Simple spinning reels from the 1960s

[mo65]

   I still have a 606 combo that I use for bluegill, rigged for red worms and meal worms. Also have a Platinum 33 rigged for crappie fishing with minnows.

[conchydong]

I don't know if many of you guys are familiar with them but during the late '60s or early 70's in South Florida there was a popular reel called the Spinmaster Diamond. Several sizes were available. I think it was a fairly cheap Japanese made reel, back in the day when "Made in Japan" was like todays "Made in China". My how times have changed.


Scott

[festus]

I don't know if many of you guys are familiar with them but during the late '60s or early 70's in South Florida there was a popular reel called the Spinmaster Diamond. Several sizes were available. I think it was a fairly cheap Japanese made reel, back in the day when "Made in Japan" was like todays "Made in China". My how times have changed.


Scott

Scott, I've noticed those Spinmaster Diamonds on ebay.  They look very similar to the 900 series of the South Bends.  Check them out side-by-side, I bet they're the same reels.  I don't recall seeing any Spinmasters here in East Tennessee but the South Bend was one of the most popular low end reels around here during the 1960s and 70s.

[nagant]

I suffered thru old Dacron filled bait casters until i got to go to a rod&gun club that had a lot of members and they had lots of kids with the latest gear for 1965-70.  I felt like Huck Finn. Plus my brother mysteriously obtained a Mitchell 300 in the red and black box. Which i never saw in action (he only used it with his buddies) Finally my father let me pick out my own gear, Zebco 909!  I still have it and think it's better then any 33 made , though i have no proof.   I still have a Pflueger baitcaster  reel on a square fiberglass rod, REALLY!  Had other rods made out of steel. Some of those kids had the bottle spincasters, think they were great lakes brand. They used Zebco's, Johnsons, and other makes, very few open bails. Any way i became friends with a older couple (Mickey and Mae) that lived next to that club and we would row out next to the channel. Stumps on one side offered crappies and channel side was catfish and saugers. Mae was probably 60 years old and really clung to her cane poles.. Me and her would row around the stumps in a wooden flatboat for crappie  and any pan fish, she hated bass. Mickey bought her a silver spin cast reel but i don't have a clue what it was, looked industrial next to my gear.  Those wood boats has 2 and 3 sets of oar locks and nobody rode for free! She gave me 10 dollars to help shovel fishflies one year because someone left a light on and the fishflies (mayflies?) were 4 foot deep against the house and tapered out 10 feet . She put mint oil on towels to wrap around our faces to keep from gagging, shoveled them in the river and the current took them away. Looked like a two lane road heading toward the dam downstream. Will get a pic of my 909 and square pole with the phlueger, don't think i used an open bail till i was 25 . Then there were the river camping trips in an old retired Chippewa river wooden tour boat with the WW11 vets loose on the Mississippi .  Very educational to say the least.