James Heddon's Sons, Dowagiac, MI

Heddon hired William Carter and Jack Welch to develop a line of quality fishing reels to compete with the Meek reels. In 1917, they introduced their first Carter-built reels. They were the No's 30, 35, 40 and 45. They were available for only a couple of years. The No. 30 was the most costly and is very rare. In 1920, the Heddon 3-15, 3-24 an 3-30 were introduced. The top of the line variations were the full jeweled tournament (FJT) models with saphire jeweled bearings. The great windshield wiper design reels were sold in 1922 as a No. 4-15 and in 1923 and 1924 as a No. 4-18. The last of the high quality reels made by Heddon were the No. 3-35 (1922 - 1926) and the No. 3-25 (1926 - 1931). After Jack Welch left the company in 1931, he hand made some reels with his own name marked on them. All of these reels are considered highly collectable.