On our fishing trip last week, my brother and I were talking and laughing about our first fishing rods.
My father bought us boys Zebco 202 combos when we were very young. They were green and plastic, but they caught fish and that was all that mattered. I can remember catching everything on them - bream, bass, catfish, sheepheads, croakers and even a black drum.
When we wore those out, he stepped us up to Zebco 404 combos. Now, we're talking. That was fine fishing for a seven year old boy back then. Hours and hours of freshwater and saltwater fun with our dad.
We knew we had made it to the big time when we got the Zebco 33 and the original Ugly Stik rod. The Zebco 33 was metal and shiny and the Ugly Stik wouldn't break no matter what rambunctious knuckleheads like us did to them. Wow! You couldn't tell us NOTHING! We were going fishing!
Now days, we're not happy unless we have a $200 rod and $200 reel - ten of them. I'm not sure we're having much more fun than we did with our Zebco reels and Ugly Stik rods.
I still like Ugly Stik rods. A little nostalgia, but I think many of the newer ones are sorely underrated. I'm thinking about getting a Zebco 33, putting it on an Ugly Stik GX2 rod and seeing what I can do with it.
Just for old time's sake.
