your first baitcasting reel

[Steveo-1969]

I grew up in Wisconsin and started fishing in the 80s and I didn't know (nor had I seen) anyone who fished with a baitcaster. Everyone used spinning rods! Stopped fishing for years and when I got back into it I found Bass Resource which got me wanting to try a baitcaster.

 

In 2012 (at the age of 43) I bought an Abu Garcia Revo S. I read a bunch and watched videos a bunch on how to set it up and cast it. Spent a couple hours in the backyard practicing and then went fishing. I still remember how excited I was!! To this day I would rather have a casting rod in my hand.

[BassSteve]

2 minutes ago, Steveo-1969 said:

I grew up in Wisconsin and started fishing in the 80s and I didn't know (nor had I seen) anyone who fished with a baitcaster. Everyone used spinning rods! Stopped fishing for years and when I got back into it I found Bass Resource which got me wanting to try a baitcaster.

 

In 2012 (at the age of 43) I bought an Abu Garcia Revo S. I read a bunch and watched videos a bunch on how to set it up and cast it. Spent a couple hours in the backyard practicing and then went fishing. I still remember how excited I was!! To this day I would rather have a casting rod in my hand.

cool story, so what I'm understanding from a lot of people is baitcasters were around, but they were still fairly uncommon

[WRB]

The summer '55 I earned enough money to buy my 1st reel Langley 330 Lure Cast baitcasting reel and still have it. This reel was aluminum with aluminum light weight drill arbor spool that held 50 yards of 12 lb Dacron braid. I could cast a 1/2 lure 50 yards with this reel. My 2nd reel was a Langley 340 Target free spool reel similar to Lure Cast but you could disengage the spool from the handle, this reel could cast 1/4 oz lures 50 yards and still it. I should weigh them they are very light weight reels.

Tom

[DitchPanda]

My birthday gift summer of 94...I had just turned 11...Abu Garcia 5500 C3...next month it will be 26 years young and still gets used for catfish

[Fishingmickey]

I bought my first baitcaster Shimano Bantam Mag. with a Shimano Bullwhip rod from a friend. Loaded the reel with 14# Berkely XL. Tied on a 1/2 oz spinner bait.  Set the trolling motor on two and a hundred thousand casts, hundreds of bass and many, many miles of bank later I wore it slap out. I still have it on a shelf in the shed I believe.

 

 

 

[t_bone_713]

Abu Garcia Black Max Lefty. Still have it. Still works just fine!

[MGF]

My first was an old Pflueger Supreme that my grandfather gave me. It was one of his old musky outfits. I don't know what ever happened to the rod but I still have the reel. I don't know how old I was...maybe 8 or 10. This would have been late 60's I guess.

 

To put things in perspective, there is no free spool on this reel. The handle spins when line comes off. There is no drag. You back reel to give line. It does have a bait clicker and a spool tension adjustment. I actually fished with this reel and caught an awful lot of northern pike up in northern Wisconsin where my father and grandfather used to musky fish. 

 

There were more advanced reels but this is the baitcaster I used at the time. My other reels were spinning...Mitchel 300's and the like.

[BassSteve]

3 hours ago, WRB said:

The summer '55 I earned enough money to buy my 1st reel Langley 330 Lure Cast baitcasting reel and still have it. This reel was aluminum with aluminum light weight drill arbor spool that held 50 yards of 12 lb Dacron braid. I could cast a 1/2 lure 50 yards with this reel. My 2nd reel was a Langley 340 Target free spool reel similar to Lure Cast but you could disengage the spool from the handle, this reel could cast 1/4 oz lures 50 yards and still it. I should weigh them they are very light weight reels.

Tom

Nice story and reels, I would think they have significant sentimental value to you after all these years. I can't imagine the number of fishing memories you must have with them.

[JediAmoeba]

I started fishing with Zebcos in the 80's as a kid.  We had spinning reels but I absolutely hated them... I decided I wanted a better reel to go on my pistol grip ugly stick....so at 15 years old we went to K- Mart and I bought a reel that looked like a fancier zebco, or so I thought.  I got a daiwa baitcaster...a Daiwa Triforce I believe. I spooled it up with spiderwire and my dad told me I was an idiot for spending that much on line...

There was a learning curve to using it but I didnt have any trouble getting it to work.  I never looked back and will always try to use a baitcaster whenever possible....still hate spinning gear.

[WRB]

I weighed my Langley 330 Lure Cast and 340 Target vintage bait casting reels with line.

330 weighs 5 1/4 oz, 340 weighs 4 1/8 oz. These are the original BFS reels!

Tom

 

[Scott F]

In the early 80’s, I inherited a couple of red Ambassadeur 5000’s. I was always a spinning reel guy so they sat in a closet until 1993 When I made my first Canadian fly-in trip. The 5000’s were put to use fishing big spoons for pike. I still prefer lighter gear, but bait casters have been a part of my arsenal ever since. I still have the 5000’s, but they sit in a prominent place on my shelf, a reminder of my father. 

[J._Bricker]

I still have it @BassSteve. Strapped to a 6’ rod, that little Bantam made me a roll casting, spinnerbait chuckin’ machine. 

