IMO it was used to hold the fairly thick line for rodless deep trolling for fish like lake trout. OP your location is UP. I know guys repurposed victrola for their Seth Green rigs on Seneca lake in Finger Lakes Region of Upstate NY. The wound up victrola would help the fisherman store the line as he pulled it up by hand without having to crank a handle all the time. No rod was used with the original system. Just a line storage system which for many was similar to a downrigger storage spool.
I had heard some guys used tricycle front rim with handles as an alternative line storage system. But that required always controlling the handle of the wheel.
While the rigging style is still used most guys use a heavy ocean style reel and rod to control the line and heavy weight.
Just texted my friend in Len in Rochester that has one. He said:
"Yup I have one still for lake trout. It is one with a double spring. It stored your fishing line. When you wanted to let it out it would wind up the spring then when you wanted to take line in you would let the spring wind it in as you pulled up the line."
Seth Green rig taken from a discussion:
It is a multiple leader (up to 5 maximum now) trolling system with the leaders spaced apart (often 20-25 ft apart) used primarily for deep water trolling for trout and salmon. A 2 -4 lb weight is at the bottom of it and a variety of depths can be trolled at a single time with just one setup so that you can have 5 lures going through say 100ft at a time. It is very effective and especially when the thermocline forms in the lakes as it can be set up to cover above below and within the thermocline itself maximizing your potential for fish of various targeted species. The Seth Green was named for it's originator who fished it first on Keuka lake in the 1800's and it is also called a "thermocline rig" or just plain "rig". He also started the first trout fish hatchery (Caledonia. NY I believe). Some folks refer to it as "meat fishing" and various other names and sometimes in a derogatory way and they sometimes say it isn't worth doing because you can't feel the fish (especially small ones) with the heavy sinker and rods etc. but my suspicion is that most of those people haven't even tried it, don't understand how to actually do it, or are too lazy to do it (it does entail some work) because it is truly a lot of fun and one of my favorite ways to fish out of all the fresh and salt water fishing techniques.
more:
https://www.libraryweb.org/~rochhist/v6_1944/v6i3.pdf
Last edited by Azshooter; 05/30/20.
