Boat House Mitchell 300 Reel find and questions....

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WeeKilt
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Boat House Mitchell 300 Reel find and questions....

Post by WeeKilt »

Took my 12 and 15 year old down to the lake house tonight in Greenwood, SC. Not much biting, so we wandered out to the boathouse which always seems to offer up weird finds after we dig deep enough (like 80 years of crap deep). Ethan (my fishing son) discovered this Mitchell 300 Spinning Reel in the box. He can smell out a good find in 30 seconds! LOL I'm a saltwater guy at heart, so it didn't excite me but I'm curious about it and figured someone here would know some history. Found two old fly reels too, but that's a post for another day. I'm thinking this probably belonged to my grandparents based on the age of the box and the 20 cent price tag on the owners manual. Any thoughts?

Tight lines,
Keith
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Midway Tommy D
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Re: Boat House Mitchell 300 Reel find and questions....

Post by Midway Tommy D »

Nice find, Keith! It's fairly rare to find one in that nice of condition and even more so with a box in good condition, too. The reel should have a serial number on the bottom of the foot, although a few were stamped on the housing, somewhere between 600,000 and 2,200,00. The exact number will closer date your reel but it was made somewhere between 1954 & 1959. "3-0-0" was added to the sideplate in '54/'55ish, and "Garcia" was added in front of Mitchell in '58/'59.
These would be approximate manufacture dates:
1954 – SN 235985 to 617792
1955 – SN 624001 to 1004270
1956 – SN 1040182 to 1517887
1957 – SN 1520736 to 1883288
1958 – SN 1889513 to 2225412
1959 – SN 2282964 to 2959786
Love those Open Face Spinning Reels! (Especially ABU & ABU/Zebco)

Tom DeLong, NE
ORCA Member - 2027
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WeeKilt
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Re: Boat House Mitchell 300 Reel find and questions....

Post by WeeKilt »

SN 1291063 so 1956 - found it stamped on the side of the housing. Thanks for the info. It is in nice condition. I don't think it has been used much as there is a plastic cover around the line on the reel that says "Platil" and would probably something most people would discard. Hard to know the full story, but a neat find all the same.


Now where is that massive saltwater reel hiding that I keep dreaming about? :lol:

Cheers,
Keith
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