Hey Gang, I need some help identifying a reel. It is a Garcia Mitchell 314 with serial number 0716519. I haven't seen a serial number starting with "0" in a long time and I've forgotten exactly what it means. Anyone know what year the reel was manufactured? Garcia is engraved, not a yellow...

If it makes you guys feel any "less crazy", I have over 50 Mitchell 302s. Back in my website days, I dedicated most of my time trying to determine all of the 302 model variations. It was a labor of love, or as my wife called it: absolutely nuts. LOL

Salt Water and model 302 bails should have a natural "bow" in the bail wire to prevent this problem. It's not uncommon to find an old one that has a straighter bail. I'm not sure what causes this straightening but it could be from tight storage, dropped reel, or someone thinking they are f...

You bet! Thanks! It's amazing how good the iPhone cameras are. I use an iPhone11 now as it is so easy to take a picture, crop/adjust it on the phone, and send. My old Sticksreelworld.com website was shot using a circa 1998 Olympus digital camera at a hi-res setting of 640x480, and I used to have to ...

Hi Sandman, I've attached a handle picture. Besides the obvious half-bail, the handle is the most amazing thing about this reel. Whatever material they used should have been used on later models because it has remained shiny and beautiful over 70 yrs! I had never seen another HB at the time and wond...

The box:

More pix

Alright, found the 302 halfbail. My serial# is A01747. It's a big foot that was filed down a bit. The parts seem to line up with Sandman's. I've also included pix of the box that was covered with Olive Drab tape a long time ago by the original owner, a serviceman that picked up the reel originally i...

Hi Sandman, Thanks for the info! This reel is buried in a pile of boxes but I will get it out soon. The pix that I have presently are from the old sticksreelworld.com website and back in 1999 "hi-res photo" meant 640x480, LOL. So that's why we can't read the doggone serial# from the pictur...

I have one of the earlier ones with the unique handle. How many of these early half-bails had the "big foot"? I also have the original box but unfortunately the G.I. that brought this reel back to the USA covered it in drab olive duct tape, inside and out!