My first was a '77 5500C that I inherited from my grandfather in about '93 or so when I was 13.  He was a big fisherman but didn't fish much the last decade of his life due to his health.  I used that reel consistently for 25 years, mostly for steelhead fishing but haven't used it much the last few years.  It's in pretty good shape and I will pass it along to my son someday.

 

quantum iron IR3  still works like brand new. used it last year to throw some small doubles for pike.

My first and still my only baitcaster is an Abu Garcia Black Max in 6.4:1 that I got for Christmas in 2019. I still use it regularly, in fact my PB of 2021 was caught on the Black Max! I'd say that is still has a few summers of life in it before I upgrade, and I probably will upgrade it for Christmas. But it still works!

I was completely nothing but spinning until COVID back in March shut us down at work. I bought my first bait caster combo from BPS and it was the Abu Garcia Revo SX that came mounted on a carbon lite 2.0.

 

Loved it so much I ordered another Revo SX reel two days later and it turned out to be hot garbage with the side plate issue.

 

11 minutes ago, NavyVet1204 said:

I was completely nothing but spinning until COVID back in March shut us down at work. I bought my first bait caster combo from BPS and it was the Abu Garcia Revo SX that came mounted on a carbon lite 2.0.

 

Loved it so much I ordered another Revo SX reel two days later and it turned out to be hot garbage with the side plate issue.

My buddy Steve retired one day on the flats with a new Revo side plate letting go mid-cast (and a spool shim issue on his IRT spinning reel).  

It became the deciding factor when I didn't buy a JDM Revo LX992Z Japan Finesse Special, and instead bought my first Daiwa in over 40 years

4 minutes ago, bulldog1935 said:

 

My buddy Steve retired one day on the flats with a new Revo side plate issue (and a spool shim issue on his IRT spinning reel).  

It became the deciding factor when I didn't buy a JDM Revo LX992Z Japan Finesse Special, and instead bought my first Daiwa in over 40 years

It was very disheartening to have that issue personally because I have had a lot of Abu products over the years with no issue. 

Mine was/is a Daiwa Millionaire 3H. My friend and I were big into fishing as teens in the mid-70s. Used to read all the outdoor magazines and decided we needed baitcasters like the pros lol. He got the 6H and I got the 3H. Still have it!

 

10 hours ago, BassSteve said:

Pretty ancient looking compared to today's baitcasters huh, it's amazing how they evolved and how sleek they are now. I'm not trying to make fun, but are the knobs on that thing some kind of rubber? They look like leather lol. 

I’d say more of a hard plastic. At least on my 3H. Has a fancy spool tension knob. The brake is the opposable digit on your hand lol. 

1 hour ago, bulldog1935 said:

 

My buddy Steve retired one day on the flats with a new Revo side plate letting go mid-cast (and a spool shim issue on his IRT spinning reel).  

It became the deciding factor when I didn't buy a JDM Revo LX992Z Japan Finesse Special, and instead bought my first Daiwa in over 40 years

My Revo side plate would pop off immediately at casting so I figured it was the door catch on the latch or something was misaligned that would inhibit the spool, but I couldn’t find anything out of place.

My first baitcast reel I purchased was a silstar. Dont remember the model number but I purchased a silstar pistol grip rod to go with it.

It was in the late 80's.

Kast King Royale Legend. Worked fine for me! 

2 Speed Shimano Beastmaster. This was one of their most expensive reels at around $200 back in 1990. Just an all around nightmare to try to learn on and good luck putting it back together after opening it up.

Ambassadeur 5500 C Sweden

around 1974, before then I was using Zebco 33 

for panfish, catfish and bass.later on I got a 2500C for light lures .

13 minutes ago, The Maestro said:

2 Speed Shimano Beastmaster. This was one of their most expensive reels at around $200 back in 1990. Just an all around nightmare to try to learn on and good luck putting it back together after opening it up.

Now that is a sweet looking real I have to say, even for the time. Yeah 200 in 1990 is probably 400 or 500 now, that was pricey. Wow so what is two speed feature? Does it mean you can change between gear ratios or something or it just controls how fast the line gets reeled in?

