The many beautiful, free-flowing streams of Central Kentucky spawned more than bountiful populations of black bass.
They encouraged generations of 19th-century anglers turned inventors to build and perfect fishing reels that would spark the popularity of sport angling in America.
John Milam, son of B.C. Milam, became an apprentice, and eventual partner in his father’s reel making business. Their No. 3 reel, marked BC Milam & Son, sold for $25 to $28 in 1915. The era of handmade reels in Central Kentucky ended in 1928 with John Milam’s death. (Photo provided)
The first of the Kentucky reel makers was George W. Snyder (1780–1841) a watchmaker in Paris, Kentucky, who is believed to have made the first multiplying baitcasting reel in America about 1815. Today, less than a dozen reels attributed to him are known to exist.
His reels transformed sport angling from still-fishing to baitcasting and ushered in a golden era of handmade reels.
Prior to the advent of multiplying reels, anglers fished with pole and line or used very rudimentary single-action English reels, in which the reel handle and spool rotated at the same speed. These reels stored line and enabled anglers to move or retrieve the bait, but casting was difficult. Anglers had to hand-strip line off the reel and coil it at their feet, to get the bait out as far as they wanted to cast.
With the geared, or multiplying reels, anglers could cast a baited hook farther out, with the line flowing more freely off the reel’s spool. Thus, the heavier the weight of the bait, the farther the cast. And when the bait was moved or retrieved back to the rod tip in preparation for another cast, one crank of the reel handle turned the reel’s spool multiple times.
The early reels were handmade one at a time by gunsmiths, watchmakers, jewelers, locksmiths or silversmiths, craftsmen who were familiar with fabricating small metal parts from brass, and later German silver, a copper-nickel alloy.
Some other noted Kentucky reel makers were:
• J. W. Hardman (1801-1876), a watchmaker who worked in Louisville, and Madison, Indiana, made a small number of multiplying reels but is credited with improvements in design, function and appearance that were copied by other reel makers
• Brothers J.F. and B.F. Meek, and B.C. Milam, in various partnerships, made multiplying reels, jewelry and watchers in Frankfort, Kentucky for decades into the beginning of the 20th century. Their reels are some of the most sought after by collectors today.
• John Milam, son of B.C. Milam, became an apprentice, and eventual partner in his father’s reel making business. Their No. 3 reel, marked BC Milam & Son, sold for $25 to $28 in 1915. The era of handmade reels in Central Kentucky ended in 1928 with John Milam’s death.
Central Kentucky’s many bass-filled streams, including the Licking River and its many tributaries, and Elkhorn Creek, a Kentucky River tributary that flows through the heart of the Bluegrass Region, inspired Dr. James A. Henshall, M.D., to pen one of the sport’s most famous literary works. (Photo by Art Lander Jr.)
Central Kentucky’s many bass-filled streams, including the Licking River and its many tributaries, and Elkhorn Creek, a Kentucky River tributary that flows through the heart of the Bluegrass Region, inspired Dr. James A. Henshall, M.D., to pen one of the sport’s most famous literary works.
His Book of the Black Bass, first published in 1881, at the height of the baitcasting renaissance, detailed the scientific and life history of smallmouth, largemouth and spotted bass, and helped forge the state’s reputation for quality fishing.
He proclaimed that “Kentucky was the place where black bass fishing became an art,” and “inch for inch and pound for pound (the smallmouth bass) was the gamest fish that swims.”
In 1970, the Bass Anglers Sportsman’s Society (B.A.S.S.) re-published Henshall’s classic book, making copies available to hundreds of thousands of bass fishing aficionados.
The 19th-century reels made in Central Kentucky are works of art, admired and coveted by collectors today.
But in their heyday, these reels inspired anglers to change the way they fished, while in the process, having a profound impact on the evolution of bass fishing in America.
Art Lander Jr. is outdoors editor for KyForward. He is a native Kentuckian, a graduate of Western Kentucky University and a life-long hunter, angler, gardener and nature enthusiast. He has worked as a newspaper columnist, magazine journalist and author and is a former staff writer for Kentucky Afield Magazine, editor of the annual Kentucky Hunting & Trapping Guide and Kentucky Spring Hunting Guide, and co-writer of the Kentucky Afield Outdoors newspaper column.
