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Allcocks Aerial 1920/30s era - any users?

Aaron Littlefield

Aaron Littlefield

Senior Member
Hello everyone,

excuse my naivety here, but I'm interested to hear from anyone who may have fished (or still fishes) with the older Allcocks Aerial reel. They are pretty much in the realm of the collector these days with mint models fetching nearly £650, which is hugely expensive - however they do have their charm and I'd welcome any feedback from users (are there any out there?). I recall the legendary Paul Boote mentioning them...

From what I've seen out there on the internet they range between 3" to 4.5", the most popular (or rather, the most available) being 3.5" - which begs the question which size would you recommend for river/barbel fishing?

Chris Yates (who probably is partly responsible for the hike in prices) seemed to favour a 4" Aerial - but I'm guessing these days many of the 'usable' reels have been snapped up and sit in glass cabinets. Shame really...

Does anybody have any tips or advice regarding these reels? I'm guessing that wear and tear, cracked handles, is a big problem by now? The odd one or two pops up on fleabay, but I'm guessing its very much caveat emptor with some of these - which makes me wonder if I should buy from a reputable dealer and swallow the cost.

Thanks in advance

Aaron
 
Oh yes. 1915 Model Allcock Aerial, 4-inch x 7/8-inch owned and much used since 1975. Countless barbel, carp, salmon, grayling, mullet, chub, roach, dace etc etc on both the float and on the lead. Still excellent cosmetically but with a tiny bit of wobble now and with one slightly stiff, age-expanded handle. See me out.
 
Funny!
 
Do you have any tips regarding the best size to get Paul? Sounds like you're the expert on these things.

I think they range from 3" up to 4.5"? From what I've read and heard the 4" version is probably the best for general all round fishing...probably without the line guard? I'd imagine the 4.5" version is quite heavy and too wide?

Any help gratefully received :)
 
If you want a reel to put on a shelf or even as an investment (and lord know why they fetch so much money), get an Aerial!
If you want a reel to fish with buy, almost anything else!
I had two and as I am not a collector I got rid!!

Buy an Okuma Sheffield, far better design and smoother running!

Or get a Speedia narrow drum that has not been used much and then run it in properly.
 
I was genuinely intending to use them for trotting duties, or at least that was the plan. I had a boy-ish reverie about fishing with an old aerial, but then I saw the prices and sobered up somewhat...I still like the idea, but I have to be realistic about price versus practicality. I am equally bewildered at the prices for vintage tackle...

I have got an eye out for a pair of tidy speedias...which seem to be getting rare on the ground all of a sudden. Fleabay used to have several on there at any one time about a year or two ago, now I barely see any.

I was considering the 'Flick 'Em' reels - but don't know if they're any good. Don't know if its an urban myth or not, but I remember reading in the Waterlog magazine a few years ago about one of the makers getting fed up and ever so slighly changing the lettering so it resembled "***** 'Em'. Not sure how true that is...apparently some made it out into the angling population.
 
The Flick 'em, a caged pin, if you can find a good one, is a lovely, free-spinning reel. No good for my Wallis Casting though, so I rarely use the "not four-inch" - 3.5 / 3.75 inch? - that I still have. Nice reel for close-range float work, however.
 
I've seen a few out there in poor condition, which has put me off in the past...and a few in natural shiny aluminium and others in black/painted finish. Were they all originally black to begin with?
 
Don't hold me to this, but I believe that early models may have had a leaded finish on the backplate (like the pre-WWII Aerial) and a silver ali (or even lead-finish) spool; later ones had a black paint back and silver ali spool. I have seen a good few Flick 'ems with a paintless / leadless, owner-polished back - perfectly okay for a "user" reel but something frowned on by a reel collector.
 
Fine, free-running reel, the Popular. Just not as light in the drum as its ventilated relatives. The Boote Archive (Photographic Section) holds a picture of a 21-year-old me with rod (10-ft home-built, glass, Fibatube salmon spinner), reel (a 4-inch, prettily shined-up Aerial Popular) and an 18.25-pound fresh-run, late-summer salmon taken on a running worm-bunch below a half-ounce bomb on a link, Wallis Cast to a salmon pool's far bank twenty yards away then trundled round.
 
Maybe I should consider these over the more desirable ventilated versions...I don't tend to use the finger holes when retrieving anyway. Thanks Paul...would you say the 4" is better than the 3 1/2"?
 
That would surely depend on what you want to use if for, Aaron. Personally I'd go for a 4", as I would mostly be using a reel like this when bottom fishing. I prefer a narrow drum reel for float fishing and I've yet to see a reel that spins as freely as my little Speedia narrow.

Coincidentally, you and I may well go head to head on one of the populars as I have been watching a few recently. Nice reels, perhaps not as pretty as their ventilated cousins, but with the prices being what they are on those... And perhaps that's the reason why even populars are now getting rather pricey — north of £200 for a nice one, now, much more for a very nice one.

As people on PP seem to notice, it's becoming a sellers market in the vintage tackle sector at the moment. Probably people like myself coming into the market, who have become a little disillusioned with the "automated" style of modern angling — remote alarms(so's you can wonder off and have a chat), bait-runners(so's you can wander off and have a chat) etc. that it removes you almost completly from the experience of fishing and catching a fish.
 
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