I forgot, we need pictures. They are forthcoming.
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Zebco 202.
An old Marhoffe Shakespear with the foot missing that I wired to the handle of a 4 1/2 foot American Fork & Hoe rod I found sticking out of a neighbors garbage can . The reel I found laying in the middle of the street . I have one of the '49 Zebco's that still gets used .
Eddie
Mine was a Johnson levelwind direct drive,I don't remember the number but I got it in the late forties or early 50's.I went to get the number of it but I put it up for safe keeping and couldn't find it lol but it is in the store room somewhere.
Mine was an old Zebco open face, i cant remember the model? It was big for an open face reel, i fished with that old reel a lot, and as a kid i didnt take good care of it. I hooked a big 30+ pound Chinook (King Salmon) in the River, (I grew up on the Wa Coast) the fish stayed in the hole for awhile (until it realized it was hooked) i swear that thing turned and headed back to saltwater! My old reel went howling like a coyote, and progressively worsened to a pack of coyotes! That was the last i remember of that old reel, for Christmas that year i got an Abu Garcia 6000 Level wind
Zebco 202 my dad got me in 1965. I still have it. Ron
Zebco 202
My first reel and rod was the steel rod with the open reel with the black line in it. Then later on it the years to a 202 Zebco.I still have those steel rod with reels.
Mitchell 304 I still have it someplace. It was a good old reel. I use mostly Mitchell were made in france
I don't honestly remember my first pole, I loved fishing growing up. My favorite that I recall and the most used was a baitcaster my grandfather found at Academy. I must've spent the entire week at the lake just casting in the street with a weight trying to figure out how it worked. Here we are 15 years later and I picked it up again in an hour, already casting just like I was back in school again. Muscle memory is pretty amazing!
Mitchell 300, still have it.
Mine was a Mitchell 308 don't know what ever happened to it!
Mitchell 300 on a Heddon rod. I bought it in 1975 when I got a "big" student employee paycheck. It was the first name brand rod and reel I ever bought. It still catches fish, 28" walleye pike in Canada last year.
Garcia-Mitchell 300, purchased about 1957.
Mitchell 300. Bought it at Sears in 1969. Still using it.
Zebco 202 about 1965.. Still have it.
gwpercle,
A LANGLEY LURECAST on a 6' GARCIA CONOLON rod.
yours, tex
Mitchell 308 and 310.
Zebco 202 in the late 60s.moved up to a 404 soon used them for many years.the hears wore out on the 404s.there was a local fishing show and Zbebco had a booth.I explained tomthe guys there that i had several 404s with bad gears.One of them reached under the table and then handed me a handed full of new gears.needless to say evin as a teen i was impressed.
I opened this thread and found that I had previously posted...had no recollection of that. Anyway, Yes my first real reel was a Shakespeare 2062. I grew up in THE PREMIER fishing town in the US, Stevens Point WI. Back in the day everyone had a Mitchel 300. It was the standard "Cadillac" of the day They were $17 in 1967. I couldn't afford one. The one and only reel I owned was a Zebco 202 that I won in a raffle at a grand opening of a gas station in 1963. Before that it was all casting rods with very heavy lures (mostly daredevils). I would only drool over mono filament reels before the 202. In the spring of 1967 (not completely sure about the date) my dad asked me what reel I would get if I could buy any I wanted. I announced that from what I had read the Shakespeare 2062 was the best. (a neighbor who was studying fisheries mgmt at UWSP) had a Shakespeare 2052 (the ultra light version) for brook trout fishing in the streams. To my great amazement, my dad took me down to "Hunters Corner" and let me pick out the reel and pole and bought it for my 16th birthday. Now to give you an indication of how incredible that was. Every birthday and Christmas present until that time was underwear. Once my dad asked me what I wanted for my birthday. I told him "a bike". He laughed and said give me a list of your favorite 7 colors and I will buy you one for every day of the week. I didn't get a bike until I was able to buy my own.
But here I was with the greatest fishing rig I could imagine. I took well advantage of it. I may have caught more fish with that reel than everyone on this thread put together. I still have it but not my everyday reel anymore. The reels are so good now that I just buy whatever junk I find at yard sales. I tune them to work as well as the best.
the Zebco 202 was "re purposed" to be a dedicated Wisconsin River Northern Pike reel. I fitted it with 20lb test mono and proceeded to slay the pike for perhaps another decade. Of course the rivets holding the mount to the plastic had to be replaced and it only held about 180 feet of line but it worked for me. So there is the story...(remember all fishermen are liars...I may have embellished a bit but the prices quoted are true to my best recollection)