I Miss The Old Closed Face Fishing Reel

Do you remember fishing with that old Zebco 404 when you were a kid then after a few years, moving up to a Garcia or a Johnson? I miss those old reels.

The reason I bring up the closed face reels is recently my son, who is seven years old, wanted to move up from his Zebco to an open face reel to fish with. I had to explain to him that the line on open face reels tends to twist up after several casts and will cut into your fishing time having to untangle or cut the line.

When I was growing up, all I used was closed face reels, even way into my twenties. I used up every one of my reels until they just couldn't take it anymore and broke.

I really liked how my line wouldn't get twisted up, and I could put more line on a close faced reel. Plus while fishing with a buddy, I got way more fishing time in because he was using an open face reel and his line would constantly rat nest.

I know most fishermen have moved to the bait caster reels. I see guys using them all the time. I did own one but I could never get the casting down confidently and had trouble with line getting knotted up on them.

Everyone else pretty much uses open face reels and that is what you see in most stores. You only see the closed face reels mounted on kids' poles or beginner poles.

I will say the open face reels I've owned out lasted all my closed face reels so obviously there is something to that.

Maybe I'm so attached to the closed face reel because a buddy and I spent a lot of hours as kids having casting contest where we would through our lines at different distances into buckets and circles. We got really good at a very young age at putting a bait anywhere we wanted.

It took me a while longer to get that good once I started using open face reels and like the ones I currently own. I still don't like how the line twists up and rat nests pop up from time to time but the reels are still good so I will use them until they break.

They still make closed face reels. You can find Zebco, Daiwa, Shakespeare and many others. I still miss my Johnson Century and may hunt one down on eBay someday and go back to nonstop, uninterrupted fishing.

Closed face reels are still the best reel for any first time fisherman (or anyone with a lack of patience) to do some fishing.