Pacemaker Fishing Forum

A Texas watchmaker named R.D. Hull walked into a bomb factory with a fishing reel.

The factory, the Zero Hour Bomb Company, made oil-well explosives, and its patents were about to run out. His fix was a fixed spool that couldn't tangle, an idea from watching a grocery clerk pull string off a spool.

He built it from a board studded with nails and a spinning coffee-can lid. It sold so well the bomb company renamed itself Zebco - short for Zero Hour Bomb Company.

Dads have been passing it down ever since.