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First & Most Memorable Reels

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My very first reel was a Zebco 606 my Dad gave me for Christmas.  I used it for years, and all I ever did was take it apart, wipe the gunk out of it, and regrease the spots that had grease.  Just used ordinary auto grease out of my dad's grease gun.  I never caught many big fish on it until it met its match.  For several years we would go to Painted Rock lake and camp out for several days for Christmas with fires on the beach and catfish rods up and down the way all night long.  I would sleep with a fire on one side and my fishing pole tied down with rocks on the other, and a little bell on the tip.  The channel cats would come through in a school two or three times a night, and when they did sometimes every rod on the beach would start ringing.  I didn't have much luck, but all the adults in the group seemed to catch a few.  Finally I hooked up with one.  I slept right through it until somebody woke me and handed me my rod.  

 

I was so sleepy...

 

I stood there half awake cranking and cranking and cranking and the drag kept singing and singing and singing.  There were times I think I was asleep on my feet because somebody would yell keep reeling, and I would realize I had stopped, and the drag had started singing out again.  Finally I dragged it up in the shallow water and one of the guys ran out and scooped it up with a net.  

 

I was so sleepy I don't know what happened after that, but I was sure I had reeled in the biggest fish of the trip.  I was so sleepy I just crawled back in my sleeping bag and went to sleep.  The next day I kept asking the guys which fish was the one I caught, and they kept pointing to a fish that was about 5 1/2 pounds on a stringer.  It was not even close to the biggest fish of the trip.  There were lots of 2-3 pounders, several 4-6 pounders, a couple that were an easy 7+ and one my dad caught one that was well over 9.  My fish just a middle of the pack average catfish for the trip.  

 

When I woke up I found my rod and reel laying in the sand next to me.  The line was so twisted it would curl and hang between the take up pin and the hole in the reel cover every cast.  And it wobbled.  It had a steel base that was riveted onto a plastic reel foot.  The rivets had wallowed out both holes and the reel foot has starting to crack from the hole on one side.   I fished with it some more because it was all I had, but it was done.  

 

That Zebco 606 was not my most memorable reel.  It was just my first reel.  

 

The first reel I bought for myself was an Olympia open face spinning reel I picked up at Meyers in Ohio.  I think it was Meyers anyway.  I also picked up a 7'6" blue fiberglass light action spinning rod from the same store.  I hated that reel, but I loved that rod.  Ok, hate is probably too strong.  That Olympia reel cast better than anything I had ever used before, but I also spent many a day taking the spool off to unwrap line from around the spool shaft.  I caught a fair number of fish with that reel.  Mostly little stuff.  I loved that blue rod.  

 

Then one summer (maybe the next summer) my dad and I were in a Yellow Front store in Prescott Arizona that was having a clearance sale on reels.  I was torn between buying a small reel that would match my rod or a little larger reel that would hold more line.  I went for the little larger reel.  A Daiwa 250RL.  It has a nice smooth draw, and something I had never seen before.  An external bail bump.  If the bail was open it would come around and hit a plastic padded knob on the front of the reel stem that would positively close the bail.  It also had an externally skirted spool.  At first I was nervous about whether or not I had picked the right reel.  Even on a huge clearance sale I could only afford one.  

 

It turned out to be probably the most memorable reel I have ever owned before or since.  And rod.  The blue glass Daiwa rod and that Daiwa 250RL reel were the perfect combo.  I caught bluegill all across the country with it. I dragged lures on Mohegan river canoe trips and caught crappie off the dam and the pickup point.  I caught stocker rainbows at Lynx Lake.  It made many a trip up and down the Gila River with me on years when there was water in the pools.  It caught bluegill, large mouth, carp and stripers at Lake Powell.  I could feel a tiny little bluegill breathing on my bait, and I cranked 12 pound stripers up from 40 feet straight down.  I t seemed to handle line from gossamer thin (6lb test) to cables that would stop a ship (maybe 12 lb at most) just fine.  I used it for flicking tiny little 1/16th ounce spinners up under overhanging brush in Oak Creak, and I used it for cut bait rigs with a 3/4 pancake sinker for striper fishing vertical cliffs on Powell.  It caught perch, white bass, walleye, and sheep head on Lake Erie.  Then one day my dad was unloading the boat at Lake Powell and threw something on my rod.  I never found the right rod to put that reel on again, but I also never seemed to have the cash to replace it.  Not for a long time.  I used that reel for several years, and I admit I never cleaned it or lubricated it.  It just worked.  Then one day I was trying it on a new rod, and it felt a little tough to turn.,  I decided it was time to take it apart and clean it.  Sadly it never went back together after that.  I don't remember why exactly, but that was its end.  

