The Johnson 150 Commander and the Johnson 160 Guide spin-cast reels offered features intended to appeal to serious fishermen. In addition to addressing the competitive claims to accuracy afforded by bait-casting reel manufacturers, a sophisticated drag system called the Power-Shift appears to have piggy-backed upon the acceptance and popularity of an automobile automatic transmission. This was marketing at its best.
The secondary drag is not active on these models unless the Power-Shift Handle, the crank that is, is shifted backward about a quarter or a fifth of a turn. However, an inherent built in drag is always present. This is apparently what Johnson called the Double-Drag, the Power-Shift, or the Shiftamatic drag at different times in different literature as postured for different markets.
I was casually watching American Idol as I was fiddling with one of these old Johnson 160 Accucast Guide spin-cast reels. The show hasn't held my attention much this season, but I am entertained somewhat by the judges. Keith Urban seems pretty cool. Beatles music was being featured with all the contestants. That is cool. The Aussie likes the Beatles as well as I do apparently. After each song, nearly a dozen in all, Urban would say,
"That's my favorite Beatles song--at least in my top two."
It makes perfect sense to me. A bunch of the Beatles songs are my favorite song--or two--especially when I am in the moment with each particular song. This is also very much the way I find myself reacting to these old Johnson spin-cast reels. I start messing with one model and cleaning it up and really taking note of the clever engineering and the quality in manufacturing, and I remember how it was when such products were making America great. Each model, with a few exceptions, are at the moment that I have them in my hands, my favorites in their own unique ways. Each time I marvel at how well they work and how long they have lasted it seems that I find more little nuances about them to marvel at. These two models, the Johnson 150 and the Johnson 160 are no exceptions.
The Johnson Accu-cast 160 Guide is the big brother reel of this specialty pair of spin-casters. The secret that allows these reels to wear the Accu-cast badge is shown under the bell. The standard spool cover nut is usually smaller. With the Accu-cast models, both the nut and line exit hole have been enlarged. The hollow front of the nut is pushed forward when the line-release button is pressed. The hollow is pushed into a coresponding hollow receptacle in the underside of the bell's line-exit hole which applies friction and sqeezes the line firmly.
As with other spin-cast designs, the line is held in place by pressing the line release button initially as usual at the beginning of a cast until the rod is thrust forward and the the button is released to launch the lure into flight. But with this Accu-cast feature, the lure can be stopped in flight by pressing the button a second time. This action again pushes this modified male spool nut forward into the corresponding female receptacle inside the bell--squeezing the line to a stop.
This feature could arguably prevent over-flight into an overhanging branch or too far past an intended strike-zone or target. Such control enables the user to be more accurate with lure placement--thereby nullifying any percieved accuracy advantages offered by bait-casting reels as was being stressed by competitibe reel manufacturers to justify their higher cost.
Accu-cast was clearly intended to overcome this competitive claim that bait-casting reels could be controlled by a user's thumb pressure against the turning spool--and such accuracy could be done without the friction burn sometimes associated with the vintage bait-casting reels fishermen of the same era may have been familiar with.
These two reels are similar except for size. The basic operation is pretty much similar to all other spin-cast reels from this era--with one major, dynamite feature that lets these vintage Johnson reels carry the label of Accu-cast. I think the Accu-cast feature first appeared on some Johnson models in 1964, but I could be way off, as I was still using my Johnson Century and Citation reels at the time. If someone knows the exact dates of manufacture, please let us know via the comments section below. Documentation for these Johnson models is sparse. My facts and impressions regarding old spin-casting reels are mostly firsthand and anecdotal. Before I further explain the nature of the crowning Accu-cast feature of these reels, let me describe the other features, and then lay a background foundation that explains the significance as to why this Accu-cast feature so interesting. I feel that Johnson had a winner of an idea with the Accu-cast models had they persisted with it in subsequent models. But this is only my hind-site as a user who grew up during these years.
