Background

The first Danielsson reels were created in the early 1980s by Kurt Danielsson from Smedjebacken in the Dalarna area of Sweden.

After a short break, Kurt wanted to take up fly fishing again, and for that reason, he obtained new and up-to-date fly fishing tackle. Everything worked well except the reel. The design of the spool, with the line wound around a thin centre axle, made the line look like a telephone cord. This made it impossible to shoot out the line in the final cast.

Another problem was the increase in drag force as the fish pulled out the line. When the line is pulled from a spool, the amount of line remaining on the spool is reduced, causing it to rotate faster and faster. This results in increased drag force, often resulting in a line break. Further problems resulted when the line uncoiled or the spool continued to rotate after the fish had stopped.

Kurt obtained several other reels of different makes, and tested them thoroughly. All of the reels proved to be of inferior quality, and he began to consider producing the perfect fly reel.

The perfect fly reel
The idea was to have the line on a large-diameter spool. The spool should be light to keep the rotating weight down. Kurt, who is a designer in the steel mill industry, began fabricating prototypes at home in his garage.

After a great deal of testing, Kurt finally arrived at a spool that met all of his demands with respect to function and design. The first large arbour reel had been designed. The following year, we were granted a world patent for the groundbreaking reel design.

The reel with the ingenious design, which prevented overspin, had dramatically reduced line coil memory and fast line retrieval, and quickly became a success.
Production took place in the family’s garage, and the company Danielsson Innovation AB, which was founded by Kurt Danielsson with his wife Gun-Britt and his sons Lennart and Tomas, was on its way.

The rumour soon spread
The radical design solution aroused many feelings and some people were sceptical. However, slowly but surely, even the sceptics realised the advantages, and rumours about the fantastic reel with the mysterious appearance began to spread. As demand increased, the garage became too small and the company moved to a new, modern workshop where everything from design, manufacturing, and assembly was done.

Today, development and production are handled by Kurt’s son Tomas and his colleagues.