“Rat Rod” Reels

[Mike N]

Any gear head can tell you a ‘50s-era Rat Rod is a homemade hot rod made from cast-off parts. It’s all in the retrofitting and styling. Here are two photos from MSN.com and Wikipedia.





I’ve always thought some tournament casting and OTHER homemade reels I’ve seen from almost that same period resembled fishing reel versions of Rat Rods. Here are a few, and I hope others post a few photos, too.

[john elder]

My favorite Rat Reel... medalist brought back from dead with turned parts to replace degraded plastic... love to fish it:

[Mike N]

My favorite Rat Reel... medalist brought back from dead with turned parts to replace degraded plastic... love to fish it:

Very cool, Dr. E. At the risk of showing my age, Big Daddy Roth would rate that fly reel at least a double Rat Fink:

[Alan Baracco]

Mike,

Here is a Langley Model 310 Rat I found several years ago, I call it Frankie. Don't know what the maker had in mind, but it does work properly. Maybe, since it was originally made in San Diego, Elder had something to do with it!!

Alan

[Mike N]

Alan- very nice reel and definitely a couple of Rat Fink thumbs up, as well.

Mike N

PS That San Diego circumstantial evidence link sure leads to an inference of the possible involvement of DrBaits or one of his proteges in that modified engineering...

[kyreels]

Maybe the reel hacker was attempting a mod that would prevent the line from entering the area around the spool and wrapping on the internal gears. I have had that happen on some light Shakespeare 1973D.

[john elder]

Can’t take credit or blame, but can certainly appreciate that problem and solution.