Early Creels

These creels are my favorite of all the creels I've made. The two hunter green creels were tooled all by hand and stitched by hand as well. The green creel with the hole that is offset was sold to a gentleman in Russia. The small creel is the latest creel that I have done. It is a youth model with out a hole in the lid. I bought it off eBay because of its uniqueness of not having a hole on top. When I finally received it in the mail I noticed that it was so small that even a couple of minnows probably wouldn't even fit in it.

Wicker Creels

I took two creels the have been woven with round reed and stripped the old artificial leather off and added my own. They aren't as desired as the older creels but they still look nice.

My Beginnings

This is my collection of fishing creels. I have made a lot of improvements over the past 3 years and had a lot of help from great creel makers: Ken Haggard and Bill Lawrence (great grandson of George Lawrence). I started out making my own creels from round reed and then focused mainly on restoring vintage pre WW-II creels that were made in Japan. These creels are becoming more and more rare but there are still a good amount out there in great condition. Once these creels entered the US they were then leathered and resold to avid fisherman everywhere. Now that the days of filling your basket full of fish are now but gone fishing creels are becoming less of a necessity and more of a hobby. These creels are now being sold to collectors rather than being used, but whatever way they are used the history and story remain preserved.