Daiwa millionaire from the late 70's, great reel followed closely by a Shakespeare Sigma I think,not so great

Shimano Coriolis. Saved up and bought it in 4th grade. Got a second one in 6th grade I believe. They still work today even!

Lews Tournament Speed Spool - 6.4:1

Wore out a couple of Abadabbadoes before investing in a Shimano CTE200GT.

Today this reel is better than the first day out of the box!

Garcia Ambassaduer 1985 5001c & Cardinal 753, both still in use today...

Aside from the Flooger knuckle buster, my first modern lo pro reel was a Daiwa Procaster from the mid 80s. I think it cost me around $120, which was a silly amount of cash back then for a teenager.

Bronson green hornet that needed at least 3/4 oz. to cast followed by Langley lurecast - then Ambassadeur 5000 which I still have.

A Shimano Bantam Mag Plus 250SG. This particular reel is my very first and I got it around 1982 IIRC when we moved to a new house that had a creek behind it. 

 

Mine was a lot like this, but left handed. I cant use right handed. My 1st fish with is was on a blue and black jig and pig. I was 13 and taught myself how to use it, asked my dad a bunch of questions to figure out the finer points. 

Mine was a Daiwa. I forget the name of it but I want to say it was the Megaforce. It was the one with the twitchin bar

Shimano Corsair; JUNK!

Thankfully I found a new baitcaster since the Corsair about made me lose faith in casting reels.

Y'all are young

Yeah kinda I'm 20 lol

Abu Garcia Store Brand Cheapo - worst ever buy...when I got my first Curado, my life was so much easier learning to use baitcasters.

Shakespeare Wondereel 1920 with matching steel rod. My grandpa gave it to me when I was around 10 yrs. old, It's now hanging on the wall in my office. 

 

Tom

shakespeare agility combo

Abu Garcia Black Max and Silver Max...Both were junk and I never use Abu Garcia because of it, I'm sure there higher end stuff is better but left a bad impression with me.

Abu 4500s and 4600s about 30 yrs old now rollin coal still

And a few penn reels still smokin rockfish at 40 yrs old

I purchased a how to learn to use a baitcaster reel VHS video too. It helped in setting the mag breaks. But I was casting the open Penn reels fishing decades ago before the bait casters.

I can use a bait caster with only my educated thumb.

Mine was a Daiwa Millionaire 5HS that I got back Feb. of 1978.  Bought it from a sporting goods store was having a going out of business sale.  We drove through a snow storm to get to the place.