Thursday, April 10, 2014

TBT# My 1st Baitcasting Reel


Throwback Thursday-I bought this Shimano Bantam Mag Plus 250SG XHS reel at Little Jim's in Annandale MN in probably  1982 or 1983 for $69.99 plus tax.  I can't remember anymore if I bought it in the old store or at the one they have now.  I think it was the old store, but memory isn't the greatest.

Dad only fished with spinning gear, so learning how to cast this thing was solely up to me.  I read the instructions from cover to cover and there was nothing telling me how to properly adjust the reel for casting.  I promptly went out and backlashed it so bad the reel was unusable.  When I got back home, I got new line to put on it and I learned to cast in my back yard.  Many more backlashes followed, but eventually I figured it out.
 The reel has a magnetic brake.  I have never been able to get comfortable throwing a reel with centrifugal brakes no matter how hard I tried with them.  Probably the biggest reason why I am such a Daiwa fan now, magnetic brakes.

 
5:1 was considered Extra High Speed.  My how things have changed.  As I recall the big selling point for me at the time was Quickfire Free Spool, aka the thumb bar.  I didn't want one that had a mettle push button and this one didn't.  The reel served me well for many years and still is in usable condition.  I have had it on an ice fishing rod since the early years of this century.  Seeing as how I have stopped ice fishing, I don't use it anymore.

4 comments:

Unknown said...

I don't suppose I could con you into making copies of the manual? If I said pretty please.
I think the dear wife chunked my box in a cleaning fit sometime.

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