who fishes vintage tackle?

[reelworks]

I guess the older lines worked better that way too? Mono or Spectra that we use today would burn the skin off your thumb in minutes. I tape my thumb now when casting a bait caster and big weight, stopping the spool loaded with 65lb braid will rip the skin off your finger over the course of a full day on the water. I guess also some of the reels I'm thinking of are much smaller reels, a few that I've seen have been so narrow or small that I have trouble getting my big thumbs onto the spool enough to even think about applying any amount of drag. The Bronson Lashless isn't too bad, it's a bit small but I've got another older reel around here somewhere thats even smaller, I can't recall the model, but it's on a steel rod and a similar reel seat.

[Reel Geezer]

As many of you might remember (but probably want to forget) I wrote a back page editorial in The Reel News about the word "Vintage". Vintage is an adjective and does not have a year definition. It originally applied to wine making as being the current year of grapes. It is correctly used for reel collecting as "this Shakespeare reel is vintage 1925." Not just "this Shakespeare reel is vintage." Vintage when?

But it seems I'm false casting. The word just seems to mean whatever an owner or seller wants it to mean.

[Reel Geezer]

I guess the older lines worked better that way too? Mono or Spectra that we use today would burn the skin off your thumb in minutes. I tape my thumb now when casting a bait caster and big weight, stopping the spool loaded with 65lb braid will rip the skin off your finger over the course of a full day on the water.

I don't have trouble burning my thumb (I don't catch big enough fish) but I do like to run the line across my index finger to feel the slightest tick. This does present problems:

I sort of solved this problem by wearing a golf glove with all the fingers but the index finger cut off. The slice shown here happened when a surprise Snake River rainbow took off on a fast run as I set the hook. I felt the line and when I looked down the 10/2 Power Pro was imbedded in my finger.

[Bill Sonnett]

Phil after reading your piece on the word "vintage" I must add that the word "old" seems to be applied to more and more things that I saw on the store shelves not that long ago. I believe that this is a symtom of getting "old" ourselves. Case in point: 1970 doesn't qualify as "old" to me, though it is now 40 years ago. But in 1955, 1915 seemed like a long time ago and definately qualified as "old" (the same 40 years). I was a 20 year old college student in 1963 when President Kennedy was killed. I'm having a tough time with the fact that a person who is 50 was three years old then and has no memory of the event. Sorry all. Must be past my bedtime

[kingfisher]

Hello Geeze,
I bet it really hurt the second time the line went through that cut.
I have cut fingers like that while offshore reef fishing. One way of preventing this is to slide a small length of bicycle inner tube over your finger .You can still feel the bites.
Ray

[reelworks]

I use 1" wide cloth rim liner tape that is normally used to protect a bike tube from the spoke ends. It flexes well, is water proof, and doesn't gum up or wear on the line when surf fishing. You only forget it a few times and never again. The bicycle tube is a good idea too if you got one the right size. In a pinch, electrical tape works too for a spinning reel but not for baitcasting. I bet the inner tube allows you to really put some grip on the spool for casting.

[bobinareels]

Sometimes Ill grab an old reel to put a story on it, few days ago took a 300YD model Yankee on the surf, no drag just the spool tension, clicker and direct drive, filled it up with thick braid just didnt know what to exspect looking for stripper, luck stuck by the end of the night, handle was spinning out of control on the run off pick the rod up tried to grap the handle and sure enough almost took my index finger off from the knuckle! Anyhow after I got some control managed to land a 40" bass!