Return to Yesteryear

Once upon a time, Johnson was a major player in the fishing reel market, and as a child I had all of them at one time or another: the Sabra, Century, and Citation. As a youngster, I had to have the biggest reel I could get my hands on, and, naturally, I had it spooled with a ridiculously heavy 20 lb. monofilament. It’s a wonder my Johnson Sabra would even cast such a line, but it did a great job and lasted fifteen years to boot. Of the three main reels in the Johnson lineup, the Sabra was my favorite. Most of us “older” fishermen remember the green metal cap and black plastic gear cover on these reels, as well as the bold “Made in USA” lettering proudly displayed on the back of the reel. These were, and still are, classics.

Today, I’m like everybody else. I use a high tech spinning reel with eleven ball bearings, and it’s loaded with $9 for 350 yards premium line. I’ll be honest with you for a moment. I was a better fisherman as a kid, and I had better luck with the old relics than I do today. I play around on the Internet a good bit, and one day I decided to “Google” some of my old equipment. Surprisingly, all of these vintage reels are available on E-Bay, and they are fetching a healthy price!


I set up an E-Bay account and watched people selling and bidding on old Johnson reels, and, finally, I found something that caught my eye: a Johnson Citation (circa 1970) complete with its box and papers. To my surprise, the reel had never been used! For a week, I bid against two other fishermen, but this one wasn’t going to get away. Eventually, I bid $60, and I got my prize—for about four times what it cost new. When it arrived, I was ecstatic! The only problem was that the grease had become viscous and the handle was difficult to turn. The Citation is an all-metal reel, and the gear housing can be reached by removing a couple screws. I sprayed the gears with a de-greaser and then lubricated them with Zebco reel grease. The Citation was working as it did 35 years ago!

I found an old Shakespeare Ugly Stick that I hadn’t used in twenty years and mounted the Citation on it. I’m a fisherman, not a collector, and I planned from the beginning to put the old reel to good use. The reel has gotten numerous comments from other fishermen, such as, “I haven’t seen one of those in years” and, “Wow! That thing casts really well!” That it does, and the fish don’t seem to mind being caught on an antique any more than they do the new and improved stuff. I hope to use and maintain my Citation for twenty more years and pass it down to somebody else who will take care of it. The old adage holds true: They don’t make ‘em like they used to!