gave any Abu representative an easier job selling the product to the dealers, this is how it turned out to be and the reel was a huge seller for Abu and took them out of the 1960's through the 1970's until 1982 with quality match reels.

[Willsmodger]

Fantastic stuff. Thanks guys.

[Willsmodger]

Sorry BL, I enjoyed reading your post so much I read it again and it threw up a further query.

What happened in 1982?

[BeechmereLake]

For me in 1982 the best Cardinal reels slowly started to come to an end as did most of the closed face reels, many wont agree but reels like the closed face 501 506 and 507 were all changed or finished with, even the superb Cardinal 50 series was being fazed out as Garcia took control of Abu and the great Len Borgstrom left Abu for good, the reels became so very plastic and though some people like a reel called the Diplomat 601 I have to say its the worst reel I ever bought wearing the name Abu, reminded me of the first toy cars that came from Japan.
When you take a reel like the 506 or 507 and put it up against the diplomat 601 or the Cardinal 55 against the 755 there is only one winner and that for me is where my collecting of these great reels ends, was for me to be the end of an era.

[Match Aerial]

Some good info there beechmere some stuff I did not know, bit before my time the 60s.
I don't know who was first but by the time I started using them It was the only reel to have for float fishiing on moving water. . I bought my first one in the 70s

[Silexman]

Its a long time ago but if my memory serves me well I bought my first 506 in the late 1960's to replace my trusty intrepid. I used it almost exclusively when fishing the Swale, Tyne, Tweed, Till etc. At the time it was a very popular reel for trotting the northern rivers in matches as well as pleasure fishing. I remember buying a Trudex from a matchman who was switching to a 506 about the same time. I still used a 506 until just a few years ago and still do occasionally but now that most of my fishing is on still waters I really like to use an Exalta.
The 506 was a great reel. Easy to use, did everything that I needed and never let me down.

[Willsmodger]

Strangely enough, in trying to answer my own question I thought of the Diplomat.
I wondered if it's lack of reputation was something of an injustice, based mainly on the fact it was different to what had gone before. Apparently not.
Rather like that other supposed pup, which I always call the 507 Gold Max, but others say 507MK 2. Too heavy, unreliable and not a patch on the original. Yet some say they have used one for years with no problems.
I thought the 1044 a very decent reel, I used one for a long time.
Then again, my first 506 was either a hand me down or second hand, I can't remember. That one had to be reeled firstly backward, then forwards to engage the pin.
So at least the 1044 was an improvement on that.
I do like the new 507MK2. On ergonomics alone, it fits snugly onto the rod and is just the right size for my smaller hands.
Thanks for all the info.

[Duckett]

For me in 1982 the best Cardinal reels slowly started to come to an end as did most of the closed face reels, many wont agree but reels like the closed face 501 506 and 507 were all changed or finished with, even the superb Cardinal 50 series was being fazed out as Garcia took control of Abu and the great Len Borgstrom left Abu for good, the reels became so very plastic and though some people like a reel called the Diplomat 601 I have to say its the worst reel I ever bought wearing the name Abu, reminded me of the first toy cars that came from Japan.
When you take a reel like the 506 or 507 and put it up against the diplomat 601 or the Cardinal 55 against the 755 there is only one winner and that for me is where my collecting of these great reels ends, was for me to be the end of an era.

Sadly, I agree with you Beechmere.