From Le Omnia Super to Cardinal 157 reels

Recently I bought a job lot of five old reels, as one in particular really caught my eye.

The Le "Omnia" Super. Although the reel has a French sounding name, it is in fact British. Manufactured T J Harrington & Son Ltd, Walton-on-Thames, Surrey, and even more specifically, in a factory on the corner of Mosely Road and Lyon Road. T J Harrington & Son also manufactured other reels with names ending with the letter 'A', including the Regina, Gemima, Maxima and Little Kraka.

Probably inspired by the Dan Dare and Flash Gordon, space-age comic books of the day, they're not rare, and often for sale online. This one looked in good condition and of course was my reel of choice for my first session this month.

I headed to Woodrow's Pond with my spaceship-like reel, a 9' cane rod and some maggots and float-fished on firstly a size 14, then 18 hook with a single maggot. It was a lovely sunny day with hardly any breeze and I landed several Roach and some greedy fry.

My next session involved two Abu Cardinal 157 reels, two glass Carp rods and my two biggest fish!