New to the Hobby

[mtcm76]

Hi,
Very glad that I found this forum. I am new to the hobby of fishing reel collecting and restoration. I have been restoring antique radios for the past 15 years or so. I have gotten just a little burnt out on that hobby and was looking for something that interested me and something that I can work on. I love doing things with my hands so electronics and cleaning/repairing reels seems to satisfy that need.
I am originally from South Louisiana and have been fishing probably since the age of 5 or so. My first reel was a Zebco 202 at the age of 6. By my teenage years I was fishing with a Abu Garcia 5000 C which was given to me for Christmas by one of my Uncles. By the time I graduated from high school I was fishing with my dad's open face spinning reel that he had for some time. That was a Sears reel, either a JC Higgins or Ted Williams. It has been too long...just don't remember.
My interest is in spin cast reels because that was my dad's favorite type of reel. He really liked Shakespeare reels. When I started this hobby I knew very little (still know very little) and decided I wanted to specialize in Shakespeare spinning reels made in the US. Well I have been told that Shakespeare didn't start making these reels until the late 1950's and only through the late 1970's so I have expanded my interest to all spinning reels pre 1970. I currently have 8 reels. I have gone through 4 of them thus far. I have a Shakespeare 2052 and 2065. I have also gone through (cleaned and lubed) an Airex Spinster Model 4 and a DAM Quick Model 221. I have 4 reels that I still need to clean and lube. Two are Mitchell reels (300 and 308). I also have two identical reels made by the same company but with different markings on the side ( Luxor Pezon and Michel and a CRACK).
I just wanted to introduce myself to the group here. I am sure I will learn a lot and hopefully in time I will be able to contribute and help new people just as I am sure you will help me.
I am open to discussion about fishing reels as well as old radios. There is a great forum on old radios that I belong to but if anyone has a question about that which I may be able to answer I would be more than happy to do what I can.

Michael Schaub
Allen, TX

[john elder]

Welcome, Michael! I share your enthusiasm for restoration and I think you'll find a lot of posts that have been made in our restoration/repair page that will be of interest. The search program will also pull up something about almost every reel you trip across. Thanks for joining us!

john

[marius]

greetings from norway and welcome to the orca forum. seems you are already on your way from hobby > lifestyle

[Midway Tommy D]

Welcome to the ORCA forum Michael.

There are a lot of folks here knowledgeable about both open and closed face spinning reels. Looks like you have a pretty good start into the open face variety. There's a lot of info stored in the annals of ORCA, and this forum. Thoroughly check out all the tabs and options at the top of the page. Especially, try out the search option. You can save a lot of time and frustration by tapping it first. Heck, you may even decide to become an ORCA member so you can take advantage of additional information found in the Reel News Magazine, Library and all those other member benefits.

Tom

[stidog]

Welcome to the forum, I am new to the hobby too! I hope to see you around! This place is great