New Prosek Edition Abel Super 5N

March 3, 2007 By: Marshall Cutchin

Abel and James Prosek are teaming up once again, this time to produce a limited edition reel for 5- to 6-weight rods. Given how quickly the limited edition Atlantic Salmon Super 9s sold out, the 100 reels in this new series are likely to be a hot commodity. The cool thing, of course, is that each time Abel produces one of these series, they donate the first reel and Prosek print to a conservation group. This time it’s Trout Unlimited, whose record of recent achievements is noted in the press release.
Read the extended entry for more details.


ABEL/PROSEK BROWN TROUT REEL WILL BENEFIT TROUT UNLIMITED
CAMARILLO, Calif. – A limited edition Abel Super 5N (narrow) fly reel in a design inspired by artist and conservationist James Prosek will benefit the international conservation organization Trout Unlimited, announced spokesman Don Swanson.
Only 100 of the individually colored and anodized reels will be produced. Reels will be accompanied by a signed and numbered 11×14 gicleè print of a brown trout by Prosek. The print number will correspond to the reel number.
Reel number one and gicleè print number one will be donated to Trout Unlimited by Abel. The reel and print will be sold at an auction with all proceeds to TU, according to Swanson.
The brown trout reel is the fifth in a series of Prosek-inspired works. Brook trout, west slope cutthroat trout, steelhead and Atlantic salmon models preceded the trout. All prior reels were quickly sold out. “This series of Abel/Prosek reels has become the most collectable fishing tackle in recent memory,” said Swanson.
The American-made S-5N is machined from cold finished 6061-T aircraft quality aluminum. Reels are then precision machined (not die cast) on C.N.C. lathes and mills.
Abel’s newest reel was designed for a 5- or 6-weight rod in freestone river, spring creek or lake conditions. The 5.7 ounce reel is fitted with Abel’s 100% cork disc drag system, is fully anodized and finished for both fresh and saltwater use.
The reel weighs 5.7 ounces with a diameter of 3.50 inches, and width of .750 inches. Backing capacities are125 yards of 20# with a 5-weight forward line; and 100 yards of 20# with a 6-weight forward.
Founded 48 years ago (July, 1959), Trout Unlimited was guided by the principle that if they “take care of the fish, then the fishing will take care of itself.” And that principle was grounded in science. TU’s first president, Dr. Casey E. Westell Jr., said, “In all matters of trout management, we want to know that we are substantially correct, both morally and biologically.”
In 1962-63, TU prepared its first policy statement on wild trout, and persuaded the Michigan Department of Natural Resources to discard “put-and-take” trout stocking and start managing for wild trout and healthy habitat. On the heels of that success, anglers quickly founded TU chapters in Illinois, Wisconsin, New York, and Pennsylvania.
TU won its first national campaign in 1965: Stopping the construction of the Reichle dam on Montana’s Big Hole River. Five years later, TU helped secure a ban on high-seas fishing for Atlantic salmon. And in 1971, TU took legal action to protect the last free-flowing stretch of the Little Tennessee River. Perhaps one of the most significant early applications of the Endangered Species Act, the action stopped the Tellico dam, but only temporarily: An eleventh-hour congressional appropriations rider later doomed TU’s victory.
The organization’s recent accomplishments include:
— Securing permanent protection of 140,000 acres in California’s Sierra Nevada in the Pacific Gas & Electric bankruptcy settlement.
–Negotiating a water deal that permanently sets aside 10,000 acre-feet of water in Montana’s Bitterroot River.
–Employing cutting-edge technology like thermal infrared imagery to direct abandoned mine remediation work in Pennsylvania’s Kettle Creek watershed.
–Advocating successfully for trout-friendly operation of five dams on the Housatonic River.
–Uniting TU members in five states in a broad-based, multi-partner effort to restore brook trout in the Southern Appalachian Mountains.
–Leading a landmark effort to restore fishable Atlantic salmon runs on Maine’s Penobscot River.
–Coordinating the Trout in the Classroom program which teaches children in more than 100 schools about the importance of healthy aquatic ecosystems.
–Mobilizing hunters and anglers to ensure responsible use and lasting protection of the nation’s public lands.
–Launching a watershed-scale conservation effort in the 24,000-square-mile Driftless region of Minnesota, Wisconsin, Iowa and Illinois
Prosek, who has authored and/or illustrated Trout an Illustrated History, Trout of the World, Joe and Me, Fly-Fishing the 41st Parallel, Early Love and Brook Trout and a children’s book, A Good Day’s Fishing, has been called the James Audubon of fish.
His brown trout gicleè print is an individually produced high resolution reproduction. Artists feel that a gicleè is superior to traditional lithography in that colors are brighter; they last longer, and are virtually a continuous tone rather than tiny dots.
The collectors’ edition brown trout Abel reel is priced at $850. It will be available about April 1.
For information and advance purchase, phone 866 511 744, e-mail [email protected] or visit www.abelreels.com