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Speaking of fishing reels. Back when I was 14 or 15

A

Anonymous

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I can not remember for sure, before there were any open faced spinning reels in this country, I saw one in a Outdoor Life Mag, I think it was.
They were being excepted in Europe but had not caught on here. This was just before the Mitchell 300 took off here.
My Aunt and Uncle owned a resort in Oscoda Michigan and they sold tackle too. I asked them if they carried any of these open faced reels but they said they had never seen on but would look in their catalog.
Sure enough there was one called an Arex Larchmont! I asked how much. Now in those days a docent Johnson casting reel cost 5 bucks. Not the top of the line but one with a level wind on it. Good as I could afford.
My aunt said the reel cost 25 dollars!! Twenty five dollars!!! <img src="/metal/html/shocked.gif" border=0 width=15 height=15 alt=":shock"> <img src="/metal/html/shocked.gif" border=0 width=15 height=15 alt=":shock"> I just could never come up with that kind of money. I was just starting to caddy but loops were rare for a newbie.
She told me that I could have it for her cost, which was 15 bucks, I think. Man that was still a lot of money but after thinking about it for a few days I told her I would get it. She ordered it.
I can not remember how long it took to amass the money, there was to be no credit but the day finally came for me to buy it from her.
I can still remember opening that box and what a thing of beauty it was. I had never seen one, other than in the Catalog and it was a thrill to be holding it in my hands.
All I had were casting plugs, a Jitterbug and a Hula Popper and a few others. I headed for Pine Lake and walked out on Shorty Hooks dock. He ran a boat livery and I sold night crawlers and crickets to him.
He had never seen one of those new fangled reels either so he told me to go out and try it out.
I walked to the end of the dock and rigged up with a nice big casting size jitterbug.
I aimed that bad boy out to the middle of the lake and let fly. It is a wonder I didn't lose the whole thing right there. That is when I learned about opening the bail! <img src="/metal/html/shocked.gif" border=0 width=15 height=15 alt=":shock">
Well I next opened the bail and then the dang lure just dropped into the water. That is where I learned about holding ling with my index finger.
I was getting it figured out now. There was no instruction book with it and nobody I knew knew any more about it than I did.
Well I figured out about the bail thing and holding the line thing and took a deep breath. Now I was ready. I went through the whole procedure in my mind, mentally casting the thing a mile <img src="/metal/html/lol.gif" border=0 width=15 height=15 alt=":lol"> <img src="/metal/html/lol.gif" border=0 width=15 height=15 alt=":lol">
I opened the bail and hooked the line with my index finger and reared back for a mighty cast.
I casted forward and let er rip. That is when I started learning about line control. That bad boy, full of big hooks went straight up in the air and I looked up at the dang thing and it headed down and I took off a running. It was lucky I did not get impaled on the treble hook but I out ran the thing.
I made a few easy cast after that and then went home and dug out a practice plug without hooks. I went to the school yard and learned there.
I just loved that reel and have had quite a few since. I still have that old Arex around somewhere
 
Like many folks, I used a cane pole when I first started fishing, then graduated to a bait casting rod and reel. My first bait casting reel was a "hand me down" that my father gave me one year for my birthday. I can't remember what brand it was, but I remember the back lashes until I learned to use my thumb to control the line speed when casting.
My first spin cast reel was a Shakespeare, a green color one that I still have. This reel was activated by reversing the handle movement...very easy to use and no more back lashes. Lots of good memories fishing with it down at the creek and the stock tanks. Thanks for posting your story, very enjoyable. Please have a great day! Kelley (Texas) <img src="/metal/html/smile.gif" border=0 width=15 height=15 alt=":)">
 
behind the local hardware store was a shed that an old man sold cane poles, bobbers, hooks and sinkers. Not much else either.
I would love to just talk to that old man.
An interesting thing about Cane Pole fishing. An old man that lived with my grand parents, Brownie was his name. He was one of the originals in our area. He ran a muskrat string of 200 traps at one time and meat fished.
A local lake, Cass Lake, was full of big smallmouth bass and pike. There were also a lot of lake trout in the depths. There still is but it is dangerous to fish most of the year as it is the most popular lake in the county for Water skiers.
He said that in the old days he would row his old row boat out to a good spot. He knew them too. He would have the biggest cane pole he could handle and with this, he would bait up a nice big shiner. He would lob it out, with a bobber and wait for a bite.
He would get one and let the fish take the bobber down and munch on the shiner a bit. The bobber would come back up and this is when the Pike or Bass was turning it around in his mouth to swaller.
When the bobber went back down he would rare back and set the hook. If it was a nice one and it usually was in those days, he would just toss the cane pole overboard and just follow it around the lake.
He was not sport fishing, he was meat fishing and fighting a fish could be lost. That big old bass a towing that big old cane pole around the lake would soon be tired out. He would then row the old boat over and haul him aboard.
Another old meat fishing trick, that I have done myself in Canada is not to fight a pike. If a pike takes a lure or shiner you don't really have to fight him aboard. All you have to do is let the sucker take the bait, when he starts swimming off, tighten the line and just gently lead him to the boat. He will lead like a dang horse on halter.
Now you better have a club handy because when that bad boy gets in your boat, he ain'ta gonna be tired at all and he will beat the insides of it to pieces. I know from experience <img src="/metal/html/lol.gif" border=0 width=15 height=15 alt=":lol">
The meat fishermen were not interested in fighting the fish. They wanted to get it in without losing him. Period <img src="/metal/html/grin.gif" border=0 width=15 height=15 alt=":grin">
 
