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Me and the Zero Hour Bomb Company

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JW_Halverson:

--- Quote from: Pappy on September 27, 2025, 03:07:47 pm ---Great story JW , needed that this morning, beautiful fish also. My first reel was a 202 and I thought I had really hit the big time when I saved enough for a 33 .Pappy

--- End quote ---

The Zebco 33 is, for the most part, the ORIGINAL design perfected. The purchase price in 1955 was $19.99!  If you calculate for inflation over the years that comes to $241.17!!!  But you can find them for under twenty bucks if you look around.

Strangely enough, Wikipedia has not page for Zebco.

Eric Krewson:
A Mitchell 300 was my first reel, these were lifetime reels, I still have my original one and fish with it every time I go fishing. I bought several more at flea markets when my granddaughter wanted to fish. Every spinning rod I have has a Mitchell 300 on it, like you, I went through them, a rebuild kit can be had for less than $20.

Where I grew up in East Tennesse the tail waters of Norris Dam were stocked with trout. The dam was just over the ridge from my house but what we called a ridge would be a mountain to most so we took a winding bike ride around the ridge to fish in the tail waters of the dam.

As my fishing skill increased, pitching kernel corn for trout lost its luster so I bought a solid fiberglass 8' flyrod from Sears with my paper route money. I spent hours in my back yard perfecting casting with a flyrod, once I had it down, I ordered a box of flies from Herter's and off to the river I went. I was 10 years old and always caught fish with my flyrod, often a limit. 

I only fished when they had the generators off at the dam, there was a number we could call to get the generating schedule. We had no waders, the water was a consistent 45 degrees year-round, we fished until our legs turned blue and lost feeling at which point we went home. The river water was usually from ankle deep to waist deep when the generators were off.



The days on the river with my fly rod were the best times of my life, I went back after I got out of the Army in 69, unemployed and looking for work I had a lot of time on my hands. This time I had waders, a fancy flyrod and custom-made flies, as soon as I stepped into the river I was 10 years old again, nothing had changed and I caught fish, lots of fish in the same secret places I did so many times before.

This is my river, the Clinch and its tailwaters below Norris Dam. This is the view from the "ridge" about 1/2 mile from the house I grew up in. Trout Unlimited has taken over the river now with weirs, aerators and a focus on huge rainbows and browns.

JW_Halverson:
I know that feeling well, Brother Eric.

For some of us, those first fishing spots that nurtured us are "church". I am not surprised that this post of mine struck a chord with you. I think you and I were cut from pretty similar cloth and stitched by similar patterns.

Eric Krewson:
I haven't been back to the river to fish in 45 years, it is not the same with micro management and the added structures, I have driven by it and stopped at dusk to smell that enchanting aroma of moss-covered rocks and the crystal-clear water from beneath the dam, because of the cold water there was always a fog swirling just above the river at daylight and dusk. There were no kids on bicycles in cutoff jeans with fishing rods strapped across their handlebars. No kids fishing at all, just a few guys that looked like they stepped out of an Abercrombie and Fitch ad with all of the "proper" equipment and clothing.

Everyone fished the river when I was a kid, young and old, rich and poor, now it is just a select few.

Here is a daylight picture of the river, I would be in my own little world as I disappeared into the fog, the rising trout stood out like beacons in the still water. The ridge in the background was where the scenic picture in the last post was taken from.

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