Oldest Tackle?

[jet]

a buddy and i were talking about old equipment today and got me wondering, how old is your oldest tackle, put away or still used? i have a surf rod and reel that i grew up with, that i named bertha as a kid. it was purchased in the early 80's by my dad, and i grew up with it. from the early 90's (when i was big enough to actually toss this 13'+ rod) until the mid 2000's, it was my go to rod. still has guides wraped up with electrical tape. stopped using it when i purchased a kayak. i'm sure it was purchased at anglers since that was my dads go to spot, but possibly sears though. man, that thing has seen a lot of fish from romancoke, matapeake and sandy point growing up. havent used it since and the reel has been sitting in a shoe box in parts waiting for my lazy ass to clean it up and put it back together as a wall memorial.

my oldest still used today is a shimano stradic 2500 and clarus 2 piece rod i bought at Galyans in 1997-1998. love that combo and have so many memories with it from fishing the creek down the street from my moms house, community duck pond, rileys lock on the potomac, black hills, and recently attached to a shore tackle jiggin rod for striper. love that reel and rod for frshwater, and now reel for tidal. coming on 20 years of ownership and hasnt missed a beat!

share your history?
IMG_20160606_193944990.jpgIMG_20160606_194024887.jpg

[Mark]

I have two St. Croix Legend fly rods, 5 and 8 wts. respectively with Cortland reels that I purchased in 1990/91 from Joe Bruce at his shop in Catonsville. I still used them. In fact I used the 5 wt. on Saturday at Trap Pond and caught crappies with it.

For conventional tackle I have a Mitchell 308X Pro reel on a Lamiglass medium light 6.5 foot rod that bought in the late 1980s.

A.jpg

I also still use that combo for perch and it remains my favorite spinning rod and reel. I wrote on Snaggedline about the reel earlier this year to say that it cannot handle braided line. The bail roller does not reliably maintain contact with braid even if I engage the line to the bail roller manually. After a season of frustration, I replaced the braid with mono and the reel is as good as new. The Mitchell remains as quiet and smooth as the day I bought it and rod has a great action.

I would love to know how many fish I have caught on each of the above rods and reels. That count is long gone.

The oldest tackle I have is a Mitchell 300 reel with a Garcia fiberglass rod that I bought 50 years ago when I was 12 with my allowance money.

F.JPG

The rod is missing a tip guide but the reel still works. I haven't used for it over 25 years. It's a personal museum piece for me now.

[mike o]

I have a Quick spinning reel I bought in the early 70s for $20. I still have the box with the price on it. I also my have my dad's shakespear baitcaster that is over 50 years old. I learned to fish with that reel. My dad must have had the patience of a saint. I still remember him untangling the birds nests I got.

[Slobber Bob]

The oldest piece of gear I have is an old 13' Lamiglass honey colored surf rod that used to be my mom's uncles before making it's way into my hands. I don't know the exact age of it, but it's as old as me at least - so 35 years. I can still remember catching one of my first ever fish from the surf in Seaside Park on it when I was around 10 years old and my dad, grandfather, and mom's uncle left me to watch all the bait rods while they walked down the beach a little to plug. They were way down the beach when the rod bent over. I didn't know if I should reel it in or not as I was always afraid I would get in trouble for reeling a rod in if there was no fish, and I was too young to cast the rod back out so nobody would know the difference. Eventually one of them saw it and yelled for me to bring it in - had a 5lb ish bluefish on it. It's funny what you can remember sometimes...

Anyway, it's still in use now and catching bull reds, black drum, and stripers from the Assateague surf! Although I'm afraid to max it out with weight, so it is a 5oz and small chunk rod now, and I don't let others cast it. I had to have all the original old decaying metal guides and the reel seat replaced and a new grip put on it to keep it fishing though.

It's a fun rod with a lot of play when you hook a big fish though.

My brother bringing in a monster ray on it last year while drum fishing:
P1040791.jpg

[JohnE]

tmp_10488-20160607_0727161152733301.jpg
tmp_10488-20160607_072538-192528121.jpg
Pretty sure this is the rod I learned to fish with. It is much older than myself, probably made in the 50s or 60s by the looks of it. Not sure if that is the exact reel, but it was definitely a similar Penn greenie. The one I learned with might be in the broken reel box.

