Peetz Tackle

The Peetz Salmon-Fishing Reel was invented by Boris Peetz, a master jeweler who emigrated to Vancouver Island, British columbia, in the early 1900's Peetz set up his jewelry shop near the waterfront in the little town of Victoria. Before long, he was fashioning sterling silver lures for the men who made their living trolling for salmon in Brentwood Bay and the Straits of Juan de Fuca.

In thoses days, men fished for salmon with hand lines - cutty hunk wound around a V-shaped board. As Peetz listened to the stories of struggling to turn a 50-pound Chinook sounding for the bottom - and saw the cuts on the mens hands- an idea was born.

Using his jewelers skills, he designed and built a salmon trolling reel. The body he made of beautiful hardwood, turned on a lathe, sanded and polished by hand. The gears and other moving parts he crafted out of brass. With a watchmakers precision, Peetz created a reel that was simple, yet strong enough to stand up day after day against salt water and powerful searun salmon.

Peetz made his first salmon fishing reel in 1925. Today the Peetz reel factory still stands near the waterfront in Victoria on Vancouver Island, and every Peetz reel is still turned on a lathe, one at a time, and finished the old fasioned way...by hand, just the way they were made over seventy five years ago.

When you purchase a Peetz reel, your buying more than just a reel thats built to give you years of reliable service, you're buying a piece of pacific Northwest history, a true 'westcoast' work of art.

For over 75 years, the Peetz reel has become a westcoast tradition that is synonymous with fishing. In 1977, the city of victoria was visited HRH Prince Andrew. During the royal visit, Prince Andrew caught his fisrt salmon on a Peetz rod and reel, while fishing the waters of Pedder Bay.
Other famed people known over the years to have used Peetz equipment incude former Canadian Prime Ministers John Diefenbaker and Lester Pearson, Former BC Premier W.A.C. Bennett, and hockey hall of famer and legend, Gordie Howe.

In 1997 the Peetz legend was captured in a novel by fisherman and historian Douglas F.W. Pollard. Available in both paperback and hardcover, the book entitled "PEETZ - A Reel for all time" give an accurate account of the company's history and the impact it made on sport fishing in the Pacific North West.

If you are interested in purchasing a copy of "PEETZ - A Reel for all time" by Douglas Pollard, contact us today.