Zebco 33 Anniversary

ICAST 2013
Greg Hackney takes you down memory lane, and the evolution of the reel that most of us had as kids - the Zebco 33.
Transcript

Another thing cool about 2013, here at Quantum Zebco? This is that this is the 60th-year anniversary of the Zebco 33, which probably me, my father, my children; this is how we all started our bass fishing career. It would be hard for me to believe that not 90% of the bass fishermen out there, maybe 99%, that this wasn’t their first reel. Simple to operate, it’s simple to use, no backlashes, you could pretty much put any type of bass lure on it. There is no telling how many crappie, bass, catfish, blue gill that are still caught today.

I think they’ve sold maybe . . . I think the number’s 70 million reels; 70 million Zebco 33s have been sold. Really, not a lot has changed from 1953 until 2013, on the way the reel is still designed. A couple of neat features on the new reel: It’s rust-proof, it actually has a T-ring behind the spool to keep the line from getting tangled behind the spool. Other than, that it’s still real similar to the way it always has been. The new reel is a good bit faster than the old reel. This reel in 1953 retailed for $19.50. The same reel today retails for around $29. It really hasn’t went up over all that amount of time. Still catch them every day with one of these. Still fun to use.