My first pole that I remember using was a 5 foot fenwick (i only know that cuz i found it a few years ago) and it had a green and white zebco reel i think. That was when i was like 3 or 4, The next one that was actually my pole, was a zebco 202, it was a 2 piece 5'6 rod with some shiny gold finish on both the reel seat and the reel (i landed my first largemouth on this pole, and i was hooked from then on) About a year or so later I got my first spinning rod as a gift (xmas i think) it was an abu 5" UL combo. Then when i was prob around 12 or 13 I bought my first rod which was a 7foot ugly stick combo, I still have the rod but I think I gave the reel away last year, or the year before.