THE REEL THING; LOCAL INVENTOR IN HIS 80S REFUSES TO LET HIMSELF WIND DOWN AND RETIRE.

Byline: Rich Hammond  Staff Writer

So you're in your late 40s, firmly entrenched in that 9-to-5 job and disappointed that you will never have the time or money to put that great product, the one you've been designing in your head for years, on the market.

Bob Koehler doesn't buy it.

Koehler, an 80-year-old resident of Woodland Hills, teaches golf at L.A. Pierce College, shoots skeet and trap, fishes, walks his dogs every morning and plays pool with his buddies every Tuesday.

In his ``spare time,'' he runs his own company and oversees the distribution of the ``Reel-E-Good Winder,'' which recently completed its fourth production run.

``About three years back, I was out looking for a winder, and there just didn't seem to be anything worthwhile on the market,'' Koehler said.

``A couple of them looked like clothes hangers, so I decided I could make one that fishermen would like to have and I went ahead and designed it.''

Koehler and friend David Hanggee incurred all of the start-up costs - ``We didn't want to take out loans and have somebody else run our business'' - and in less than a year, they had a product ready for sale.

The goal for Koehler was to create a product that was portable, versatile and relatively inexpensive, and he is pleased with the outcome. The winder, which retails for $39.95, allows for better line maintenance through several features.

Koehler's winder loads stock spinning line without the worry of the line twisting. It can be used right-handed or left-handed, hooked up to an electronic screwdriver for automatic loading and used to load line on fly, saltwater or conventional bait casting reels. This is important, Koehler said, because many spin/bait fishermen eventually turn to fly fishing.

The small size allows the winder to be brought along on trips for respooling damaged or lost line. The base contains soft plastic ``feet'' so the winder can be used on the hood of a car.

``I've been fishing since I was 5 years old,'' said Koehler, who grew up in New Jersey but has lived in his Woodland Hills home for 43 years, ``so I've spent a lot of time on streams, and I tried to come up with something that would help fishermen.''

The response has been steady, and Koehler expects the business to break even by the end of the year. Since the Hanggee-Koehler Corporation is a one-product business, there have been some pitfalls.

``Other companies that have several products, they can just pull their ad for one product and substitute,'' said Koehler, who said he has shipped units all over the country and to Australia, France, Japan and Switzerland.

``It's more difficult, being a single manufacturing entity, because we don't have income from other products to rely on.''

Koehler said he has also faced some opposition from dealers, who are reluctant to stock his item.

``A dealer can wind line himself and get $1,200 to $1,400, so they are afraid that if they sell our product, the customer won't come in,'' Koehler said. ``I think that's ridiculous because a person who wants to wind line himself isn't going to go to a dealer anyway. He doesn't care if he has to do it in the garage and have line tangled all over the place, he's going to do it himself.

``But from the dealers' perspective, they think it will hurt them. In the old days, it would be like a laundry service selling washing machines.''

Koehler has relied on his background in advertising to market the product, and recently received a three-quarters page write-up in Field and Stream magazine, which he said was worth $56,000 in advertising.

Koehler plans to market other outdoors products in the future and was disappointed to discover that one of his ideas had been recently patented by another company.

``It was a push-button net drop and I had been thinking about it for the past two years,'' Koehler said. ``I still want to buy it and see if it's the same type of deal.

``It's been a lot of fun and I've been fishing for so long that I think I know what a fisherman needs.''

CAPTION(S):

2 photos

Photo:

(1) Long-time Woodland Hills resident Bob Koehler invented the Reel E. Good spin fly winder, which he's sold in the U.S. and Europe.

(2) no caption (close up of Reel E Good winder

Michael Owen Baker/Staff Photographer