Show your Collections!

[Midway Tommy]

Word has it, that Tommy has a reel display of every country in the world -- providing they produced vintage spinning reels.

Plus historical knowledge and documentation.

Ask to see his collections from Estonia & Cameroon.

Best, Fred

Didn't know they made spinners in Cameroon.  I'll have to get on that! 

I do, though, have one of these that may have been made in Estonia prior to 1991.   

[Bill B]

Did some horse trading and was able to hunt down a SurfMaster 150 to add to its stable mates of the 200 and 100.  Only issue is it's a 100 head plate and the owner carved his initials in it.  No matter glad to add it to the collection.  Bunt not sure if I like the 150 or the 100 better 🤔

[Rancanfish]

Well, my preference for use is a 150, and the 100 for looks.  I Tib'd out my 150's  and added 24-112 handles (I think).  I have an Accurate frame on the 100.   If I was crazy enough to kayak on the ocean these are what I would use.

[Crow]

Good score...even with the initials ! 

[Rancanfish]

Well, I started out a week ago to service a 322-5 but parts are lost in the mail.  And a gray 25 monofil I paid $10.00, for but ran in to a delay there too.

So I started going thru everything that was waiting, adding SS sleeves, 5 stacks, etc.   Then I started playing at swapping parts and this happened.
See the two to the left. I was bored with my 545's, almost sold one awhile back. But the expense of double dog bridge, drags, sleeve, adding steel gears, etc., you have to be crazy. I added a SS sleeve and 5 stack to the gold one. I have to say, stock gears are so much smoother.

[Crow]

If you leave them in a group, like that, they WILL interbreed !

[ez2cdave]

If you leave them in a group, like that, they WILL interbreed !

Do I hear banjo music ?

[Gfish]

Classic spinners and spincasters.

One of the ways for me to deal with the SIP/Pandemic thing was to collect a few reels that are classics to me. Please correct any misinformation.Thanks.

1] Zebco 33. The inventor, R.D. Hull was of course, a watch maker. He probably played around with the idea of a no-backlash reel for awhile and then produced a "bare bones" version in '47. He took it to "The Zero Hour Bomb Company" a producer of oil well bombs, also in '47. That might be an interesting side story? Why choose that particular company?
In '49 the first assembly line version rolled out(also very "bare bones" looking). From '49 to '54 they did some serious marketing at Sportsman's shows around the country. In '54 the real/original/classic Zebco 33 was introduced and sold for $19.50. That was a lot of cash for 1954.

The first fishing I ever did was with a Zebco 202/Zebco 4' rod molded together, as a 4 yr. old. I coveted the 33's I saw others fishing with. Never got one until recently.

This one is maybe a '59 to '67. It has the feather-touch  cast control, brass gears, stainless steel covers and several other features/changes that might put it in that era. There were many changes in the history of this reel. The latest versions of this model are about $30 retail and have kept the overall design and look. Quality too? Unknown to me, but knowing what I do, I don't even wanna try and find out.

[Maxed Out]

 Nice one Gregg

There should be a generation called the "Zebco generation" anyone with a pulse and is over 50 years old had to have had a Zebco in thier younger days

[Gfish]

Photos from above:
1] Gotta love the paperwork from that era.
One thing to note: the parts on these reels, both old and new, are often interchangeable, so an oldie may not be period correct.

2] the Feather-Touch Cast Control. Pushing on the casting button lightly while your terminal tackle is in flight would cause the brass triangle "thingie" to rub on the line and slow-down or stop the cast and "make it land on a Lilly pad!" I was able to match the U.S. Patents on the box with the one on the reel so the box is probably correct.

3] brass gears were used first and are the smoothest. Harder steel gears came along in the '60's and are not favored by guys that are in the know. At some point in time cast alloy gears(zinc?, aluminum?) were introduced. Perhaps you can see that these reels were not in the category of heavy duty construction. But from this particular era, I can tell that the material quality is top notch. For the heck of it, I put myself in the mind frame of a modern corporate tackle manufacturer and looked at this reel, "hmmm, ok let's first replace the metal AR lever with plastic..." and on, & on, and so it goes...