 

I've got dozens of rods and reels now.  Almost all of them are better than that old blue glass combo, but I doubt I'll ever forget it.  

 

 

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My first reel was an Intrepid Deluxe. The very cheap end of the reel market, but it was a solid, reliable reel, that served me throughout my teens.

 

Its weakest link was the bail arm spring, which would fail every two years or so. A new reel was out of the question, so I would strip the reel right down a couple of times a season, plus after any salt water trips. I enjoyed the tear down, cleaning and greased re-assembly. The reel looked as if it had spent the night in a cement mixer with all the chipped enamel, but the operation was smooth, better than new.

 

When I started work, I was finally able to upgrade to the close faced Abu 506, the reel that everyone was talking about at the time. Precision, light and a thing of beauty. The Deluxe never died, it was just retired and occasionally used for sea fishing, to save the Abu.

 

The funny thing was, once I got my first car and no longer had to take the bus and hike for miles to get to the water, I lost interest in fishing.

 

Dave

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Love the stories!... Childhood fishing was the best! Even though i catch more fish now, back then there was a "magic" to it that i cant feel anymore

First reel was a Zebco 33 that i kept at my dads house... It casted a red n white cork with a worm under it, or a red n white cork with a minnow

The line got wet every other weekend, but it never really got "used" until my dad moved into a neighborhood on Granbury Lake and bought a 21' Bass Buggy pontoon boat... Finally we started catching fish!

The Zebco hauled in crappie right off the wall in dads back yard.. Little sandies and smallies trolling a sand bar.. Tons of bluegill from a little cove we called "kitty cat cove", because of this little cat that followed us along the bank, i always made sure he/she got a belly full of bluegill before we left

Then one day my dad got a tip about some power lines from another fisherman, we went out and anchored under those lines for hours, fishing minnows under a split shot 40 ft down... The rods were in holders along the side of the boat, but hadn't budged all day... Suddenly mine flipped completely upside down and the tip bent down almost touching the water.... When i grabbed the rod, it was so heavy that i hoped dad would just take it from me!... He did, but only to adjust the drag and then handed it back... The fight was long winded, but the 33 held its own!.... On the other end was a 5 lb striper, wish i could say it was bigger, but i was only 10 yrs old at the time, so to me it was 50!..... Took me 15 years to top that catch!

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Oh, I am jealous.  My dad had Zebco 33s.  Those were the "good" reels.  LOL.  I remember when Zebco went from a steel to a plastic take up pin on them.  My dad was livid about it.  

 

A Zebco 33 Platinum is part of my arsenal today for less skilled guests in my boat.  

 

 

 

 

 

..

Edited by Bob La Londe
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First rig was a telescopic Southbend rod “matched” to a Shakespeare Wondereel.  Quote marks used because I don’t think there has ever existed a rod which properly suits with this reel.  It was the green closed-faced underspin with the unique function of back cranking to release the bail.  No sh*t, you grabbed the line and turned the handle backward to prep for the cast.  Ergonomic nightmare and one got very proficient at taking it apart to rectify the various forms of entanglement that frequently ensued.  Even a 6 year old like me developed in-depth knowledge of it’s guts for the reel demanded such maintenance skills to perform at all.  In hindsight, Dad’s gifting me this creature was likely more out of frustration with the reel itself than parental generosity.

