What was your first rod and reel?

[Redlinerobert]

Ted Williams Approved Shakesspear Fiberglass spinning rod from Sears with a metal MITCHELL300

Muddy for the win!

[fourbizz]

the good old cliche' "Snoopy pole"

had it until i was 18 and somehow lost it in the move >

[senile1]

A cane pole was my first but I took a big step up when I got a Zebco 33.

Same here.  I don't remember the brand of rod that I used with the Zebco.  

[Crestliner2008]

Heddon tubular steel bait casting rod with a Johnson Century spincast reel and 6# test line. Caught me a lot of fish on that old rig many, many years ago, growing up on the CT River. Guess what? I still have that rod!  

[The_Natural]

Snoopy here too.  When you're three...the snoopy is where it's at.  After that...I went to a 202.  My first spinning rod was a Shimano AX100Q/Shakespeare no-name rod (spooled with omni-flex).  My first real bassin' rod I bought when I was 10 or 11...time to get serious.  I purchased a Quantum spinning reel (don't remember the name...it was $39...I though that was sooo much money!) and paired it with the ultimate rod at the time (drumroll)...the black foam handled Lightning Rod- 6' M.  I learned how to Texas rig with it, and it changed everything.  After a while, I wanted to use a baitcaster, so I would borrow my uncles lightning rod/Abu XLT plus Synchro.  I would backlash the crap out of that thing.  I bet he went through a lot of line because of me  

[Redlinerobert]

You made me remember the days of Shakespeare "E Sigma"  That Shakespeare catalog would get me day dreaming just like the Steez catalog gets me going now.  

Those were the days man....

[grimlin]

It was a Zebco something....I don't remember anymore...

[michbass]

Old zebco when I was a kid. funny how they are pretty much the same now as 25yrs ago. Then I got a hand me down mitchell spinning reel which was born way before me. I though I was big stuff then.

[Zel]

If memory serves me correctly, my first new fishing combo was something I had never heard of a Shimano, that I got back in the early 70's. My father smoked Phillies cigars, and they had a label gimmick where you received merchandise in exchange for specific quantities of their cigar labels. Don't know if its correct or not, but it seemed to me that the cigar label offer seemed to have something to do with Japanese products trying to enter the US market. Although it wasn't a Zebco like all my other friends had, that weird looking metallic green spincast combo casted like a charm and lasted me many years, as did that odd phonograph I got the same way something called Sony and I still use the speakers from it.

(by the way if anybody needs one of the first generation portable IBM personal computer, let me know. Its about 24 long by 20 wide, 8 deep, and seems to weigh about 50 pounds... yeah I know Muddy, its time to clean out that garage)

[NBR]

I can't remember the maker but it was about 4.5 feet long, hexagonal cross section steel and heavy. I can't recall the reel make either but there was only the cast control knob and your thumb for backlash control. No star drag. Pressure on the fish was accomplished with your thumb as was casting with out backlash.

My next reel was a Langley Streamlite, followed in a few years by a Pflueger Surpreme, as I recall the Surpreme cost me about a week and a halfs summer job paycheck. Oh, still no improved cast control or star drag.

Wow! I must be aging but the nice thing is I fish most any day I want to go.

[roadwarrior]

Zebco spincast combination package. A little plastic rod and reel.

Several years later I got a huge upgrade for Christmas. Another plastic Zebco (202?) and a slightly longer/ heavier fiberglass rod. Man, I thought that was cool!

[Bankbeater]

A Johnson Century Spincast reel on a green 5 foot rod that was as limber as a wet noodle.  I still have both the rod and reel.

[Davis]

A Zebco spincast combo.

THought that was the ultimate rig. Than I saw a spinning setup and was wondering what the crap was that!

Bought my boy his first combo this summer. Mitchell Espirt spinning combo 6 foot rod. Caught some nice bass for him. He wanted a Zebco spincast as well but I would have none of that.  ;D Nothing like getting a birdsnest out of a Zebco. You myswell just throw the darn thing out.