What Was Your First Rod & Reel?

[No Dog]

When I was 8 years old, my Dad bought me a Zebco 33 with a matching 5.5' rod. I used that thing for years.
What was your first rod & reel?

[fish-aholic]

no clue honestly.......Been fishing as long as I can remember....I'm gonna guess it was probably an old Zebco or something...

[Sam]

I can remember using a bamboo jerk pole for perch with my grandfather. No reel

[Critter Gitter]

1962 thereabouts Rock Creek around Wash DC somewheres. Look at the size of the feet on that skinny arse kid. Feed me a hamburger please. Looks like a conventional. Probably the first ABU lol.

[Sam]

Great pic, Dave!

[Steve]

I would take a piece of string and attach it to a stick I would find by the river. For a hook, I put a pin in my grandfather's vise. I'd dig up worms on the river bank.

First actual rod, I think I used my Mother's until I bought a Popeil's Pocket Fisherman. Yeah, really had one and I used it on the bay side of Assateague. First fish I caught was when I was 13. Caught it on a friend's fishin' pole. It was a little pond Blue Gill.

First REAL pole & reel was a 15' fiberglass with an old Diawa reel. Sam's friend Matt is now the proud owner of it, gave it to him this past summer.

[Dave]

I really cant remember what brand it was, but it was an old black spinning fresh water rig my grandfather gave me when I was 6. I let a buddy borrow it when I was a teen and he lost it, it was claimed by a big ol catfish in the Youghiogheny river.

[Dixie719]

I'm pretty sure it was a zebco combo.

Now my 6 year old son has a custom with his name on it!

[SteveZ]

Always fished with cane poles until about 1958 when I chopped weeds outta a 20 acre bean field for $20...a fortune in those days. As I remember it took me a couple weeks...still hate the sight of ragweed. Got me a cheap Pfleuger reel with some sort of baitcasting rod...a spool of 10# braided line...some hooks, sinkers, and a bobber or two. Think I had enough left to get a Jitterbug & a Hawaiian wiggler. Mebbe a June Bug spinner and a jar of pork rind. Spent the rest of my misguided youth haunting the creeks, mill ponds, gravel pits, and farm ponds. Ain't recovered yet...

[Erbby49]

Mine was a 5' fiberglass pole with a conventional reel circa 1955 or 56. Still have the pole.

[fish-aholic]

First actual rod, I think I used my Mother's until I bought a Popeil's Pocket Fisherman.

Ahh yeah...I had one of those too, I know it wasn't my first, but I carried it everywhere with me.....I remember hitting the bayside of OC and using it to catch small blues while we were crabbing, I was probably somewhere between 7-10 years old......What a great thing that was...it caught many catfish, bluegill, bass, blues, etc....

[devomd63]

Zebco 202, landed more yellow perch on that baby up in Michigan than I could count.

I was 6 years old when my Pop bought that for me....

[Pier_man0909]

snoopy poles were my first. I went through quite a few when I was little. caught some big blues on them.

[Randy Stinchcomb]

OMG, that was a long time ago....as far-back as I can remember it was either the Zebco 33 combo or Heddon spinng reel wth a St Croix rod

[chomper]

My pappy bought me a push button Zebco, dont know what model, at about six or so. Not long after I got it, that rod caught my biggest freshwater fish to date. A nice monster carp that I thought was gonna yank me into the crick. I remember my arms hurtin from tryin to reel that big fella in. We threw it onto a wet towel and into the trunk of the ol Plymouth Satellite and took it home to show my mom, then drove it back to the crick and released it. It swam off just fine too. Wow, what a flash back.