The Golden Reel - fit for a king
Len Borgstrom, the original owner of the well-known fishing reel company ABU (now ABU Garcia), is a life-long fisherman, who in particular fished for salmon in the Mörrum River near the ABU plant in Svängsta, Sweden. King Carl Gustaf had been Len’s guest fishing that river many times, and again he was invited to the opening day in March 1976. A couple days before this event the King called Len to ask if he could bring a friend. The day before his planned arrival, the Royal Court announced the King’s engagement to Miss Silvia Sommerlath, a beautiful hostess who the King had met at the Olympic Games in Munich. And so Len took the future queen, unprepared for her fishing lesson, wearing a borrowed coat and Annika Borgstrom’s boots, to wade into the cold waters and cast her line.
King Carl Gustaf was an environmentalist and over the years was more and more engaged in trying to save the Baltic Sea salmon. A gala dinner was arranged so the King could promote more research for this very important fish. Representatives of ABU Garcia were invited to the dinner and took the opportunity to make two exclusive Gold Ambassadeur fishing reels. One was presented to the King and the other was put up for auction to provide funds for the research: The gold reel sold for an amazing $48,000.
As the owner of ABU Garcia, Len made the Ambassadeur fishing reel the best-selling casting reel in the world. It has become the “Rolex of fishing reels.”

For more information about ABU Garcia’s history, see http://www.abugarcia.com/AbuGarcia-our-history.html http://www.realsreels.com/history/default.html