The Traditional Fisherman's Forum

Good evening gents

I have just bought a Trudex with its box in what i think is fantastic condition for its age. The paint work is black and is complete with only the odd scuff if you look hard. There is a mark which i think might ne where the previous owner(s) may have stuck the end of the lime to the face of the spool.

The box is in remarkable condition too tbough i habe to say the box wasn't the reason for this purchase it was the reel and its lovely condition.

May i ask when these reels were first made and when they finished making them.

And did they by any chance make them in a smaller size, mine is 5 1/2 inches.

Regards

Martin

Martin(rockape) wrote: ↑Fri Aug 21, 2020 8:54 pm Good evening gents

I have just bought a Trudex with its box in what i think is fantastic condition for its age. The paint work is black and is complete with only the odd scuff if you look hard. There is a mark which i think might ne where the previous owner(s) may have stuck the end of the lime to the face of the spool.

The box is in remarkable condition too tbough i habe to say the box wasn't the reason for this purchase it was the reel and its lovely condition.

May i ask when these reels were first made and when they finished making them.

And did they by any chance make them in a smaller size, mine is 5 1/2 inches.

Regards

Martin

The is some info here : http://www.jwyoungs.co.uk/history.htm

Thanks for that but i suppose in reality there will be no way of identifying when an individual reel was made as there are no stamp marks.

And does anyone know if any Trudex centrepins were made with bearings?

Regards

Martin

Neither the Trudex or Trudex II were made with bearings. It sounds as though you have the large salmon trolling version of the reel which is fairly rare.

There may be a year/month date stamped inside, but often it is just a JWY part number.

The 5 1/2" version was first sold in 1965 and it only featured in the 1965 - 66 catalogue. It was made as quick retrieve reel for the match angler but it was not a popular reel so it was dropped after just one year.
Quite a rare reel of course and in good condition it will appeal to the J W Youngs collectors.

Wal.

Thanks for that chaps.
Maybe i have a good buy then because the paint work is almost flawless in that there isn't a scratch or chip on it at all.
It is quite a heavy reel so can quite understand why a match angler might not have liked it.

I'm looking forward to giving it a session or two.

Regards

Martin

I think it's a mistake I think, albeit a common one, to take the Allcock Angler's Guide as telling "the whole truth".

It was poorly written, poorly edited and didn't reflect the current situation as it was actually draughted the year before the two year period it was supposed to reflect. It often has the wrong images, or very old ones, next to tackle and in one case two rods swapped images over the years which looked pretty foolish when one rod was discontinued and the other carried on with an illustration of the now defunct rod.

In the case of the 5 1/2 inch Trudex it was actually listed in two Guides, '65 and '66 but it was still being listed by Shakespeare in 1969 in the form of spare parts.

We have to remember the turmoil of 1965 for all of the Redditch tackle trade. In 1965 the newly formed Top Tackle was flogged off to Shakespeare by Leonard Matchan despite his promises of investment for the future. Top Tackle had been the newly formed Allcock-Youngs of 1964 being joined by M.Lee & Son in 1965. The original idea of investment into an already heavily in debt JW Young had been muted by Ted Young when he suggested that Matchan also invest in Allcock to own the bulk of the Redditch manufacturing. Allcock went for it when approached and Lee asked to join fearing it would fall even further behind. The promises of investment and marketing in the USA never happened...quite the reverse!

I have here a copy of the 1965 Trade Catalogue, heavily edited by Allcock staff for it's district representatives. Half of the tackle is deleted, new American stuff is added by hand and soon the Young's factory was to be closed down and the staff move into the Allcock premises. That barely lasted a year before the Youngs staff were made redundant and all reel manufacture ceased.




.

Thanks for that Nobby much appreciated.

Regards

Martin

Sounds a useful tool with good line retrieval. Does anybody know if they made a similarly sized Rapidex by any chance?

I'm going to give it a go later this week. I can see it being a bit on the heavy side though.

Regards

Martin