want to do is hang out with their video games. When I was youmger, it was a common sight to have a group of 6 to 8 of us tromping down the road, roda over our shoulders, heading for the Puntledge river and our favourite fishing hole. Even better was when that same group would each grab their .22s, walk downtown, buy some bullets from Haps sporting googs, and then walk through town again,.22s on the shoulders and shoot rats at the garbage dump.
TRy that these days and you would be surrounded by a swat team. <img src="/metal/html/smile.gif" border=0 width=15 height=15 alt=":)">
All the best
M
 
Daddys garage and finding some of his old open face reels. This was many years before "spider wire" or "fireline", but I remember him having braided line on it.
Daddy told me that back in them days, you had to dry your line after use or else it would eventually rot. He was on the cutting edge of making some sort of gadget to dry his line when one day, he saw one just like it in Outdoor Life. It was too little too late.
<img src="/metal/html/smile.gif" border=0 width=15 height=15 alt=":)">
 
pulling a crappie in to the boat while hes on the other end of a 14 ft cane pole! What a rush!
Daddy got me hooked,(no pun intended), when I was just a little fella. We sneaked in to the golf course and I still remember that I was so little, I couldnt swing the fish to me. I figured it out though; Id just take off running up the bank dragging the fish behind me! I remember Daddy bragging to his buddies--Tommy caught 14 just as fast as he could!
That trip was just one of many to come.
Lil Brother <img src="/metal/html/smile.gif" border=0 width=15 height=15 alt=":)"> <img src="/metal/html/smile.gif" border=0 width=15 height=15 alt=":)">
 
will never experience the thrill of catching a fish! I still remember using an old cane pole when I was little, and when my bobber went under, I would just started running up the hill and drag the fish out of the water. What a thrill it was then, and still is today. Nothing like feeling that line tighten, and then the dance begins! Gosh I love it!:)
 
and gosh what a mess. It backed up on me, and I looked like Charlie Brown! Sitting there, with all this fishing line balled up on that reel. No more of this for me, that's for sure!
Loved your story. I remember what it was like to try and save up money for something I really wanted, too! <img src="/metal/html/smile.gif" border=0 width=15 height=15 alt=":)">
 
using cane poles, until after I posted mine. Seems me and Lil Brother fished the same way!ha! And I can STILL beat him! <img src="/metal/html/lol.gif" border=0 width=15 height=15 alt=":lol">
 
and have a fish fry for all our friends. Father would cook the fish in a large cast iron kettle, others would bring food like beans, corn bread, pies and cole slaw. Adults would play horse shoes and the kids would play flip the washer or cork ball. Sad, but this is not done anymore...this is a new era and I do not like it. Please have a great day! Kelley (Texas) <img src="/metal/html/smile.gif" border=0 width=15 height=15 alt=":)">
 
you try to get them to join in some of these things, they just think they are stupid "old people" games. Now sometimes, if all of us get together, we will still get out the horseshoes, and washers.
The taste of a fresh fish is something else! As mother would say, from pond to pan, those were the best! <img src="/metal/html/smile.gif" border=0 width=15 height=15 alt=":)">
 
It made a beautiful lunch. <img src="/metal/html/smile.gif" border=0 width=15 height=15 alt=":)"> <img src="/metal/html/smile.gif" border=0 width=15 height=15 alt=":)">
all the best
M
 
and those lines back then were terrible to stretch, so that they would not fizzle fuzz up so much.....
funny thing u mentioned was the plugs, and know we had one tackle box and shared it
now, i have over 15 full tackle boxes of fishing lures and some of them have never seen water
 
...this next week. Are you gonna go?????
You have (almost) as many tackle boxes as LINDA does Christmas trees. <img src="/metal/html/lol.gif" border=0 width=15 height=15 alt=":lol"> <img src="/metal/html/lol.gif" border=0 width=15 height=15 alt=":lol"> <img src="/metal/html/lol.gif" border=0 width=15 height=15 alt=":lol"> <img src="/metal/html/lol.gif" border=0 width=15 height=15 alt=":lol">
AJ
 
I love all my Christmas trees, and I love to fish. Just don't need a bunch of fake lures to help me catch them! <img src="/metal/html/lol.gif" border=0 width=15 height=15 alt=":lol"> You know I'm right, Johnboy! <img src="/metal/html/lol.gif" border=0 width=15 height=15 alt=":lol">
 
on people who could never master the art of holding the line with a finger and timing their release. If you take a zeb apart, it's an open faced reel with no bail and a button controlled line holder. I get a laugh at the people who flip their rods over when retrieving so they can crank backwards with their right hand! That reel should be a classic by now, maybe an antique <img src="/metal/html/lol.gif" border=0 width=15 height=15 alt=":lol">
Dave
 
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