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Vintage Fishing Lines

Here we feature some of our vintage fishing lines we have in our collection, brands include, Shakespeare, Silver Streak, and Big Mac, as we find great pieces we will add them here. The Shakespeare Super Silk brands had been introduced in 1924 to replace the retiring "Indian Silk" line brands, that had been manufactured from 1909 to 1923. The Super Silk brand names included WEXFORD, a County in Northern Michigan est. 1840 and renamed in 1869 after the County Wexford in Ireland. MAGNIFICENT, made especially for the Shakespeare reel of the same brand name. STANDARD, the original 1909 Shakespeare "Indian Silk" flagship brand, OLD HICKORY, which honored the nickname of Andrew Jackson, the seventh President of the United States from 1829 to 1837. And SILVER SWAN, which was a grey colored waterproof line, these Super Silk brands continued to be manufactured by Shakespeare using silk imported from Japan and described as "the finest, strongest line possible to make" until the outbreak of WWII in December 1941 which severed trade with Japan.

This 80+ year full unused WEXFORD brand back side spool label advertised the William Shakespeare Fishing Tackle Company’s inventory of the five Super Silk brands of casting lines that were at that time being offered. This amazing piece of fishing history was preserved by John Etchieson. John has spent decades amassing one of the largest line collections known to exist. The vast array of line spools and cards he has collected is historically significant, as John has spent decades not only collecting, but rather researching these companies adding provenance to these pieces. We are very excited and honored to add this wonderful piece to our collection, and continue John’s effort to preserve and keep this piece in unused new condition.

Beautiful late 1950's early 1960's era Wright & McGill 5L Yank Leader Material Store Display. These very cool store displays appeared in tackle shops all over the U.S and Canada. There were several versions some were cardboard displays and some were metal spinners like this one. These great displays are extremely collectable and not easy to find as many have already been collected and tragically some without foresight tossed out. This one is preserved in our collection in great shape. Always keep an eye open for store displays.

An extremely popular weight the 6lb Wright & McGill 5L Yank Leader Material was very durable and light enough to cover a wide variety of species of fish. This vintage classic is well preserved in our collection.

Wright & McGill 5L Yank Leader Material in 8lb. This is another popular weight for this material. 6 & 8lb material is great for multi species angling. 

Wright & McGill 12lb 5L Yank Leader Material.

Shakespeare 10lb, 5584 Ty-Dri Leader Material one dozen rolls, New in box. This well preserved box of leader material dates to the 1950's New old stock that was never used. 

Part of the old tackle box find was this vintage spool of used Big Mac Nylon casting line. We have dated this line to the 1930's. Casting lines like this were very popular in the 1930's 40's before the invention of Monofilament lines. Not a lot of info exists for Big Mac.

We recently purchased an old tackle box as is and inside we found two spools of old vintage  casting line. This spool of Silver Streak was never used. The 1940 A L & W catalog lists this 25lb line as No. 3104 this spool is dated to 1940. It's still in new condition and a great add for us.

Wright & McGill 10lb 5L Yank Leader Material. 

Wright & McGill 15lb 5L Yank Leader Material.

More great Lines coming soon.
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