What's the oldest you got?

[FishingBuds]

Thought it would be cool to see if anyone had something old in the rod & reel area?

I Have an Old ABU AMBASSADEUR NO 5000 AB. URFABRTKEN SVANGSTA SWEDEN RED WITH NO: 904698

Best I've been told is it was made between 1953 to 1963, I can't nerrow it down any more than that, need to figure out the gear ratio.

[ABC123]

I don't have any pictures, and can not locate my camera at the moment, but I have 2 tackle boxes full of lures, rigs, and some reels from the 30's-50's. My Grandfather was a guide for many years back then.

[Sam]

All I have are seven old lures. They are framed and are in my office.

I got rid of all of my old stuff and replaced it with newer stuff as one has only so much room in the house before the wife starts to complain.

That reel looks beautiful and in great condition.

Have you had it valued?

[Wayne P.]

Gear ratio is 4.7:1

[Catt]

I got one of them and some older  

[Tin]

Lol, the oldest reel I have is a Abu Torno 3004 from 3 years ago. :

[Big T]

I have an old Garcia Mitchell 306, and an old Penn 9 with  the yellow torpedo style handle knob

[FishingBuds]

All I have are seven old lures. They are framed and are in my office.

I got rid of all of my old stuff and replaced it with newer stuff as one has only so much room in the house before the wife starts to complain.

That reel looks beautiful and in great condition.

Have you had it valued?

No Sam, but, I know where one is for $60, so If thats value or not I have no clue. I've had it a few years and knew it was old but, I talked to a fella at www.realsreels.com and was looking for a gear Ratio for it, this is when I came across on how old it really could be, I love that stuff.  Wayne(at realsreels) has an awsome sight check it out, he did a good history on it.  This is what he got back with me on.

Hi Tony

Yea this is the reel that made ABU famous.

Can't exactly date this model suffice to say between 53 and middle 60's as , these reels were issued in serialized form till them

I have then dating bake to no serial number at all!

Yours would be late in the batch before dating ..I suggest middle 60's.

When you see a Foot number  say 74 09 40 it means 1974 9th Month  sub batch # such and such

Hope this helps

Wayne

www.realsreels.com

Wayne P (thanks for info)says it to be a 4.7:1, if so maybe bring it out again for a deep cranker?? Catt thats sweet looken there ya got 8-)

Cool, the old thing does fine-had it gone thru two years ago.

[dave]

Paflooger baitcaster vintage 1939.

[KU_Bassmaster.]

I have my first spincast reel circa 1987.  

Other than that, my second oldest reel is a Shimano Scorpion MG I bought January 2007 : ;D.

I do have a tackle box full of old lures my grandfather used to use.

[Crestliner2008]

I have a Pflueger "Silkcast" No. 1953 on a Heddon "Pal" tubular steel baitcasting rod. An old "knuckle-buster" reel, it is  . Still functional and I still take it out from time to time - in the backyard - to reminise. Got my first pike on this rig back in the early 60's at Lake Champlain. Caught my first largemouth on it, in the CT. River - on a wood Lucky 13 - which I still have as well. Life has been pretty decent.  

[skillet]

 Doesn't really come close to the age of the reels that ya'll are talking about. I have an Abu-Garcia Ultramag 1 from '82 that I'm still using (5:1 gears)...

                                   As Ever,

                                    skillet

[detroit1]

I lost my True Temper "UNISPIN" years ago, but i do still have a Zebco cardinal 4 that was not quite as popular as my old Mitchell 300c's. Yes, they are retired....

[Ballpark Frank]

I have several but this is my favorite. A Gephardt steel rod and J.A. Coxe 25-2 reel. I actually use this occasionally, reminds me how helpful the brakes on modern casters are.

[Micro]

I have some Penn Senators and some Ted Williams rods and reels that are probably around 30-35 years old.  

[Big T]

I have some Penn Senators and some Ted Williams rods and reels that are probably around 30-35 years old.

My grandfahter had a Ted Williams surf rod that I used as kid, that was the best surf rod. I finally had to throw it out 5-6 years ago. All the eyes were shot and the cork split. Great rod though, it took alot of abuse being hauled in a john boat and use in the surf.

TS

[FishTank]

The oldest functioning reel I have is a Ryobi big surf spinning reel from the early 80's.  It has plastic spools and don't think it has a single ball bearing in it.   I also have the orginal Zebco Bullet and an original Zebco 33.  At one time I thought I had some state of the art equipment.

[ejtaylor822]

Not the caliber / quality of some of those posted here, but, very special to me. These belonged to my Father-in-Law - a man I loved and admired. He caught a lot fish on them He loved to fish. He fished the streams and rivers back home (in the mountains of North Carolina) - Pisgah Forest, Cherokee, Bakersville, Spruce Pine. My wife remembers using them when she was a child. She remembers when her dad would come home from work on Friday evenings, they would load up and head over to the "river" and grill hamburgers and fish until it was too dark to see - with these rods.

I've done some work on them. Took the reels apart and cleaned. Cleaned up the cork on the lower one, plan on doing the same for the upper, but, like to keep the "rustic" look. The upper one has decent windings and the guides are decent. The lower has wire wrapped guides. Have been toying with the idea of replacing them with some nice modern guides and nice wraps.

Best I can tell, they are at least 30-35 years old - and they still catch fish. I use them on occassion and all my Dad will use when he leaves his rods at home.

[KevO]

I have a Mitchell 308 spinning reel that was my dads or my uncles.  My grandparents cleaned out their attic and it ended up in my hands.  the drag is broken, but i dont want to throw it away.

[Linewinder]

I have a Pflueger "Silkcast" No. 1953 on a Heddon "Pal" tubular steel baitcasting rod. An old "knuckle-buster" reel, it is  . Still functional and I still take it out from time to time - in the backyard - to reminise. Got my first pike on this rig back in the early 60's at Lake Champlain. Caught my first largemouth on it, in the CT. River - on a wood Lucky 13 - which I still have as well. Life has been pretty decent.  

Crestliner,

I recently acquired a No. 1953 with the cork spool.  I find it to be a very pretty reel.  I checked the Pflueger website (pfluegerfishing.com/antiques/antiques-name.html) and found that it was made from 1956 to 1973, according to the site.  However, there is an advert for auction on eBay where the seller knows for certain is in a magazine from 1953 (ebay item 7183606208).  The picture in the ad doesn't look like mine so I am still on a quest to figure out mine's age.  I have seen some examples without the cork.  Is/was the cork something that was interchangeable?  How far could you cast with that handle spinning around?

[Ballpark Frank]

Linewinder, I have never seen an actual cork spool. Several of my old reels have plastic arbor inserts with a thin cork coating/wrapping. To my understanding this was to reduce the weight/capacity of the spool, therefore reducing backlashes. The line originally used on these reels was like Dacron and very heavy. There are a few places on the internet dedicated to these old reels with great information, but they take some time with a search engine. Due to forum rules I won't post any links, but PM me and I will give you some links to try(you may already know them, I am just trying to help).

Oh and about distance. These reels will cast a mile, but the occasional backlash is absolutely mind boggling. I have had a few that looked like sweater knitting.

[Andrew Coleman]

i have 3 vintage jitter bugs and also some really old dare devils that my grandpa gave me