Can you date these rebels?
 

Got these at various yard sales. Original windcheaters on left picture, I think.Right picture has all of them side by side. The yellow loaded floaters have been very productive, just don't know what year model they are. When I say loaded, I mean factory loaded, not water loaded.

Tough to tell without seeing the front line tie. Flip them around and post another picture.

Couple more shots. Ones on left are floaters with wide chin that says "rebel". Ones on right are loaded wide chin "Rebel" floaters.

I have a bunch of those. Bought mine in the late 70s to early 80's. I think I tossed a pile of them a few years ago (Iknow I know..)

I've got a bunch of those too. I would say late 70's and early 80's too as that is when mine are from.

Eric

The short ones are F-80s one is from the 70's the smoothie is from the 80's. The seven inch ones are from the same period. Smooth skin is 80's.

We killed a lot of bass with those.

Man I thought this was going to be a bunch of southern girls :D


Nice plugs mike. One of my favorite plugs!

Windcheaters all I think ...with some repaints....nice score :cheers:

Yes, you got some good plugs there. F-80's and F-90's.

here is some good reading about those old rebels.

http://www.tattoostackle.com/yestery...uperrebels.php

Who knows what year the 1st rebel minnow was created??

Bil Norman was the creator of the Rebel and he started in the late 50's then sold the rights to what is now Pradco ( Plastic Research and Development Co.) in early 1960.

Thanks for the info. I picked up about 20 old rebels total over the last few years. I also have 10-12 of the 7" sinking models still in the box. Will break them out if I ever hit the cape sands again. Bassdozer has a good article on the 7" sinkers. Here's a pic of one I repainted. They all came new with a striper finish on them.

Thanks Mike.

rebels
 

hey backbeach let me know if you want to part with any 7" sinkers .i have plenty of floaters but my sinkers are all gone.i started useing them in the early 70,s and preferred them over bombers

We probably all remember when Rebels were "the minnow plug" on the market. I love flea markets !!!:rotf2:

Will gladly swap you or anyone else for the 7" loaded floating models if you have them.

I must have 50 of the F-90S and 30 f-80s and used them constantly in the old days ( the days you don't like hearing about) The F-90 and F-80 Super Windcheaters only came in the "f" designation which of course, means floating.

Windcheaters were never made in sinking, only the standard slim profile rebels came in sinking and the only baits like that you could actually load was the RedFin by Cotton Cordell.

We added wraps of solder around the Rebels body 1/2 way between the rear hook and the belly treble to "load" them. We learned that trick on Nantucket where the Nantucket crew needed to get distance. It tightened the wiggle up but it still caught fish.

Before the needlefish came to our attention we used to rip the lips out of 7 inch Rebels and fish the floaters like we do Needlefish now in shallow water on the outer beach. That trick absolutely killed them.

The Senior Angler used to make jointeds out of the F-80s and F-90S. He was always ahead of the curve. We used to dunk our older ones in flat white ceiling paint, hooks and all them #^&#^&#^&#^& Pleska got Pradco to send us unpainted ones with only the yellow and black dots on the eyes. Saved scraping them down and sanding them. Bone was a great color.

Four of the six floaters I have are definitely factory loaded. Three were brand new in the box. They rattle when you shake them and say floater on the chin. Maybe they rattle because the weights are loose inside?
The sinkers I have are the slim 7" models.

any one rember the rebels with that pick back they had?
use to gettem at leachmares
anyway that color pink looked like powder but it was a hot pink
good fish getter

Dave - I remember the pink back. I used them in Newport but they didn't seem to work as well as the yellow back here.

You know I never did as well with the F90s that rattled when you shook them. Probably just psychological but you know how fishermen are. I used to take them out of the box and shake them until I found some that did not rattle. The thing about those Rebels (as well as other plugs) was that the more ratty they looked the better they worked. Some had so much karma I never re-painted them.

DZ

So what is the story with the rattles? Where they made that way, or was it the loosening of interior weights? Of the bunch I have, the ones that rattle work real well. You can hear the things when they are 20 feet away.

Backbeach,
Just loose weights. The ones that don't rattle are still weighted. Use them - they do still work very well. Paint a few solid black.

DZ

plugs always seem to werk better trashen must be in our heads unless the fish want bone or white plugs:)
would love to get mah hands on a pink one:drool:

I've seen them go for up to 40$ a piece on fleabay. Bottom 2 never seen water top one in excellent shape given to me by a friend.

I don't understand why they don't make em again.
With their plastic lip it's a job security item..