In the early 1900’s a master jeweller by the name of Boris Peetz was lured by the gold rush activity of the time and emigrated from Europe to British Columbia, Canada. He set up shop four blocks from the Pacific Ocean’s shore in the picturesque town of Victoria on Vancouver Island, Canada.
By 1925, his enthusiasm for the finest salmon fishing in the world led Boris to design and manufacture a series of sterling silver fishing spoons. Their success inspired further invention and the Peetz trolling reel was born. At last, an alternative to hand-lining chutty-hunk onto a V-shaped board and enduring the pain and injury of the coarse line on a fisherman’s hands as a 50 lb. Pacific Salmon sounded. Up until that time, the only reels available were small English-style single action reels lacking both the capacity and the character to land the mighty Chinook salmon. The new Peetz reel quickly became the envy of local fishermen and the word began to spread to fishermen farther afield.
Boris let his jewellery business fade as the demand for the Peetz trolling reels increased. World War II came and went with the Peetz children being called to duty and then becoming reinvolved with their father’s fishing reel business. Boris passed away in the early 1950’s leaving his children Ivan and Judy Peetz to successfully operate and build the firm until 1977 when it was sold to Bill Hooson, a native of British Columbia and long-time friend and employe of the Peetz family. Bill is still the owner of the business today.
Changes made to the Peetz trolling reel since 1925 have been minimal and have been made only to accomodate more advanced materials and finishes. In fact, there is a 70 year old Peetz reel on display in the Maritime Museum in Victoria and it is almost identical in appearance to the Peetz reels being crafted today, with the exception of it’s darkened patina of age. The Peetz reel has become a legend in the Pacific Northwest due to its outstanding reliability and simplicity. To this day, when fishing in the Straits of Juan de Fuca or Georgia Strait, it’s hard to find a single fishermen who doesn’t know and respect the legendary Peetz reel.
And the Peetz legend carries on today with every reel hand-crafted in the same classic way. Each reel is individually handcrafted. They are cut, shaped, turned on a lathe and hand finished, using proprietary fillers and varnishes whose special formulas give them that distinctive Peetz look. Each reel is truly a work of art. Almost 90 years of continuous production has made the Peetz trolling reel a “tradition to be envied”.