First Baitcasting Outfit

My best guess is that I was 10 or 11 years old. That part I don't remember for sure. What I do remember was that I wanted a Daiwa Procaster SM-2A reel with a matching rod, which I believe also carried the Procaster name. That was what Bill Dance fished with at the time, and he sure caught a lot of fish, so if I had one like it...

Like many young anglers, I had started with a Zebco 404 and then progressed to a simple spinning outfit (I don't recall the specifics of that one), both presents from my grandpa, and had caught a lot of fish on both. I was ready to up my game, though, and knew that Procaster combo was key to doing so.

The rod and reel cost enough that only way such a thing could be an option would be to get one piece as a present for my birthday in October and the other for Christmas. I remember that the reel came first because my dad had fun with the rod. He knew I'd be scouring presents from the time they started showing up under the Christmas Tree and would be perplexed to find nothing remotely rod shaped. No such package ever showed up, leaving me wondering if I'd end up with my ideal baitcasting reel but no rod. The answer was in a fairly large, but obviously not rod-shaped package. Dad had played the old box in a box in a box in a box game, with the final box containing a note to go look in his closet, where, of course, the rod of my dreams was leaning in the corner.

With my dad not having been a fisherman, I learned to cast that first baitcaster by trial and error (with MUCH of the latter), first in the front yard and eventually from the banks of ponds. I don't know how many cumulative hours I spent casting a little rubber weight in the yard and picking out backlashes, but I was determined to fish for bass with my baitcaster so I practiced until my thumb just knew when to apply pressure to the spool and just how much pressure to apply.

I don't know what ever happened to my original baitcaster, but I wish I still had it, along with that first Zebco 404, first spinning combo and a few others. Memories will have to do!