Just now, BassSteve said:

Now that is a sweet looking real I have to say, even for the time. Yeah 200 in 1990 is probably 400 or 500 now, that was pricey. Wow so what is two speed feature? Does it mean you can change between gear ratios or something or it just controls how fast the line gets reeled in?

That lever let's you change between 4:1 and 6:1. You can see it better if you zoom in on it.  

6 minutes ago, The Maestro said:

That lever let's you change between 4:1 and 6:1. You can see it better if you zoom in on it.  

That is sweet, 4:1 gear ratio, that's really slow. I may be wrong but they don't create baitcasting reels these days with that feature anymore right? If they don't there must be a reason, like it's not practical or it's not something that has a demand etc. 

The first I owned was Ryobi AD400 with a "V" spool. I think they were made my Lew's at the time, not sure. Casted great as I remember. Before that my Dad's 5000c Abu

1 hour ago, BassSteve said:

That is sweet, 4:1 gear ratio, that's really slow. I may be wrong but they don't create baitcasting reels these days with that feature anymore right? If they don't there must be a reason, like it's not practical or it's not something that has a demand etc. 

They pitched it as having the ability to switch between speed and power/torque and yes it was painfully slow at 4:1. In reality it was more or less a useless gimmick they came out with before real advancements in reel design that actually improved performance and usability like lighter weight spools and better braking systems.

1 hour ago, BaitFinesse said:

Bass anglers now all have ADD is all.  There are 4.x:1 reels out there that are not marketed to bass anglers.   

So what then they are marketed for salt water fishing? I would sure like a baitcasting reel I could go from 6:3:1 to 8:2:1. That would come in handy instead of buying 2 of the same reels but in different ratios...

A Shakespeare Alpha that came with a 6'6'' rod, I used it to learn how to use a baitcaster and it held up fine but I upgraded pretty quick to a Quantum Invade which is way better   

My first one is a Piscifun baitcaster from Amazon, because it's cheap.  I pitied the fools who spent hundreds of dollars on a fishing reel, and then I became one.  Good times. 

Jeez my first baitcaster was something branded as Tru-Temper. A clunky round reel loaded up with multicolored braided line. I think they had a lot of nerve calling it a "caster" though. I'd give $10 to see anyone cast anything on that reel. My Dad gave it to me on a matching Tru-Temper steel casting rod back about 1962 or so. I switched to the old Zebco 33 and then the Johnson Century. Back then no one was using bait casting reels as we now know them, they didn't exist.

 

When I was a bit older, I swithed to the new fangled "open-faced" reels. It wasn't until the early 90's before I finally realized that the modern bait caster was a thing.

6 minutes ago, NOC 1 said:

Jeez my first baitcaster was something branded as Tru-Temper. A clunky round reel loaded up with multicolored braided line. I think they had a lot of nerve calling it a "caster" though. I'd give $10 to see anyone cast anything on that reel. My Dad gave it to me on a matching Tru-Temper steel casting rod back about 1962 or so. I switched to the old Zebco 33 and then the Johnson Century. Back then no one was using bait casting reels as we now know them, they didn't exist.

 

When I was a bit older, I swithed to the new fangled "open-faced" reels. It wasn't until the early 90's before I finally realized that the modern bait caster was a thing.

Like one of these fine reel? 
 

5 minutes ago, BrianMDTX said:

Like one of these fine reel? 
 

LOL, not too far removed, but the one I had was I'm sure made in the 40's or 50" as it was old and beat when I got it in 62. We would only use it to put a big catfish river weight on it and bottom fish for river cats. For many years that is what I figured you did with "baitcasters". For crank baits and stuff you actually had to cast I thought that you had to have either a spinning reel or a spin-caster.

Shimano built Lew's Speed Spool.  A few years later, Shimano copied many of the Lew's features into their Bantam reels.

Calcutta 200b and 400b... back in 03ish? I was 13 and my dad bought us matching setups. They are still hanging in the garage and I plan to fish them this year as I get back into it for the first time in 10+ years.