Older is often Better!

I have been hitting yard sales and garage sales hard this year. I am searching for very specific things. Vintage Zebco Reels is among them and I have been finding 0-5 every Saturday. I landed these 3 on today's excursion and paid $30 for all 3. The 700 Hoss is a 1975, the 733 Hawg is a 1982, and the 33 is a 1986-1990 model. All 3 of these are in like new mint working condition. All 3 of them work better and are much higher quality than the Junk they are churning out today


I bought 4 new Zebco 33 last spring and have 2 of them on rods. I have been playing with them catching decent size green sunfish and small bluegill in the ponds and lake. They are decent and they function but everything about them just feels cheap and junky. And yes those are Galil and AR Magazines the reels are sitting on....... One should keep reloads located every where!


Maybe the new ones are better and it just me being stuck on the Reels I grew up fishing with. Or Maybe the Old Models really are that much better.......

Also found a old Whirley Popper Popcorn Popper! Can't even begin to count how many times Grandma made popcorn for us with her Whirley Poppe!

 

It's not "old", it's "vintage"! And "classic"!

 

We are not old ----we are classics-- cause they don't make us any more--- the models now are confused as to what they are

 

Can say that again!

 

I was the designated popcorn maker in my family, until the air poppers came on the market. Used one of Mom's sauce pans....I'm thinking 3 quart size? Smaller than a 5 quart Dutch oven, bigger than a 2 quart sauce pan. A little oil in the bottom, and either 1/4 or 1/3 cup of popcorn kernels inside, once the oil was warmed up. Keep shaking it over the gas stove flame, and in a few minutes, you start hearing the first pops. A few minutes more, and you've got a full pan of popcorn!

Not sure if I'd have the energy to do that much work, these days!! Vintage, indeed!!

 

Nice score on those Reels! We don't often see those out here on the Wet Coast, unless it's high country pan fish, out here it's all fast river or deep sea fishing, and VERY unique to this region! Out here, it's mostly Abu-Garcia or medium to high end Shimano, or Penn, and the occasional AVET which I collect, especially the Two Speeds!
I also collect Fly Reels, especially high end Ross or Hardy, Our Steelhead can really work a rod and reel hard, and only the best will stand up to that kind of abuse, and Salmon, fuggeddaboutit, You get a Springer that takes you down stream 300 yards, then head shakes like a pit bull for the next half an hour before sounding on you the last 100 feet, Yea, we work out gear hard!
I'm also the oddball guy, I'm mostly right handed, I cast right handed, but reel lefty, so all my reels are lefty, Makes it so NOBODY wants to borrow my gear, nobody seems to fish kackhanded like I do! LOL

My 1990 Vintage Avet lefty 2 speed, my most prized reel, this thing gets rebuilt every season and hasn't ever failed! It's got a 4/1 low range, and 6/1 high, making it faster then a lot of bass type high speeds!

 

Love my older Zebco's, Ambassadors, and a few Mitchells!

 

I have a good number of Hardy Fly Reels, the prized one in the fly reel collection is a old 2 3/4" Brass Hercules with the original Ivory handle. It was Great Grandpa's Reel. I went through a phase back in my early 20s of going after the Musky and Hybrid Stripers or was it strippers...... And picked up a couple of heavy Garcia bait casters and after I got out of that phase didn't have much use for them. When I finally get the house finished and my new improved Krap Kave done, I am going to pull my boxed up treasures out of the back of the container and put them on a wall of display shelves.

