I purchased my first Abu Garcia reel in 1977 when I was around 11 years of age. I clearly remember walking through the Best department store and spotting it in the glass case. It was beautiful, shiny black with a red thumb bar. The 5600C. It was the Cadillac of baitcasters.

I awed over it for about 10 minutes before my mom called me. I was like Ralphie from the movie Christmas Story wanting his Red Ryder BB gun for Christmas. I was determined from that moment that was the reel for me. The problem was I had to earn $56 to get it.

Winter came and I prayed for snow so I could shovel the neighborhood a few times to earn the money. Thank God, it snowed quite a bit and I worked as much as I could. By March, I had earned enough money to go and buy my Black Beauty. I drove my parents crazy until they finally drove me to Best.

Driving home, I envisioned making 50-yard casts and catching monster bass after bass. When I got home I put it on an older Ugly Stick rod, read the instruction manual five times and started spooling it up with Shakespeare line that you could buy a 500-yard spool for a dollar. It was premium stuff.

I had a difficult night sleeping because I would be making the long cast with Black Beauty before I went to school. As daylight broke, I ran outside with Black Beauty and a spinnerbait tied on. I had been waiting for this moment for months. I pressed down the thumb bar in excitement and made my first cast. Well, it did not go 50 yards – it went about 5 feet and slammed in the ground in front of me.

As I stood there looking at my spinnerbait I paid no attention to the spool that was still going. I had read about backlashes, but I had never seen one. Especially one the size of a basketball, or so it seemed at the time.

I had no idea what to do and the bus was coming up to the house. The casting was over for the day and I was lost in school that day. When I came home, the only thing I could do was cut all of the line off with scissors. My mom and dad just shook their heads.

After much practice, I became proficient with it. If there were such a thing as a master’s degree in getting out backlashes, I would have had one by the age of 13.

My fondest memory with the Abu 5600C was the first bass that I had ever caught. I lived across the street from a tidal creek that was located in the Chesapeake Bay. On this particular day, it had been raining, along with a full moon and flood tides. I had just finished reading an article about Larry Nixon and how to fish a plastic worm. Therefore, off to the creek I went with Black Beauty and a strawberry Mann’s Jelly Worm.

On my first cast, I felt something on the end of my line and just started reeling like mad. No one told me I had to set the hook. Thank God, the fish hooked himself. When I finally got the biggest fish in I had ever seen (it weighed about 3 pounds), I screamed and ran as fast as I could home with the fish still attached to the rod. I am sure it looked hysterical. My Dad was very happy that I had brought home dinner.

Black Beauty has caught me a great number of fish – both bass and stripers. I will eventually pass her on to one of my daughters, who both fish, but for now I think I will keep her another 20 years. Thank you, Abu Garcia, for all of the great memories.

Bill Ledley
Hampstead, Maryland

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