Big T, I found this historical note on another website (sorry, no picture):
Hi. My name is Al Lewis & I live on the Queen Charlottes at this time.I see my son had some questions on Karl Stack so I thought I might be able to answer some of those questions for those that are interested.Karl moved to the south Surrey area in the late 60's from the Arrow lakes where he was a logger all his life. Living next door to us it did not take him long to get involved in steelheading.After afew years ,I would guess about the early 70's he began making reels similar to the Hardy reels we used.These reels were never finished that well, but they worked & that was all that Karl required of them.He also made some fly reels, but not that many.At that time he made the reels for him self and a few close friends,but as time went on there seemed to be a demand so he started selling them.Living in the White Rock area,I believe we in that community were the first to use ghost shirmp for bait.When Karl arrived it did'nt take him long to figure out that shoveling for them bugs as he called them was too much work ,so he designed the first pump made of a 2"copper pipe& a stripped ball as a plunger.We spent many good days with karl on mostly the Thompson Rv.I still use the cork floats he made me in those good days.Karl made too many numerous things to mention here. They were,nt necessarily perfect, but worked and he enjoyed making them.I must say that I am surprised to hear they are collectable& priced at about $350.00.We used to pay Karl $25.00 bucks for them.Karl passed away about 1996,but he apparently has not been for gotten.I'll never forget those great days on the Thompson fishing with my Dad & Karl Stack.