I am a little creek and pond fisher. I used to like hitting the mid size rivers up to the Mississippi River and the Lakes Rend. Carlyle and Crab Orchard but even the out of the way places are packed with people now days. Pretty much a guarantee you are going to have to do the possum cop ritual at least once if not 2-3 times. Thus I created my own personal and private hunting and fishing reserve LOL. Spincast and Spinning reels of a ultra light to upper end medium action are all I need. LOL I spent a couple hours last week rotating from tossing red worms and bounding a jig along the bottom catching the bird donated green sunfish that weigh 1/2 to 3/4 pound now and the occasional bass that I stocked last spring a couple of which are 1 1/4 pound now. All give a pretty good fight on a ultra light spinning rig. I was kind of surprised to catch a hand size orange breasted bluegill that was well over a pound..... the birds must have donated him when the lake was still a mud puddle. I thought I had one of the bigger of the stocked bass. I just can't stomach fishing public waters anymore. Set up on the bank and you are shoulder to shoulder with strangers, take the boat out and any place that used to be worth fishing has a half dozen other boats rail to rail....... And then party barge comes buy blasting WAP or some other Funk De Bump, and then the Possum Cop Boat pulls up beside you wanting to check everything down to how clean your underwear are...... Yeah standing on the point watching the sun set catching little bass, bluegill and green sunfish is a whole lot better and no fishing license required and no strangers constantly walking up and setting up camp 5 feet from you and crossing your line every 5 minutes. Same places I fished my whole life and it was rare to see anyone else all day........ The world is getting to crowded for my taste. I sold my lake and river boat last year and down sized to a pair of jon boats with oars a 10' and a 14' one on the little lake and one on the big pond. People in general outside of a certain circle now days don't take long to annoy me

 

Love my old Garcia Mitchell Spinning Reels, something to be said for the basic simple 1950s and 1960s reels!

 

Great score on the reels.i bought one of those stovetop popcorn Popper's a few years ago.we both made a great score on them.

 

Same with old cars, tractors, farm equipment, tools, knives, guns, furniture, etc.,! If it was well maintained, almost everything old is better than new. Some stuff I prefer to buy cheap and restore myself, and some things I want someone that knows what they are doing to have done the work (or hire someone myself)!

 

Grew up in old 733 hawgs and zebco 33s, was all i could afford being a kid. As ive gotten older its mostly penn levelwinds for the catfish and abu or lews spinning for bait and everythin else.

 

Man, I totally forgot Mitchel Reels, those used to be the best spinning reels around, long before the Japanese reels started showing up, or the Penns! Just something about those old brass and wrinkle painted reels that felt right, and they are highly prized these days, you don't find them, even at yard sales!
Here's a blast from the past, a vintage ( Around 1980) Abu Garcia 5600 series that got me started! The drag sucked back then, they just couldn't handle the big silver bullets or Chinook we fight, you got maybe 2 fish and the drag was fried, ether all on, or off! Still, these were so dang smooth and reliable, and infinitely rebuildable!

 

Actually the Old Timer selling the fishing stuff at that yard sale had 7 like new 1960s Garcia Mitchell spinning reels on the table. I am going back tomorrow to get them. Called him this morning to see if he sold them and nope, no one was even a little bit interested in them. Got his number because my Yard Sale Cash was tapped out after the Zebcos He wants $200 for all 7 and I am on that like white on rice. LOL he wouldn't hold them for me but told me to call him in the morning and I was welcome to buy anything he had left.

 

You found some great treasures! My whirley pop popper was my prized possession for a long time. I miss popcorn now that I'm doing the low carb thing, but pork rinds can fill that role most of the time... Sort of.

 

Always wondered how much of a hit popcorn is when watching carbs. For some reason, I thought it was pretty reasonable if you keep the portions small.

 

I knew a guy that lost a lot of weight eating popcorn and drinking black coffee, not a healthy diet but he was able to make weight.

 

I've got a few older reels ,, 1 is an old baitcaster ,, the other is an old Flyrod reel. One of them has a date from the 50s on it ,, don't remember if it was an manufacture date , or patent date . It's packed in a box somewhere,, I'll have to search it out and check it out .
I'm not sure if I still have it ,, but my Dad gave me an old Mitchell- Garcia spinning reel back in the 70s,, I used that thing for years ,, I believe it was an old 304, or 301 ,, can't really remember. It might be in a box somewhere as well. I know I had to replace a few screws on it , with whatever I could find at the hardware store . But it had a lot of line spun on it ,, that thing went on a lot of fishing trips .

 

Grrr Made the 40 mile drive back to get the reels and he sold them to someone else last night. A call saying hey. I don't have them anymore would have been nice! I expect that shit from the younger generations not from older folks!

 

That really sucks. , I totally agree ,, a phone call would have been nice ,, would have really been nice to have given you 1st option,, seeing how you were there 1st anyway .
People ain't like they used to be ,,, might be most of the reason why I really hate leaving the house these days .