Remember Your First?

[Mobasser]

I started with a chrome Zebco 33. I still have it.                  If you started out on a spincasting reel, which model did you have?

[Tennessee Boy]

You had the fancy stuff,  I had a Zebco 202.?

[Susky River Rat]

I am unsure of the brand. I am assuming a Walmart zebco spin cast of some model. I do think I caught more fish on that than any of the 7 rods I currently have. I seriously have memories dropping a worm or live minnow and almost always getting bit. Maybe I am just getting old and talk about how everything was better than it is now.

[msgf91]

When I first started my dad would just give me one of his 202s or 404s to use. Then when we would go to the sporting goods store I would see this small Daiwa spincast combo that was plastic wrapped on a piece of cardboard. The reel was gold color to me so I would call it a gold cast. Asked my dad every week for one till he got it for me. It was probably meant for light line and bluegills. But my dad would spool up all my reels with heavier line so I wouldn't break off. Then he'd put a hook on it for either minnows or catfish bait. So I would catch bigger fish than what it was rated. Fished it till I blew out the gears lol

[Mike L]

Johnson Century 100. 
Don’t remember if it was an A or B model. 
 

I still have it somewhere 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Mike
 

[T-Billy]

Johnson, red white and blue spincast combo. It was striped like a barber pole.

 My grandpa got it for me when I was four. My first fish was an 18.5" carp. 50 years later I still remember that day with him vividly. Man I miss that guy.

[Catt]

3 minutes ago, Mike L said:

Johnson Century 100. 
Don’t remember if it was an A or B model. 

 

?

[LrgmouthShad]

Never used spincast. My first baitcaster was an Ugly Stick GX2 and a Kastking Royale Legend reel. I used it for close to a year and caught some nice fish on it

[A-Jay]

Pretty sure it was a Sears & Roebuck 'Ted Williams Special' spin caster ~

circa 1960 something.

A-Jay

[bulldog1935]

Heddon 215 spinning combo (Daisy Heddon green) with hammer bail-close.  

Got to pick my own tackle at Gibson's before our cross-country vacation to see friends and cousins.  I caught a 3-1/2-lb smallmouth from the bank in Lake of the Ozarks, and trout on the Big Thompson River (reading water was innate for me).  Dad recognized here was an interest we could share, and he put himself into fishing, buying a 14' semi-vee.  

Two years later, my next tackle pick was Mitchell 300 and Berkley Tri-Sport, fishing reservoirs, inshore sloughs, and jetties.  

We became adept at fishing first-light jumps on Lake LBJ, and always brought home white bass. 

[Jig Man]

Johnson 710 for me.

[Captain Phil]

I have never owned a spin casting reel.  I bought my first fishing reel when I was about 14 years old.  The man who taught me how to bass fish used a Pflueger Supreme casting reel.  I couldn't afford one, so I bought a Pflueger Acron with my paper route money.  As I remember, I paid less than $5 for that reel.  When plastic worms came out, they were hard to cast with the casting reels of the day.  To cast them, we switched to Mitchell Spinning reels. Back then we were walking the bank to fish.  With 4 pound mono, a Mitchell 300 could cast across the canals we were fishing allowing us to fish the other bank.  Those old Mitchell 300s were great fishing reels. We used them for both salt and fresh water fishing.  I still have one of the first reels I bought.

 

 

[MN Fisher]

I started at age 7 with a cheap casting rig I got from an ad on the back of a comic book.

Dad saw how much I loved fishing, but having problems with that reel, so for my 8th birthday got me a Mitchell 320 on a Berkley rod. Had that reel until I couldn't find parts for it anymore...mid-late 80s - no Internet.

[Jar11591]

1 hour ago, LrgmouthShad said:

Never used spincast.

Same here. Don’t think I’ve ever even casted one. When I was a baby my dad put a little spinning set up in my hand. That’s what I fished with when I got my start. I was learning to use a baitcaster on my own accord by the time I was 10. My dad never used one so he couldn’t show me. 

[TOXIC]

I have my grandfathers metal rods and open faced reels with cloth line.  Personally, he gave me a green Zebco 303 when we went to Canada and I caught an 18lb pike and countless walleyes up to 8lbs on it.  All on red/white daredevil spoons and white hair jigs.  I have the old slides from that trip, I need to look at them again. 

[Hulkster]

I had some kind of an eagle claw one I think it was red and black with a red and black rod. 

 

not sure if it was this brand though because I'm up in Canada and i don't think they have ever sold the eagle claw rods and reels up here??

[Team9nine]

Another Zebco 202 user here, a combo with a 6' rod that was long for the time. I thought it was great coming up from a cane pole  

[Pogues2300]

Abu garcia Cardinal with some ugly stick is the first combo I recall, had a daiwa millionaire for trolling no clue what the rod was. 

[r83srock]

I started on a zebco 202, Berkley bionic rod. Not too bad of a setup for a kid! My next setup was a hand me down Shimano bantam 10xg with no anti reverse and a well used Berkley lightning rod. It was an upgrade and I caught everything on that setup. It was a 6’ pistol grip rod and I used 14 lb Trilene xl. This was mid 90s. 

[ATA]

my first reel was Abue Garcia 4000 blue in year 2005.

 

[thediscochef]

I had my dad's old walmart shimano spinning reel with a 90s zebco rod for a bit until the rod broke on a high stick one day, this was in 2021. Then I "graduated" to a red zebco slingshot that I put another shimano FX reel onto. Not a bad little $35 combo for travel after the reel upgrade. I think I broke it high sticking but I honestly don't remember...I got into the H2Oexpress rods, then baitcasting...and never really looked back. That little slingshot caught a ton of 1-2lb bass. I think that starting on lesser gear and learning to make it work makes more skills open up on nicer gear, imo the senses are tuned better when you upgrade from cheap gear instead of starting with the $300+ combos

[Log Catcher]

My first spincast reel was a South Bend. It was actually a combo. My Dad got it for me with either Top Value or S&H Green Stamps that some stores gave you when you made a purchase.

[optimator]

It was some spincast combo when I was a kid, probably a Zebco. I remember the rod was white and the reel was black and white with a chrome trigger that held it to the rod.

[Tackleholic]

Pfleuger Triumph, spooled with 50# black dacron line, and mounted on a 5 foot, four sided steel pistol grip rod.

[bulldog1935]

@Tackleholic like this, but this is Pflueger Supreme and the braided nylon is Cortland Camo.