I still have most of the rods and reels I grew up fishing with, only a few broken ones went in the trash. I also have a bunch of inherited family fishing gear. Probably over 40 rods total. Not quite as many reels, but def over 20. Not sure what the oldest is, but I have a bunch of vintage stuff that goes back to at least the 40s and possibly older. There are also some antique family clam rakes in the collection, some of which are probably from the 1800s. Have been in love with fishing for longer than I can remember, so the really old stuff is cool to look at, but I rarely fish with it.

[J.A. Veil]

As in many other things related to fishing and kayaking, I am a contrarian. I did not grow up fishing with a father, uncle, or older brother. I have no fishing equipment from my childhood or early years and no sentimental attachment to old equipment. When I started fishing in my 30s, I bought inexpensive gear, which typically did not hold up well. Or I found that I did not like a particular style of fishing (heavy tackle trolling) or certain types of lures (crankbaits with treble hooks). As a result, all of my old equipment was either broken and thrown away or was sold and upgraded to better quality gear.

I am not a tackle collector and do not like to be overrun with gear in my garage. Several times each year I sort all of my rods, reels, lures, and other tackle and decide what I will realistically use. Those items that are not in use and are unlikely to be put to use are sold.

[ronaultmtd]

Unlike John- My Dad taught me to fish and hunt in rural Arkansas in the 1950's and 60's- wade fishing creeks and rivers, taught me how to cast with a fly rod and Pflueger President baitcasters on steel rods...running trot lines and frog gigging at night on the Caddo and Little Red Rivers with a carbide miners head lamp that I still have...So my garage is all junked up with old fishing tackle that will never be used but just to look at and remember the good times...and I am a tackle collector- rarely sell anything-and I have lots of brand new reels and rods and lures, and...

[Mark]

Regarding sentimentality and fishing gear, I admit that I am afflicted.

But I have no memories of fishing with my family. No one in my family fished. I was self-taught until I was an adult and found fellow anglers who shared their knowledge with me.

On the other hand, I'm not so attached to the past that use nothing new. I just bought a new 4 wt. fly rod, for example. The equipment I use is in excellent working order.

However, I can attest that sentimentality is not genetic.

Just last week my daughter stood in my garage -- my kayak man cave stuffed with fishing gear on the floor, walls and ceiling -- and as she gazed at my treasures she said, "Someday there's going to be a big yard sale here."

[RiverRunner]

Hey JohnE, thats a Penn 710 Spinfisher, great reel. Rod looks like a Garcia Conolon.

Great old setups everyone, Vintage tackle is more or less my addiction right now, thanks to the fb Penn4Life guys and Ebay.

It all goes back to the gear and reels that both of my grandfathers had when I was growing up. Penn 704z/Garcia-Mitchell 302 Saltwater, on a Garcia Conolon 10ft Surf Rod. Mitchell 300 for pond fishing. Penn Surfmaster 200m for surf casting and trolling the Del Bay. Penn 112h, and Ocean City 922's. Those old reels are tanks, made of steel and aluminum, and the parts are generally cheap if you manage to break them.

I mentioned before visiting the attic of my family's place in Bethany, and it was a graveyard for all of our rods and reels from 1982 on. Daiwa 4000's, Ryobi SX5's, Shimano GT4000's, Shimano SSG6000's, years and years smaller rods and reels like the Mark III's and IV's paired with daiwa rods. Zebco's galore, which my son will get to enjoy. Most of the rods probably 25 in all just needed new guides or eyelets. The reels for the most part just needed cleaned and minor repairs like the reverse dogs were broken. One of the finds that I was able to break out with little work was my grandfather's Shimano 3500 Baitrunner, on a custom made Ocean Pro Tackle rod from townsend. One of the ceramic guides had broken loose, and I just threw a small amount of gorilla glue and it's back in business.

Over the past few years I've picked up Penn 704 greenie, two 710z's, a mitchell 402 saltwater, along with newer Penn 5500ss's. If i could just match my fishing abilities with my ebay skills, I'd feel alot better about the new hobby

[bignose]

The oldest tackle I have is a Mitchell 300 reel with a Garcia fiberglass rod that I bought 50 years ago when I was 12 with my allowance money.

I'm there with you. I have a Mitchell 301 that I bought from the E.J. Korvettes store in Catonsville back about 1965 or so. The reel is still functional, although I do not use it any longer.
Somewhere I have an old Eagle Claw fiberglass rod, and my original solid fiberglass "Ted Williams" rod from Sears about the same era.
My canoe dates back to the mid 1980s. I bought that from the Spring River store that used to be out on Route 40 in Catonsville. Joe Bruce's original fly shop was located in the back of the store.

