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As a boy, well up till my mid twenties, I fished the River Thames (in Cookham, Berkshire UK) with a centre pin reel delicately 'trotting' a float down the stream for float for chub, roach and dace. This thread is about fishing Hardy Silex reels and has developed into fishing the centre pin (non Silex type) reel Wallis style. A couple of points. The Silex is/was a spinning reel for river fish, namely atlantic salmon. It was the state -of- the- art reel of the day, prior to the introduction of multipliers/baitcasters or decent fixed spool reels, the Silex's were expensive and mostly purchased by the wealthy 'gentry' who could afford to fish rivers like the Tay and the Spey in Scotland. Lures such as devon minnows were cast and (mostly) the river current ensured that they revolved/worked when slowly retrieved, which is all one could do with a reel like the Silex. In still/lake type waters the reel was almost useless for spining artificial lures. Wallis style is a casting style favoured by Brit. anglers casting out floats not great distances for small to medium sized coarse fish on rivers of not too great a flow. It is relaxing and pleasant to do. The reels available at the time (30's, 40's and to some extent the 50's) were of the caged frame design, like the Hardy Conquest and various others like the 'flick 'em' type Youngs reels. Pulling line off and getting the reel to yeald line was the only way to cast any distance. Devotees of the Wallis style of casting pride themselves that they have mastered the tricky technique of preventing the spool from revolving too fast creating a birds nest. Over the last 25 years I have seen float fishing develop in the Great Lakes region of Ontario where I now live. It is high octane fishing with delicate float tackle for bruiser steelhead/rainbow trout. Reels are large diameter, narrow, ball -bearing, often hand made cage -less centre pins. Coupled with long (13') lissom carbon float rods casting is very non Wallis like - the line is held to the left of the spool so, when the rod is cast with the right arm, the line spills easily off the end of the spool as it flows through the hole created where the tip of the index finger meets the tip of the thumb. Great distances can be easily cast, rivers are usually swift and casting and retrieving are constant, Wallis style casting (and those old reels) is/are simply not up to the job as far as I am concerned, and I have yet to see another angler practice the style. Silex reels (Super's especially) are popular fishing the West coast of Canada, the style of 'drift' fishing is very different to what goes on around the Great Lakes. Tackle is usually much heavier with bottom bouncing with lead or large floats . Rods used are shorter as well. Yes I fish Silex's and have each of the models (starting with the earliest of 1899/1910) apart from the Silex Jewel, I use them for trolling/flatlining from a boat for Chinook salmon, no casting being involved. They are a joy to use and a pleasure to play fish on. Around here they would not be best used for that delicate float fishing that I mentioned.

Not so much casting, but trolling off a local rivermouth for bruiser Chinook salmon. I think that I have most representative models of Silex's apart from the 'Jewell'. Ones shown include: Major 4", Extra wide Super 4 1/4", Unused 4" Superba, couple of early Dingley made Silex, 80's version and an early No. 2.