After each song, nearly a dozen in all, Urban would say,"That's my favorite Beatles song--at least in my top two."
It makes perfect sense to me. A bunch of the Beatles songs are my favorite song--or two--especially when I am in the moment with each particular song. This is also very much the way I find myself reacting to these old Johnson spin-cast reels.
These reels are essentially alike except for size, color, and a few odd cosmetic embellishments from one reel issue to another. The latter has no rhyme to me, but Johnson was adept at calling attention to specific reel models within a specific time period or for an ad campaign. The Johnson 150 Accu-cast Commander and the Johnson 160 Accu-cast Guide models of spin-cast reels. One is beefier than the other, with a bigger bell, higher capacity line spool, and heavier gears. It is physically bigger for bigger fish--much after the tradition begun with the Johnson Century and the Citation models.
There is an extra sliding button underneath the line-release button that is lacking on other Johnson reel models that for the longest time had me stymied. I could not figure out what function it had. I may still not have it right, but I think it just dawned on me that it is simply a means of scotching the line-release button when transporting or fighting a fish to keep the line from being accidentally released. This is not a big thing, but I recall several times when my fishing line has wound up stringing along under-foot behind me while I was carrying a few poles and other gear, from just such an accidental release of the line. It is this kind of subtle functionality that makes me appreciate the fisherman-friendly design characteristics of these old reels.
There is another design feature that I am still not sure I fully understand and appreciate in the absence of any operator manuals or instructions; it is the nature of the drag system, which is always one of the wide variables in old Johnson models. However this drag is radically different from most models. I have seen this drag system referenced in era Johnson reel advertisements as the Johnson Power-Shift Handle Drag.It is a star system that looks much like the star drag found on Garcia Abumatic reels of the same vintage (but which I attribute first used on the earliest Johnson sidewinder style spin-cast reels).
Although bait-casting reels for a time were upstaged by spin-cast reels bringing more sophisticated recreational fishing techniques within the reach of casual weekend freshwater fishermen--the life-cycle of bait-casting was not yet over. Not by a long-shot.
This drag only works in loosely the same way as does the Abumatic drag. The drag is not active on these models unless the Power-Shift Handle, the crank that is, is shifted backward about a quarter or a fifth of a turn. The star knob increases or decreases the drag resistance in the usual manner, but it only works when the handle is back. Curious. When I am reeling in a fish, I assume that my drag is going to be there in the event of any surges of flight or fight a a fish has. Otherwise, the line might break. This is what a drag is for. Am I wrong? If the crank must be backed up to enact the drag, it would seem to give the fish an opportunity to run or to break the line when the drag was not enacted. To test this theory I went to my pond and promptly caught a nice bass. I reeled the fish in as I always do. I tried to be intuitive about it and not consciously do anything different than I ever do. The fish was not a monster, but he did have a moment of fight. I had the impression, if not a clear recollection, that the drag worked seamlessly as it should have.
So, I think I understand this Power-Shift Drag Handle feature, but I am not sure that the full importance of it has quite sunk in. I feel sure that each feature was an attempt to make each reel the very best product on the market at the time. In some cases such features were specifically added in order to meet the competition in some context-appropriate way. Having been involved somewhat in marketing and sales of unrelated products a good part of my professional life, I find it fascinating to see how sophisticated the marketing of these products was. I also find it interesting to recall what was going on in my own life at the time the reels were being debuted in the market. This helps me understand the marketing context of the time and often explains purpose and reason for why these reels came to be designed as they were.
The term Power-Shift for instance hints heavily of the parallel evolution that was occurring in the automobile world during the mid-sixties. Automatic transmissions were at one time often referred to as Power-Shift transmissions. By the mid-sixties automatic transmission in automobiles had overcome the suspicion that usually accompanies the introduction of any new idea--regardless of how good the idea is. Automatic transmissions in automobiles were by then being reasonably accepted by the driving public--except perhaps for the higher price-tag they represented. This may be exactly what Johnson wanted to convey with this nomenclature.
