Living on the West Coast of Tasmania I spent a lot of my free time fishing.
Macquarie Harbour, Braddon River, Arthur River, Gordon River, Franklin River, Pieman River, Henty River.
Kelly Basin, Granville Harbour, Trial Harbour.
Trial Harbour was one of the most bountiful fishing spots. We had a cabin at Trial Harbour, a small seaside settlement of about 30 - 40 cabins.
Many Fridays after work 4 of us would gather our fishing gear, swags and the essential 18 gallon barrel of beer.
Trial Harbour was our go to place to catch Crayfish, large crayfish, not the tiny things seen in local fish markets today.
We would launch the Huon Pine dingy loaded with 5 cray pots and go out no more than 100 metres offshore to lay the pots.
We also had cray rings which we would use sitting on the rocks, back then we could watch crayfish as they walked into the ring to eat the baits we placed in them.
We had a 44-gallon drum as a boiling pot and would eat crayfish and abalone all weekend.
Abalone is the tastiest seafood I have ever tasted. Preparation was nothing more than flattening(tenderising) the abalone with a tenderising hammer, then throwing them on a hot barbeque plate for 30 seconds either side.
No extras, no fancy sauces, onto the barbi, into the mouth.
Good times.
We would walk a mile or two up the canal tow path, put the maggots on the hook, catch a couple of slimy Roach and Perch then, without being able to was our hands, eat our Cheese Sandwiches 
I used to favour a perch bobber…
And was the proud owner of an Intrepid Black Prince…
All a bit Izzak Walton by today’s standards!
Mind you I did tend to dress a bit like that. Still do when the fancy takes me…
Wasn’t Mitchell Reels the go to brand?
Yep!
Also the ABU range. Quality Swedish engineering at the time. Well out of my price range…
I think the inferior current models are made in China.
Remember loading your spool fight to the edge for maximum casting distance, used to cast out so far I couldn’t see the float 
Yes!
And sometimes forgetting to thread the mono through the bale arm while setting up!
Very frustrating having start the process all over again…
Yep, done that many times until i realised that all I had to do was pop the spool of, flip the bale arm over then pop the spool back on
Not a problem with the early reels, fitted with the horrible half bail/bale arms.
the heading question reminds me of when I was just a young lad (and good looking 
)
One weekend my dad invited me to go with people he knew to go fishing Brighton West Pier ( now broken and abandoned) . On the way he had booked for some bait at a fishing shop, while in there was a new concept at the time a solid fibre fishing rod. This was offered in a raffle ticket price 6pence (old money), a weeks pocket money. I had just got that morning my weekly pocket money that was 6 pence. So I begged my did to get me a raffle ticket and gave him the pocket money.
Outside the bait shop was off to the pier for a days fishing , me with a "toy"rod with a lot of hope of a catch.
End of day nothing caught but I asked dad about checking my raffle ticket in the shop.Unbelievable I won, and the expensive solid fibre was mine,.
70 years later today i still have that rod, needs the rungs rewhipping now but would never ever sell it because of those memories.
here it is
What a lovely story, and such a prize to hang onto , bringing back memories for you every time you pick it up .
Eliza
What is more remarkable is this was one of the very first fibre fishing rods from the USA. before this they were made of cane. I don’t go fishing anymore and still have several cane type rods my late father used
Some good memories surface whenever you look at that fishing rod. Thank you for sharing. 
Rock solid fishing rod realspeed!
I do have a thing for vintage fishing tackle.
No corrosion on the reel seat too 