[PourMyOwn]

48 minutes ago, J._Bricker said:

I still have it @BassSteve. Strapped to a 6’ rod, that little Bantam made me a roll casting, spinnerbait chuckin’ machine. 

I still use mine too, I keep it on a 5'6" pistol grip that stays in the car with me. A blast to use, but really makes one appreciate the new reels.

[Sir Shamsalot]

My first was an Abu Garcia Ambassador 500 that I bought back in.... okay i bought it a long time ago. Worn it out in under a week in Canada where I was on a roll with it; 4 cast 4 trophy fish one evening, and I filled my fish limit with large keepers the following evening. The bearings where gone in 4 days. I still have that reel. It casted like a Casitas when it still worked, and I'm thinking of having it dipped in bronze.

On 4/12/2020 at 3:59 PM, MN Fisher said:

Ambassdeur 500R - purchased late 70s...early 80s - can't fully remember. Still have it, still usable, but right now have no need of a 5.3:1 reel.

That's the reel I had. Though when I measured it, it was more like a 4.8:1

[MN Fisher]

3 minutes ago, Sir Shamsalot said:

My first was an Abu Garcia Ambassador 500 that I bought back in.... okay i bought it a long time ago. Worn it out in under a week in Canada where I was on a roll with it; 4 cast 4 trophy fish one evening, and I filled my fish limit with large keepers the following evening. The bearings where gone in 4 days. I still have that reel. It casted like a Casitas when it still worked, and I'm thinking of having it dipped in bronze.

That's the reel I had. Though when I measured it, it was more like a 4.8:1

Could be - I just made a mark on the spool and eyeballed it. Having only one working eye might have put it off a tad.

[redmeansdistortion]

Ambassadeur 5600AB.  My aunt and uncle got it for me as a high school graduation gift.  I still have  and use it, but removed the anti-backlash mechanism.

[BrianMDTX]

Still have it. A Daiwa Millionaire 3H. Got it sometime in the late 70s when I was a teen. 
 

[onenutinthewater]

Abu Revo STX

Must have been about a whole whopping 8 years ago- Had no clue and many birdsnests and frustration. Never could get it to cast very far and im quite sure it was operator stupidity.

Fast forward a few years and now have at least a dozen casting reels from tatulas, Morethan, HRF PE, bantam mgl, curado mgl and a bunch of vintage shimanos to look at.

It becomes an addiction...............

[r83srock]

On 4/14/2020 at 9:49 AM, Hulkster said:

not addicted but i soon discovered certain after hours websites that were gaining popularity at the time..lmao

“Downloading music” and ripping cds was the big thing, until your family computer gets a virus and the blue screen of death. Threw a lot of computers away in the early 2000s. 2GB was huge, and my sister and I would have that “fast” computer coming to a crawl pretty quick. 
 

 

My first baitcaster was an 80s Shimano 10xg my dad gave me to learn on. It’s was pretty worn out, but I learned, the hard way. When I got addicted to fishing , dad got me two BPS Extreme combos. I was on top of the world. When I turned 14 I had saved up enough money bailing hay to buy a Curado 200B, one of many. Still have all of them as well as the 10xg. 

[Columbia Craw]

1966 Ambassador 5000

[bulldog1935]

Bought my first baitcaster at 19, '77, Daiwa Millionaire 6H.  Had it matched first with a 6' Fenglass Lunkerstik 2000, and later added 7-1/2' Browning Hi-Power for inshore and surf, my first ever graphite rod. 

By the mid-80s, the Millionaire chromed-brass worm gear (+440 pawl) wore through from surf sand, and Daiwa no longer supported the parts.  (I gave the pretty Millionaire to a machinist-instrument-maker buddy, who marveled at its mechanism.)  

Bought my first Lew's, BB-1NG (still have), with 440 worm gear and zirconia pawl, and never looked back. 

Had already bought my dad his first Lew's BB-1LM. and kept him stocked in Falcon rods - in fact, before that, gave him his first baitcaster, the Ted Williams version of Millionaire 3H, and bought him a Lew's BB-1NSW Saltwater long before I bought my BB-25SW.  

For BB-1's, did buy a few anti-reverse dogs and one handle, and when Zebco stopped supporting them, Roy's in Corpus bought the parts inventory.  

The BB-25SW, just retired a few years ago with my first LFS Super Duty.  I still use the BB-1N on Falcon Glass for crankbaits.  

[Bankbeater]

Daiwa Millionaire 5B which was bought back in the summer of 1977. I started using it in '78 after my dad bought a Millionaire 5HS.

[GrumpyOlPhartte]

Still have my first bait caster;  believe I purchased it around 1972 but early ‘70s sometime.  Nothing like a Fighting Drag ... and selectable anti reverse!  The thing weighs over nine ounces when fully spooled.
 

 

[Rpratt]

The old Abu Garcia Ambassador. No fancy smancy tech on that reel for sure! 

[moguy1973]

Mine was an old Diawa something or another that I never used but maybe once or twice because I didn't know how to use it.  It wasn't good, and still isn't even though I still have it but it just sits on a shelf in the garage.  The first one I really started using though was a BPS Pro Qualifier.  It was a great reel for a first bait caster and I still use it for some things I need to take a 2 piece rod with me as it's on a Shimano Clarus rod.