In the minds of those fishermen consumers being targeted by Johnson with these two reel models, automatic transmissions in automobiles would have been associated with the more deluxe models of cars--the high-end as we have come to call this segment of the market. A conscious attempt was obviously being made to position these reels as a cut above other reels on the market. Whether this calculated attempt paid off or not--is another story. My feeling is that it may have been only moderately successful. I also feel that the value of these obviously planned and positioned features may have been lost on most consumers. After-all, we do not see some of these good ideas repeated on subsequent models of Johnson reels. Or was their purpose to counter bait-cast reel competition? I don't know of any such drag feature ever being used with bait-casting reels.It may also be that the purpose of these advanced features was served if the purpose was to stave off some of the fishermen from buying the other alternatives of reels then on the market--and to help establish a solid place for the still relatively new spin-cast style of reels in general, and Johnson models in particular. Johnson spin-cast reels enjoyed several decades of huge growth during which millions of reels were sold. I am convinced that each reel model that Johnson introduced was part of a careful multi-faceted game of marketing chess that played out Internationally during those American spin-cast hay-day years.
Although bait-casting reels for a time were upstaged by spin-cast reels bringing more sophisticated recreational fishing techniques within the reach of casual weekend freshwater fishermen--the life-cycle of bait-casting was not yet over. Not by a long-shot. Enabled by new capabilities of mass-production using metal and plastic parts, as well as new designs, traditional reel manufacturers fought hard for the increasing recreational dollars in the hands of post-modern fishermen world-wide.
This magazine advertisement for the Johnson GUIDE 160 Accu-cast spin-cast fishing reel appeals to professional fishermen. I am not sure when it appeared. It stresses both the sophisticated drag and the Accu-cast feature. I ran across this ad after I had written the bulk of this post. It is the first documentation that I have found that substantiates several of my assumptions regarding this reel.
First, it does clarify that the label GUIDE is intended to convey that this reel is of the rugged construction quality and design that an experienced fisherman such as a fishing GUIDE would want. Secondly, it further describes the details of the Double-Drag and claims that it makes it impossible for a fish to break the line. This ad has helped me understand this drag, the operation and use of which has mystified me a bit.
Professional Fishermen is a term used for the first time that I have seen regarding Johnson spin-cast reels. This had to be a references to the Bass-Masters that was begun in 1967 with a Professional tournament at Beaver Lake in Arkansas. The newly formed professional fishing organization was gaining steam and was newsworthy. Who knew what it would become, but the base was being covered by the folks at Johnson reels.
While Bassmaster (B.A.S.S.) was being started and jumpstarting a new kind of Pro fishermen, I was a lanky kid crossing the fence across a little dirt road that passed our house on Salem Lane to go fishing in one of two of Sherman's ponds. I regularly caught bass and bream and catfish using a a variety of mostly hand-me-down fishing gear including Johnson Century and Abumatic and Shakespeare spin-cast reels. I had access to and learned to use fly-rods and reels and two old bait-cast reels.
I learned firsthand about back-lash and burned thumbs from cheap bait-cast reels. They were then antiques, were never expensive, nor much more than free-wheeling spools of heavy braided course black line that would sometimes blister my thumb while learning to tame back-lash and distance using only thumb pressure against the spool. I remember reading about and looking at pictures of those beautiful red Abu Garcia wonders with envy, but the associated price-tags maight as well have been a million dollars.
I know I must have viewed this very advertisement for the Johnson GUIDE 160 Accu-cast, although I don't recall doing so. I poured over every squre inch of every page of every outdoor magazine of the era I could get my hands on.
