OC #35: Grampa's Reel

11/27/15 -

So my dad gave me this fly reel a few years ago that belonged to his dad, who passed away when I was not much more than 1 year old. I have used the reel a couple times, and it works well. I've decided to take the task on of refurbishing this old reel, that from as far as I can tell from research, was probably manufactured in the 1950's.

Ocean City made fly reels from 1932 to 1968.

Below is a bit of history on the reel.....

Ocean City "Wanita" Fly reel.

The Wanita was the first fly reel sold by Ocean City and was not an original product. It was introduced in the 1933 Catalog and was possibly a product acquired along with Fox reel division acquisition from 1932. There are at least 6 versions known as the Ocean City Wanita fly reel. The first reel was the Wanita No. 303 , it is the standard 60yd model , permanent click , one piece aluminum frame , has a red handle and has a perforated spool. It sold for only $1.00 in 1933. This version was sold from 1933 to 1938 and was the only Wanita available until 1939. In 1939 Ocean City added the Deluxe model and a larger line capacity reel. You could now order the No. 303 60YD , No. 304 100YD , No. 305 60YD "Deluxe" and the No. 306 100YD "Deluxe". The only difference between the standard model and the "Deluxe" model is the addition of a Chromium plated round line guide. They were short lived and were only sold from 1939 to 1942 , when the war started and reel production ceased. They must have been a top seller as they are not hard to find today. Ocean City was selling only the 305 and 306 post war but they changed the permanent click to the New silent drag.

Ocean city changed the design a bit and in 1948 , they named the Wanita the No. 35 and No. 36. These were the "Deluxe" version with the round line guide but the design changed again. The spool was now solid with no more holes to assist in line drying, and the permanent click was replaced with the new permanent silent drag. In the 1950 catalog the Wanita No.35 and No.36 came with the New Duo-Drag, described as one of which is the removable click type and the other, a smooth silent drag - the coil spring which operates the silent drag may be easily removed if found desirable. In the 1951 catalog it is still called the Duo-drag but described as an adjustable sliding click with a smooth silent drag , a little easier to understand. Some reels are totally unmarked so if you don't have the original box it can be difficult to tell what model you have. One thing we have learned is that the catalog pictures and descriptions may have been used for several years even though slight changes to the reels took place for whatever reason.

The reels were mainly sold at Montgomery Ward and targeted the average blue collar worker and sold for the low price of $1.85.

Ocean City Wanita No.35 Fly Reel below with adjustable clicker, 60YD. aluminum construction.

I have begun to strip the old paint off and will update this post as I make progress.

12/6/15

Talked with dad and he says that he is certain that his dad had bought the reel pre 1950's. The design change from the Wanita to No. 35 occured in 1948.