More thoughts about Abu Garcia and Johnson Spin-cast Design Sharing

I have always suspected a design-sharing arrangement between Johnson and Abu Garcia, although I have found no admission or documentation of such. I have beat this drum before in other posts.

[ http://www.notesandnods.typepad.com/the_golden_age_of_spin_ca/fishing/ ] .

But I am beating it some more now. I am made to believe that my father had read of such an arrangement around 1960. Very early, when a need came for my him to purchase substitutes for our Johnson Century reels that were delayed in transit, Dad immediately seemed aware that the Abu Garcia reels were very similar. Our purchase of several Abumatics confirmed this in my own estimation. I also was there to observe simultaneous introduction of new and radically different spin-cast reel designs by both companies that used the same design ideas.

An example of this is seen in the above picture. The metal frame of the body was suddenly changed to molded Nylon construction. This plastic back portion of the frame held all the innards and crank/drag assembly in place by snugging up and screwing onto the grooves of the bell. This design was used pretty much thereafter for all new designs by these companies. I personally never liked it as well for the simple reason that when the body was unscrewed from the bell, the whole reel easily collapsed and was hard to line up and put back together. Parts could potentially lost while in the field.

Further fodder to support this cullusionary design theory even exists today. Johnson as a company is long-gone--as are most of the old time reel manufacturers. They went the way of modern global coorporations. Surviving Johnson reel designs have been being made in Japan and China for decades now, whether for Johnson or by the heirs-apparent of the manufacturing rights . I have no idea who has been renewing the old Johnson reel patents.

Obviously, someone owns and controls the use of these patents or they would be being copied helter-skelter and used without discrimination by numerous companies. Johnson's manufacturing rights seem to have been legally retained by those corporate entities that purchased the defunct Johnson assets. Berkley, another old-time fishing reel manufacturer, aquired the assets of Johnson during the late eighties. Subsequent aquistions and mergers brought other once competing reel companies together under the same corporte umbrella. Famous Sweedish Abu Garcia reels was among those companies merged under the name of Pure Fishing, Inc. This entity is now part of the global Jarden Corporation with their home office in New York.

I have recently been seeing updated designs named and closely patterned after the famous Johnson Century reel that started it all. One was a Berkley product shown here. The other carries a Abu Garcia Johnson Century label. These are of course made in China, which during the production and unrecedented success of the original that epidomized the powoer of  American Capitalism, was undergoing the horrors of the so-called Communist Cultural Revolution behind the Bamboo Curtain in what may have been the largest mass genocide in the history of mankind perpetrated against the educated and wealthier classes of Chinese--many for espousing Capitalism. How times change.

The photographs are of virtually the same design except for the handle and the colors. Both Berkley and Abu Garcia are now owned by Jarden Corp. I have not handled one of these reels personally. I feel sure that these are good reels, although they are not likely on a par with the original metal Johnson Century reels, which are still reeling good as new well over a half century after they were made. Anyway, someone still living must know what the arrangement was between those original venerable reel manufacturers Abu Garcia and Johnson that allowed their spin-cast reels to be so similar even back then.

Regardless of the answer to this historical question, back on topic, these pictures of the disaseembly of the Johnson Guide 160 Accu-cast above and below show the mechanics of the mysterious white sliding button located under the line-release button. The undercover shots disclose that this devise apparently is merely a lock to prevent the unintentional release and unwinding of the line.

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