Companies such as famous Sweedish Abu-Garcia and Japanese Diawa not only produced excellent spin-casting reels quickly on a par with Johnson and Zebco and a host of other similar designs--they also produced both true spinning reels of the under-hanging open-face varieties as well as medium to high-end bait-casting reels unlike any reels seen before. Anti-backlash designs--some harnessing the physics or controlled centrifugal force and others using the physics of magnets--began to boast simple back-lash-free operation. Some designs used both centrifugal force and magnets to prevent the crazy over-spin that had previously led to the dreaded birds-nests that could ruin a bait-caster's afternoon. However, the battle was won more by smart marketing campaigns, in my own estimation, than from truly better fishing alternatives to spin-casting reels.
Indeed, bait-casting reels were much improved over their predecessors, but they still required greater skill that came only from practice and a sensitive and well-educated feel of the thumb to quell the tangles of the bird's nest. There was even by then--and is to this day--a likelihood for having at least an occasional mess of knots in the reel even with the most-sophisticated and expensive bait-casting reel designs. They quite simply did still then and do still now--require a good measure more of operator skill to fish without handicap than did even the least expensive spin-cast reels. How bait-cast reels made a gradual but steady come-back over spin-cast reels is largely a study in how great marketing can turn negatives into positives.
Okay, now the crux of the Accucast's unique major difference. the center of the bell is about three times the diameter of most spin-cast reels of this era. It has been made smooth with a big sort of gromet which is not readily apprent as to its purpose until the bell is removed. The underside of the gromet is recessed just inside the outer parameter of th eline exit hole. Still, the purpose is not apparent until you look at the line spool cover. The smallish nut that is usually found holding the spool cover in place has been replaced with a larger nut that is also recessed as a perfect compliment to the inside recess of the bell.
The function of this male-female fit of this over-sized hollow spool cover nut is to apply pressure to the line as the line-release button pushes the spool assembly forward and into the recess of the underside of the bell--right where the line exits the inside of the reel. Walah. This is how Johnson's designers met the bait-casting reel's competition regarding greater accuracy. The idea was to enable the user to push the line-release button a second time after the initial cast had been made. This second depression of the line-release button was intended to slow or even stop cold the forward travel of the lure--just as a bait-casting reel can do.
So in one fell swoop, this Johnson reel design nullified a major competitive advantages of bait-casting reels--all with none of the negatives associated with a free-wheeling spool found on bait-casting reels. The distance advantage of bait-casting reels is mostly marketing BS--given a cost-for-cost reel comparison. This is not so hard to understand without ever even trying one of these two models out in a side-by-side comparison with a comparable weight and size bait-casting reel--to say nothing of comparable cost. A spin-cast reel is sometimes called a closed-face spinning reel by old-timers although you seldom hear this label anymore. It is actually a more accurate label because the action principle that allows a spin-cast reel to work is just like a true spinning reel--also sometimes called an open-face spinning reel.
I offer the idea that tangles and untangling and hooking and hooking and unhooking, and knotting and unknotting, and cussing or not--is just part and parcel to the sport of fishing. If it drives you crazy--then fishing is probably not for you.
An open-face spinning reel has virtually no friction resistance to limit its reach even when using a very light lure. In conjunction with a long limber-action spinning rod, the forward motion of the cast propels even light-weight lures very long distances because the line is simply unwinding from the spool with hardly any restrictive friction from what little it touches the edges of the spool. This same principle is used with a spin-cast reel with only slightly more resistance as the line touches the center of the line exit-hole in the reel bell.
Furthermore, an open-face spinning reel does not do so well with heavier lures, due to the delicate operation of the method of release and also due to the line's tendency for uncontrollability because of no method for constraining the target of the line's exit. A spin-cast reel's bell itself with the line-exit hole solves this problem. The net result is that a spin-cast reel can handle a much wider range of lure weights with no adjustment or hassles.
The addition of the Johnson Accu-cast feature to these models of spin-cast reels only enhances the capability of the spin-cast reel. I can see no downside to this feature. The drawback is that it doesn't work very well intuitively--or did not for me. I am sure I could get use to it. The only time I really might use such a feature is if I see that I am going to wind up on the bank or in a tree. When I use a spin-casting reel, I intuitively grab the line with my non-casting hand where it exits the reel and squeeze it against the rod. So it is not like there are no alternatives with a spin-cast reel. This feature certainly works as intuitively as does a modern bait-casting flipping switch. And it requires very little practice. So why was this feature not a commercial success?
