Reel appraisal

[Patrick]

One day I was down at the fishin' hole saying I have a bunch of rods with no reels on them just to make small talk. The next day, one of my buddies shows up with a reel!

I then tried the next day to say I don't have a million dollars but no takers.

Anyways, I looked at the reel and I don't think it would hold up to the saltwater but I like the reel. Anyways, I knew it was an old reel so I didn't use it. It's in mint condition. Never been used. I have all the papers and the box even the little plastic bag it came in.

It's a Gladding South Bend 840 reel. Here is a picture of it.

[Anthony]

i have one that looks just like that. its a very old reel. i found mine in my basement, must have been my fathers when he was smaller. Mine is a "Garcia"

[Mike P]

Is there something wrong with the bail, or is it a bad camera angle or shadow?

What are the specs on capacity and such? And, if there's a country of manufacture on the reel foot or the box, where's it from? Some of the US companies imported European spinning reels and sold them under the US company name in the 50s and 60s. The Abu Cardinal, for example, was sold here as a Zebco, believe it or not.

South Bend makes all junk now, but that might not be a bad reel for a few seasons. Does look a little like a Garcia-Mitchell. Not quite, but close.

[Patrick]

Well I did a little research and it turns out it was made in Hong Kong. It still means a lot to me and I guess I'll hold onto it and some day in the future when I'm old and gray, I'll be able to hand it down to another young guy like my pal did. No idea what the capacity for thing thing is. Looks like it would be something like 240 yards of 15lb test.

The reel is definitely peculiar. It looks like it was modeled after the Penn Z series. A lot of the stuff looks like it could be taken right off of this reel and put on a Penn Z series. Such as the bail arrangement. On the Penn Z22, when you flip the bail, a little springloaded piece of metal locks into a part of the bail assembly. Same thing with this reel.

Another oddity is if you take off the spool, the actual spool is made of plastic but the bottom piece has a gap and then there is metal bottom. Then inside that gap it has a pipe cleaner type thing that goes around the circumference of the spool bottom. I figure that is to keep sand and other debris out of the housing and rotor cup. It's a cool little reel. It just sits on my fishing shelf with about 3 years of catalogs and fishing magazines.

[Jaiem]

That was my first thought too Mike, a Mitch. I have two from my father and a bunch of Ocean City's. All still work but have too much sentimental value to give up.