Jackson: Well-worn fishing gear that keeps on giving

I'm sure I was imagining things when I thought I saw tiny, seasonal elf-life creatures near the reel drawer. I've had similar hallucinations at this time of the year but shrugged them off to an overdose of eggnog.

I, like some of my odd friends, have a tendency to hold on to fishing gear that others may have either tossed into the garbage or stored in a closet.

The "others" I speak of could very well be that element of the angling community that would rather relegate a well-worn, older spinning reel to the dark recesses of some dank spot in a basement.

I like the old stuff mixed in with some of the newer, glitzy contraptions that do everything except open a Diet Pepsi.

I finished wiping some grease and grime from the body of my reliable, older, green-body Zebco Cardinal #4 spinning reel.

And because this gem has never failed me in any regard, I searched high and low for a match.

I never acquired one, but I did manage to tap into the rumor mill quite a few years back that the Shirley brothers of Ed Shirley Sports fame, had "taken custody" of a bunch of the "greenies" and sold them each for what had been described as a modest mortgage payment.

It was about 15 years ago that I happened across a black-bodied model of the same ilk and was thrilled to spool it up with 6-pound mono. The only difference was this one had the Abu label affixed to the body.

Those in the know warned me that because of the age of my Zebco green version, I needed to use extra caution using the reel for big fish. The spool and arbor could have been weakened by a simple little thing called age.

Because my stubbornness often overrules common sense, I took "blackie" to northern Canada, while greenie rested comfortably in a drawer. It's not that I had retired the old bugger, but rather decided not to overly stress the arbor and spool with the give-and-take supplied by the monsters of the deep.

In fact, I'll sometimes use the green reel around here for bass and panfish I find in the area ponds.

I have a couple new Shakespeare and Pflueger spinning reels featuring drag systems that, if need be, could figuratively haul a barn door up from the bottom.

In the 1960s, Zebco originally came out with its reel series dubbed "Cardinals."

There were two versions; one green and the other red. I even spotted a few white jobs in a small town.

The most unique aspect of this reel series is the actual body.

It's built with plastic and some kind of composite material and hardly ever needs to have grease or oil applied to the gears and crank. During that time such engineering was unheard of and extremely revolutionary.

When I told friends about the maintenance-free aspect, most of them refused to believe any device that behaved like a piece of machinery did not require lubrication to exist in the world of tough-stuff angling.

Zebco and Abu had the last laugh when they proved the skeptics wrong.

Do we have anything like those beauties in today's fishing world? To the best of my knowledge, I doubt it.

If you have a Cardinal or two let me know if you want to trade for any of my treasures.

Be safe, not sorry:

If you'd like a safe, happy and productive holiday week and weekend, don't behave in a foolhardy fashion, especially when it comes to shore fishing.

The lakes and ponds in the FPD system are not ready - nor are they open - for "make-believe" ice fishing.

I've seen at least two people trying to navigate the ultra-thin ice on two different Cook County forest preserve lakes. These super-sharp mavens supposedly believe the thin layer of ice will support their weight as they try and get to the open water to throw a lure.

If anyone wants open water, try the piers on Lake Michigan or the shoreline of the upper Fox River, where a few walleyes have been taken near St. Charles.

Show time:

The first outdoor fishing show opens its doors Jan. 8 - the All Canada Show at the Pheasant Run complex in St. Charles.

• Contact Mike Jackson at angler88@comcast.net, catch his radio show 7-9 a.m. Sundays on WGCO 1590-AM (live-streamed at www.1590WCGO.com) and get more content at www.mikejacksonoutdoors.com.