Again, I don't know for sure why the Johnson Accu-cast feature was not a commercial success. But I have my ideas regarding this. I think the users of spin-cast reels typically did not see the need for this feature. There were not looking for this level of sophistication. Since the advantage of the bait-casting reel's supposed greater accuracy was largely fluff--thought up by marketing people after-the-fact to justify the extra cost required to build a comparably performing bait-casting reel. It did not really matter to the fishermen who wound up wanting the easy-to-use spin-casting reel. The manufacturers of the main bait-casting reels of the era were already beginning to win the reel wars when it came to more experienced and serious anglers. These anglers simply did not want to identify with stereo-typical spin-cast reel user who included inexperienced casual fishermen, kids, girls, and women. It was becoming more macho to use bait-casting and/or spinning reels. No one wanted a sissy-reel no matter how well it worked.
Bait-cast fishermen's irrational preference for lousier reel designs probably also had roots in savvy old-timers' resistance to change after a lifetime of earning their wings using bait-casting reels, spinning reels, and fly-reels. But this unfounded or at least shallow basis was seized upon by the bait-casting reel manufacturers who by-the-way also had excellent spin-cast reels to offer. They did not feel that they could win the reel wars on the spin-cast reel inventors turf, but they could ride the spin-cast wave with their own models while simultaneously improving their more expensive bait-casting reels. There also may have been inherent preferences for using bait-casting reels for these old-time main-stay reel manufacturers who had been around much longer than the upstart inventor-manufacturers of the spin-cast reels. this could have been for all the same reasons previously cited for old-timer fishermen preferred bait-casting reels.So in one fell swoop, this Johnson reel design nullified a major competitive advantages of bait-casting reels--all with none of the negatives associated with a free-wheeling spool found on bait-casting reels.
I also believe that ZEBCO's efforts specifically targeting the low-end of the market with their cheap (and in my estimation, inferior) spin-cast reels further muddied waters when it came to serious fishermen preferring spin-cast reels. This was likely the same phenomenon that causes me to have an irrational disdain for ZEBCO reels. Johnson themselves tried to distance and differentiate themselves from ZEBCO. And after ZEBCO had trashed the perception of all spin-cast reels as being cheap and unreliable and the kind of reels that kids, girls, and women used--and made a gazillion dollars in the process--they then distance themselves from their own brand and got into the bait-casting and open-faced spinning reel market with their own quality reel product offerings.
Most rank-and-file fisherman cannot tell you that Quantum bait-casting reels are ZEBCO products. This is no accident. ZEBCO has kept this new brand identity entirely separate from their spin-cast reel fame. The quantum brand is regarded as a decent quality bait-casting reel. They are certainly players in the bait-casting reel market. This whole story is a fascinating study in human nature, consumer preference, brand identity, and both good and bad marketing. this is a case where very literally, the market has driven inferior designs ideas over superior designs. I am saying the spin-cast reel was initially and always has been the best value, offering the most versatility and ease of operation, greater reliability, and fishing time productivity--for less money than any other design. Of course spin-cast reels are still being produced sold and used--but their hay-day as used by serious fishermen is now past and their future evolution has probably been stunted because of inaccurate consumer demand.
I ran across this site which offers an excellent history of fishing reels in brief. It is a good quick reference.
http://www.fishingmuseum.org.uk/reels_overview.html
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Thank you for your input and link. I looked at it and is is very cool.
Posted by: PapaD | 08/06/2013 at 07:30 PM
Here's a link that contains an old advertisement concerning the Accu-Cast from March 1969:
http://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=1955&dat=19690327&id=dpAjAAAAIBAJ&sjid=s6AFAAAAIBAJ&pg=3143,7851843
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