Guys, i have a question that I thought someone out there might be able to help me with. I stopped by a yard sale today, actually it is a guy that buys rods and reels at garage sales then resales them, but he had two vintage Abu Garcia 5500C reels on poles that I baught for $25 each. I bought them for I figured I could maybe sell one for a little more and have the other to use. My question is which one would you keep for a cat fish reel? One is a high speed and the other is not. I never owned a high speed so really don't know its use. I like those older Abu Garcia's for i don't think the new ones are as good. Any info or suggestions appreciated.

Either would probably work for the catfish rod but there would be no real advantage of using the high speed there. That would come in handy where you want to burn a bait or take up line quickly like jigging heavy cover.

As a side note, those reels lend themsleves nicely to upgrades and are fun to tinker with.