Here at TT HQ, we have been excited to receive a beautiful collection of original Fred Crouch reels, complete with their boxes and certificates. The previous owner looked after these, and were never fished with. He even had a rare prototype.
Background:
During the late 1960’s Shakespeare decided that the market for centrepins was on the decline and so they stopped making them.
Fred Crouch attempted to obtain the rights to the Allcock reels and believed he had an informal agreement set out which involved obtaining the tools used to create the reels. This unfortunately, didn’t happen, so Fred commissioned new tools to replicate the Allcock Aerial.
He replicated the crinkly finish backplates, which was created by a casting process using a special alloy. Later on, due to the tool becoming damaged it was decided that turning the reel backplates on a lathe was the only option, hence the smooth backed reels.
The early replicas, called “match aerials” had the crinkly backplates and, the only noticeable design difference between the Fred Crouch reels and the Allcocks reels is the flat-bladed ratchet knob as opposed to the original’s circular tri-bladed knob.
The Fred Crouch reel in the range which is the closest to the original replica is the Jet. It is not called a “match aerial” and it does not have a crinkly backplate. We have one of these available as part of the recent collection of Fred Crouch reels we have purchased, click here to view.
In 2005, Fred created “The Fred Crouch Gem Collection” which included ‘The Platinum’, ‘The Ruby’, ‘The Emerald’ and ‘The Sapphire’. These were limited edition with only 125 of each made. All four limited edition models are serial numbered and come in a wooden presentation box and come with a certificate of authenticity that is personally signed by Fred himself. We are lucky enough to have the full collection for sale now on our website, each with their certificates of aunthentication. Click here to view.
Our seller, also had an original Prototype of the ‘The Truepin Trotter’ – numbered 000 of 50 – dated 20/07/2009, this is a rare and must have item for any enthusiast, probably why we sold this one almost immediately!
Sadly, Fred Crouch passed away in January 2014. Production on the reels continued up until February 2020 by friends of Fred’s, but since then have no longer been in production.
This makes the range we have available all the more collectable. So take a look at our website now and grab yourself a rare bit of angling history.