4]The southeastern United States has produced some great and classic American products, including fishing reels. I have one of the "Kentucky" reels form the early 1900's a Bluegrass #25 by B.F. Meek and Sons. Another watch maker turned reel producer. An excellent product made by machine craftsman/artists to last several lifetimes. That's prolly all they knew. Photo below.
More latter...

[Gfish]

2] Johnson Century

At about the same time Zebco spincasters started to be marketed, Johnson-Denison Inc., from the the North-Central U.S. created the Sidewinder series as a commercial spincaster product in 1949. 7 iterations were manufactured until 1954. In '55 they came up with the Century 100, with parts that could be reversed for left-hand, or right-hand retrieve. The 100A came out in '57 with improvements in the drag system. The 100B was further improved with more drag range, and introduced in '62. The B models lasted until '79, then came out again in '95 as a 40th Anniversary deal for another 2 years.
After that, production went to China, until 2009.
Flyguy from fishingtalks.com, where I got this from, says about the 100B; "It will be interesting to see if they will ever be manufactured again." I say; "why?" It's probably not economically profitable for a company/corporation to bring them back to their former bulletproof glory and therefore it would probably never happen. What would show-up if something did happen, would probably be cosmetically great looking, but mostly plastic junk.

The Zebco 33 & Johnson 100B were both in good condition, but bought used in the box. I like to test the non-pristine ones, then re-service and "Shelffy" them. No bites fishin the Johnson. The retrieve was too slow for tropical saltwater fishing. Strong feeling spincaster, though. The Z-33 caught me some trolling bait while sibiki bottom fishing and it's probably good for this, but not quite as strong as the 100B.

[Gfish]

This reel is can be changed to left or right hand retrieve and(or) used as an under-spin. The spool is reversible (changes the line winding direction), the side-plates can be substituted right for left, and the AR system has 2 opposing dogs that can be switched on or off depending on cranking direction.
The only plastic parts are the Teflon drag wafers(only realistic way to describe them, Johnson calls them "drag shoes") the casting push button, the drag knob and the handle knob.

This is a very solid heavy spincaster. Seems to be more solid than the Zebco 33 and more versatile with the ambidextrous winding system. There are only 32 parts for the 100B and a measly 26 for the Z-33. Simplicity, quality materials and time-tested reels = GOOD.

Another cool thing is that the drag on the Johnson can be programed(adjusted) for a heavier or lighter overall range.

Also note that there's a 1yr. Guarantee and a lifetime service policy. The 33 has a no time limit "warranty", and says that the reel is "guaranteed against all defects in materials and workmanship". "Repairs within this warranty will be made at the factory at no charge." Me thinks better than the 100B.

As the story goes, R.D. Hull went to a Sportsman's Show in 1949, Minneapolis, MN, met with Denison and Johnson who were showing their Sidewinders. They had a long conversation about how to solve certain design issues, shook hands(gentlemen's agreement) and parted ways. Looking at these 2 reels you would never know they came up with any similar answers.

Anyone shop at Ardan? A jewelry store? There's a diamond icon that's with the name that's on the box price tag. Never heard of it. It also says: "list price $14.95, Ardan price $11.33"
Shipped with 10lb. Stren. Kinda tells you that it's not a typical 4-6-8 lb. line spincaster.

More collector reels latter, spinners this time.

[mo65]

   Nice additions to your collection G! My Dad was a Johnson man all the way...I still have Pop's old Johnson reels...if they could only speak.

[Midway Tommy]

Nice bunch, Greg. I used a Citation for awhile when I was a kid. Caught a 5 1/2 # walleye on it when I was 12. Then I switched to a Garcia 304 @ 14 & never looked back.

Ardan was a great discount store back in the '60s thru '80s. They had a lot of discounted inventory, ran closeout specials and were cheaper than KMart most of the time. I used to shop there regularly.

[happyhooker]

Nice one Gregg

There should be a generation called the "Zebco generation" anyone with a pulse and is over 50 years old had to have had a Zebco in thier younger days

So, that's why my cardiologist is always giving me a funny look.

Like to see how the Johnson warranty would work today.  I think Pure Fishing has the rights to Johnson fishing tackle these days; they usually farm out all repair/parts questions and don't make any Johnson reels as far as I know.  The original Johnson "factory" in Mankato still stands, acting as a manufactory/shipping point for MinnKota.

Frank