 

Gramps, possibly impressed at my ability to successfully catch fish on such an abominable rig took sympathy on me and gave me a Shakespeare 2052 spinning reel and a decent rod to go along with it.  This was friggin’ huge!  Gramps recognized two types of people on Earth…those who fish and those who don’t.  I was 7 years young and officially in the first group with my maroon spinning reel, things really took off from there.

 

A 2062 was later bestowed upon me for larger species, the rod guides which eventually grooved became my first lesson in rodbuilding.  

 

Yep, Ol’ Yeller came into the picture in a few years.  Y’know the one, a Wright McGill yellow fiberglass flyrod (6 wt) complete with an automatic (Shakespeare, of course) flyreel.  Again, Gramps understood this was about a lifetime, not just a passing phase and influenced greatly all quality choices made by others pertaining to it.  Cool situation for a fishin’ kid in the late 1970’s to be approved of by a fanatical lifelong angler.

 

Regarding the spinning reels above, do any of you remember the gearing in those?  The worm gear system in older spinning reels was indestructible, never again will there be such high Q machining in a reel.  Way overdone and it made the all metal reels even heavier, but it was impressive crankin’ power.  Bail springs were an atrocity and gave rise to the bail clipping/no bail thing of the past.  Some just cut the whole arm off and placed line in the roller by hand.

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First reel was a Zebco 202. Next it was the 404. The most memorable thing about those reels was that they didn't work so well after using them for a while. When I finally saved up enough money to buy my first Zebco 33 I thought I had reached the pinnacle of fishing reels. I was grinning like a mule eating briars when I latched her down on the rod. There's no telling how many miles of creek banks that little 33 was toted on nor how many bass, bream, etc. were taken with it. I still remember catching my first catfish on an artificial bait with that reel. It was a 6 1/2 lb flathead that bit a yellow skirted spinnerbait. That catfish was about half as long as I was tall and I carried that sucker about a mile to the hardware store to get it weighed and have my picture taken.

 

Thanks for posting this Bob. It brought back some great memories of a much simpler time.

 

Ben

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While Dad bought me the Intrepid Deluxe and my younger brother the Black Prince, he bought himself the Mitchel 300. He only fished once a year on holiday, so once I started fishing every weekend, I soon stole the Mitchel. A quality piece of engineering. I loved taking it apart and re-building.

 

Dave

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My first was first was an old viking push button , then my dad quickly threw me into using garcia . I got a mitchell 300 for Christmas when I was around 15-16 and at 48 I'm still using the 300's . I've even got my son using them .  It's not I'm old school but I can't find a reel with the right comfort level . The new reels are beautiful to look at but the bail releases are something that I despise . I recently decided to "modernize" and made the tragic mistake of buying the mitchell 300 "pro" . The $10 packaged  zebco rod reel combos with the hooks and cheap lures is a better value . What ever happened to mitchell ? I quickly changed over to a daiwa reveros , much better quality at a cheaper price . I wanted to see what a new daiwa feels like before I pass it off to my son and buy the daiwa freams .  Three days later after using it -  my finger still smarts from getting whacked by the bail housing , and the bail release on these things is terrible .

I can fish very precisely along the banks and with my old 300 and I can click the bail closed with a thumb push on the handle (very smooth and quick in that sense). The new reels release the bail effortlessly if I have a run at the release mechanism , otherwise it takes a lot of force to close if the housing is resting against the release mechanism . This is causing me to over cast . I will say that the daiwa is quiet and super smooth but I can't get a feel for these new reels because of such a stiff release .  The 300 is about to get respooled with some new line until I find the right fit . The only reason that I have for making a change is that the brake on the ol reel drives me nuts with the noise so I fish without it , and I messed up to many hook sets on  big fish because of it .

Funny thing is that I often run into guys with their nice shiny new gear who dart their eyes at my ol relic reel , and after a chit chat I walk away knowing that I well out fished them anyhow lol

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