Show your best yard sale find (or next restoration)

happyhooker · March 20, 2018, 07:56:00 PM

I hunt a lot, but successes are few and far between. Did get a used 3-piece spincast/baitcast rod last week for a buck at a thrift store because one guide was busted. No sweat, it was short some guides anyway, so I took them all off and installed a more respectable number of guides. Just wrapping up final coating of wrappings, will put a little wax on 'er & she'll await the thawing of the lakes here for a trial run in a couple of weeks. Black, pistol grip handle, fairly slow action and no id, other than some printing on the handle that I can't read. Must be a travel rod; three sections are a little unusual; each piece is about 22" long.

Frank

bill19803 · March 21, 2018, 12:33:51 AM

i believe that wahoo special is 349 size, accurate frame and plates, and now some of sals stuff inside Drag feels marvelous. Id feel comfortable with any east coast fish except sword and nothing is too big for them devils

Gfish · March 21, 2018, 03:57:54 AM

Howz about a guessing game thing on this'n? My brother got it at a flea market sale in the SF Bay Area and gifted it to me.

Aproximate era within around 10 years and manufacturer?

Shark Hunter · March 21, 2018, 07:35:22 AM

I'm a little late to the party here, but I really think my best find was the Godfather.
It is an expensive reel I got at a discount.
There were trials and tribulations, but this reel is a thing of Beauty.

gumpie44 · March 21, 2018, 01:04:45 PM

I Think The Reel Gfish Showed Is Made By COX In The 40s, Just A Guess.... Most Reels Back Then Had A Square Shaft And No Plastic.
Barry

gumpie44 · March 21, 2018, 01:37:42 PM

This Is Not My ( Best ) Yard Sale Find But One Of The Silliest...... This Was Made By Auto Cast In The 50s : Body Is PVC Tubing, Bike Hand Grip, Reel Seat For Zebco Type Reels, Spring Loaded, With 1 Line Guide, Place Sinker/ Lure In The Cup... Cock The Spring, 3 Power Settings, Aim And Release! Bait Is Launched 30 to 50 FEET ! If You Hook Up You Play The Fish With The PVC Rod.... Good Luck With That . I Live In Vegas So Garage Sales With Fish Gear Are As Rare As Slot Jackpots !!!! The Fish Stuff That I Do Find Are From People That Moved From Fish Country.... Stored In The Garage For 40 Years, Now Is For Sale, That's Where This Auto Cast Came From. Had Some Crazy Stuff To Catch Fishermen Back Then, Many Ways I Enjoy This Hobby.
Barry

Gfish · March 21, 2018, 07:15:27 PM

Post #17, Not a Cox, Barry! Go back even further. Hint: note how narrow relative to the length, the screw slot is on the knob.

That Autocast would be great for someone with shoulder/arm problems.

oc1 · March 21, 2018, 07:58:55 PM

Perhaps B.F. Meek and Sons. No.5 with a top hat?
-steve

rogan · March 22, 2018, 03:20:19 AM

Part I: Went to a family friend's yard sale where the grandfather had passed away. He was in in his late 70's when he passed and was an avid freshwater fisherman. The family mentioned they were selling his fishing gear, so i went to the sale. I was guessing that he would have at least one abu garcia baitcaster. I was correct and was able to get a 4600CB, well used but still fishable, on a nice used cordell 7ft rod. Nice combo that he must have used alot. I think i paid 8$.

Part II: i get home and put away the rest of the gear i got, then go back out to get the rod and reel. I realize that there is a white 3inch tube jig tied on it. Well, i just gotta cast it to see if it works. I do a light cast across my front yard, about 30 ft. It obviously needs to be cleaned, cause its a rough cast thst ends in a little bit of tangled line. i sort it out and start to reel it in. An american kestral swoops out of the neighbors tree and tries to grab the lure. I manage to keep it away from him, cause it still has a 4/0 hook on the jig! So i pull out my leatherman and snap off the hook behind the jig head so i wont hurt him, cause u know i gotta cast again. He's now sitting on the block wall between our houses, and he's still eyeballing me. So i cast again, a little harder to try and get it for enough that he'll see it as i "jig" it back. The lure lands and i birdsnest the line around the spool. Oh crap, i start quickly hand pulling off line to fix it. The kestral jumps off the wall and swoops across the lure, picking it up in his talons and he tries to take it back to the original tree where he started from. He's flying low and i'm panicking as i fix the reel. I manage to finish pulling out the nest of line as the kestral straighens out the rest of the line and turn the handle just as he banks around a medium sized oleander. The line tightens and pulls him into the bush, crash! Oh no!!!! I thought he would let go, but the timing of his flight pattern and me tighting up the line coincided with him ending up in the bush. The lure got stuck in the bush and he flew off after a couple seconds. He did not return...

Part III: a couple months later my wife and i are out of town when we get a panic call from the teenage kids. Apparently when they got home from school, they heard screaching from the den. When they went inside, they found a male kestral sitting on the window sill, inside the house. Apparently one of the cats caught it and brought it into the house, where it then escaped the cat, but not the house. It appeared to be unhurt, so the kids caught it and released it outside.

I have since cleaned up the reel and it casts beautifully. This is one that I wont be parting with...

Shark Hunter · March 22, 2018, 04:57:28 AM

Great Story Rogan!

Beautiful Bird too.
It looks like a miniature Hawk.
I'm not familiar with the Kestral, but He has to be tough.

Jim Fujitani · March 22, 2018, 03:00:44 PM

Nice "Catch, Photo, and Release"! No wait, it wasn't caught legally by hook and line......LOL!

Gfish · March 22, 2018, 05:14:33 PM

Quote from: oc1 on March 21, 2018, 07:58:55 PM
Perhaps B.F. Meek and Sons. No.5 with a top hat?
-steve

Yeah. A No. 25 Bluegrass, from about 1910-1920.

That Kestral is deal is really cool. Love those small raptors. If it was me, n' I didn't have a cat I'd consider tryin' to make it kinda a pet by feedin it now and then. A "winged mouser".

happyhooker · March 29, 2018, 09:10:12 PM

One of the good things about living in a cold climate is that the tackle departments have 2 clearance sales a year--once in the fall when open water season is wrapping up and another early spring when ice fishing closes down. My local big box retailer did not fail; went in yesterday and found a decent sized cardboard box of mostly soft plastics and a price sign underneath that said 25 cents. Time to stock up; some were indeed only a quarter, but more than some were only a dime. Picture shows only a small selection of what came my way. All US made.

I didn't have to sneak 'em past the wife either; she volunteered to take the packs to the price checker to verify they really were a quarter (or less).

Frank

mo65 · March 29, 2018, 09:16:34 PM

Love that ol' Kaintucky reel Gfish!

Decker · March 29, 2018, 09:35:30 PM

Rogan, there is some traditional lore of animals appearing to people shortly after the death of a loved one. In my family a solitary robin will appear from time to time, and there is a feeling that it is somehow representing the spirit of my grandmother. Did it occur to you to connect the kestrel with your grandfather?