I reconditioned and sold several Penn trolling reels from the late 1950's that came from the old Charter Boat's captain. They weren't the most cosmetically pretty reels, but they were still functional.

[Mark]

The oldest tackle I have is a Mitchell 300 reel with a Garcia fiberglass rod that I bought 50 years ago when I was 12 with my allowance money.

I'm there with you. I have a Mitchell 301 that I bought from the E.J. Korvettes store in Catonsville back about 1965 or so. The reel is still functional, although I do not use it any longer.
Somewhere I have an old Eagle Claw fiberglass rod, and my original solid fiberglass "Ted Williams" rod from Sears about the same era.
My canoe dates back to the mid 1980s. I bought that from the Spring River store that used to be out on Route 40 in Catonsville. Joe Bruce's original fly shop was located in the back of the store.

I reconditioned and sold several Penn trolling reels from the late 1950's that came from the old Charter Boat's captain. They weren't the most cosmetically pretty reels, but they were still functional.

Wow. We probably bought the same Mitchell 300 outfit. Mine came from "2 Guys" department store in Glen Burnie. I put $25 toward it. My dad gave me the rest, whatever that was.

Regarding Spring River, I bought an Old Town Discovery 174 there, like you in the mid-1980s. (I did not know Joe's original store was there, however.) The 174 was a beast of a boat at 83 pounds and even in my youth it was hard for me to transport. But it was a great fishing boat once I got it to the water. When I moved to my present house I left it with a neighbor and eventually traded it to him for a hand-carved wooden goldfinch he made. He still has the canoe and I still have the goldfinch.

[Retriever]

As a young man I was into surf fishing at Matapeake and Point Lookout State parks. Around 1980 I saved up and bought a matching set of White Fenwick, Fenglass surf rods from Tochterman's. Fast forward to today and I still surf fish however now in Chincoteague, VA. I just rebuilt one of those two rods this week. Beautiful wraps, hard to imitate. Compared to todays technology they are obsolete, but they will never leave my stable. Too many memories. ...I still have the first two rods I ever built in the late 70's, also Fenwick, bought them from Boyd Pfeifer's Tackle Crafters in Phoenix MD. Still good eeling rods for Rock. Ugly though.
Mark

[silasvirus82]

Being born in the early 80's I did not purchase my first equipment until the early 90's. I still have the three rods I bought back then, a Stradic/BPS combo, Penn Spinfisher/Offshore Angler combo, and Abu Garcia Royal Express/BPS combo, which I use occasionally today. My real treasures though are a pair of Abercrombie & Fitch split bamboo fly rods my grandfather had buried in one of his garages in Montana. We found all kinds of stuff hidden in there after his passing, but these were the ones that caught my eye. One day I need to have the guides re-wrapped and see if they can still throw a fly.

[JohnE]

[QUOTE=RiverRunner;130917]Hey JohnE, thats a Penn 710 Spinfisher, great reel. Rod looks like a Garcia Conolon.
[/QUOTE7]

Thanks. I looked up some pics and it does look like a Garcia Conolon. Had no idea what it was, but figured Garcia or Fenwick since I have 4 or 5 others in different sizes that look similar to that one. You're also right about the greenie model. Still a nice rig--might actually use it sometime soon. Here are most of my greenies. I had a couple bail-less models that I sold for close to a couple bills a piece a while back (sort of regret selling them, but it was hard to resist when I found out what they go for. tmp_31462-20160607_094757-108188470.jpg

[summersoff]

I still use the the first reel my dad bought me when I was a kid about 40 years ago. It was a 716 that we bought at a hardware store. In fact a few months ago, my girls used it to catch a rack of shad on the Potomac. Still spins like butter. I have a ton of old Penns. AlwAys crack out my Greenie 706 to fish the rocks in Montauk while being surrounded by Zees and Staals, but by no means am i the only Greenie up there. Just came back from the Ditch, and was using my old honey Lami 136 2f, which is still the best pencil rod out there. And while we're at it my newelled 146 squidder is a great tog reel.
There is plenty of old stuff that can still hang, maybe not castability and weight, but durability, ease of maintainance and pure mojo factor, you can't beat them.

Ps, somebody didn't just mention Korvettes?!? Man, I think I need to go school clothes shopping for new dungarees.��