In 1966, the company acquired Pflueger Corporation, an Akron, Ohio-based fishing tackle manufacturer whose experience in the fishing industry was as lengthy as Shakespeare’s. Having bolstered its original business, the company next moved to expand its other business areas. In 1968, Shakespeare incorporated steel and aluminum golf shafts into its golf line and purchased Plymouth Meeting, Pennsylvania-based Plymouth Golf Ball Company, a maker of golf balls founded in 1916. The following year, Shakespeare built up its archery business, acquiring Big Rapids, Michigan-based Root Archery Company. In 1970, the company acquired the manufacturing and sales rights to Golden Eagle Bow, and subsequently consolidated both archery acquisitions into Columbia Products Company.
Wherever you’re traveling by train, plane, automobile, bicycle or walking, this spinning rod is incredibly easy to carry and has the power and sensitivity to land a decent catch on lures or baits. There’s a very strong likelihood, if only speculative, that most anglers have owned a fishing tackle or fishing kit of some description with Shakespeare’s name on it. Sign up for the latest news, tips, and updates sent straight to your inbox from the Pure Fishing family of brands. I like a fishing manufacturer that keeps fishing tackle accessible to all, and Shakespeare has built its name on this principle. And competing against each other under the same corporate umbrella ensures the angling consumer is assured, at the very least, a modicum of genuine quality, not just marketing hype. Watch a man try to break an Ugly Stik fishing rod in the video below.
The one exception to the company’s strategy of strengthening established businesses during this period was the creation of a ski division in 1970, facilitated by a distribution and sales arrangement with Yugoslavia-based Elan Ski Company. Operated through the Shakespeare Sporting Goods Division, the ski segment manufactured skis, bindings, poles, and a line of ski apparel. An integral subsidiary of K2 Inc., Shakespeare Company manufactures fishing tackle equipment, marine antennas, fiberglass utility poles, and monofilament.
To be honest, I’d buy 3 of them and put different size reels. I’d put a 2500 spinning reel on the medium-light, a 3000 reel on the medium and a 4000 reel on the medium heavy. I’d use them for focussed hunting trips shakespeare fishing casting small hard bodies at bass. I’m still astonished that they can make rods like this for the mere pocket change it costs online. If you chase big fish from your boat or kayak, it’s really hard to go past this.
Most anglers are very familiar with the shakespeare fishing rods brand. Shakespeare also manufactures practical fishing seat boxes for tackle management as well as offering a nice little rest off your feet. Many of the seat boxes are ideal for match fishing with their bright blue and black colours but could be used in other disciplines for how useful they are at organising your tackle. Unlike other seat boxes where you get one big compartment to chuck all your gear and probably have some tangled tackle, the Shakespeare seat boxes are fully loaded with an extra deep storage lid, side trays and a comfy cushion top.
Although William Shakespeare, Jr., had some training in mechanics and craftsmanship, he spent his days peddling patent medicines in and around Kalamazoo. When not hawking elixirs, Shakespeare often grabbed his fishing rod and reel and bait-casted on the banks of the Kalamazoo River or at one of his home state’s myriad lakes. Like his angler friends, Shakespeare was frustrated by the inherent inadequacy of multiplier reels, and in 1895 he fell back on his mechanical background and attempted to come up with a solution. Using a small jeweler’s lathe, Shakespeare carved precise, curving grooves along the lengths of two round brass rods and created a device that wound back fishing line evenly on the reel spool.
Operated by a subsidiary named Shakespeare of Arkansas, Inc., the facility also served as a warehouse and distribution center for the company’s activities in the southern and western United States. The Wonderod quickly changed the face of the fishing tackle industry, making bamboo and steel rods virtually obsolescent. It also cemented the company’s reputation as a maker of high-quality fishing rods and, equally important, it demonstrated the immeasurable potential of fiberglass.
What many ‘old-timers’, and freshwater fishermen recall about the shakespeare fishing reel rods and reels, was the very first push-button ‘Wondercast Spinning Reel’, created in 1953. The company has moved forward in a big way, and now remains a leading manufacturer and supplier of freshwater rods, for the fishing industry. Following the establishment of its two new manufacturing facilities, Shakespeare concentrated on building its existing businesses through acquisitions, taking a temporary reprieve–with one exception–from entering new business areas.