That’s two of ORCA’s finest, Ed Pritchard (“Reels as Big as Your Head”) and Dean Smith (reelsmith), in the bottom row, center, surrounded by Ronel Lewis of San Francisco on left and Alaskan, Joe Connors on the right.
In the back are former ORCA president Dr. John Elder, in from California; the one and only Terry Ow, Jay White , Mike Nogay (in fedora hat), and the expert’s expert, Jim “A Treasury of Reels” Brown.
An incredible reel display by ORCA member Butch Carey and Butch and ORCA Treasurer Roger Schulz enjoying the great FATC show. Lower photos are reels exhibited by Tom Greene.
Last edited by Mike N on Fri Feb 22, 2019 5:33 pm, edited 3 times in total.
ORCA member Tony Floridia recently discovered this little competition casting reel complete with extra perforated spools in New York, and I was lucky enough to talk him out of it. Tony also acquired a super unique tournament cutaway reel built into the rod handle. I’ll try to post a photo of that reel tomorrow.
These two are following me home. One for me and one for a friend.
Great show with good ORCA representation. Lots of reels with all genres and price ranges covered. Loads of fun seeing all of my pals. My thanks to all who made the trip, especially Mike Nogay and John Elder, who I had not seen in far too long.
John Yancey, Tom Greene and Jim Brown examine what is likely the earliest known Meek reel, circa. 1830. Note the manner in which the reel foot is attached to the pillars. The reel, owned by John Yancey, is stamped Meek twice, once on the outside center of the reel foot on each side.
Last edited by Mike N on Sat Feb 23, 2019 5:49 pm, edited 1 time in total.
ORCA member Tony Floridia with his recently-discovered tournament casting reel built into the handle.It also has a unique extension bracket (pictured) for the line guideline.
Here is one of ORCA’s earliest members, Norm Pinardi, of Florida. Norm was offering these two really cool MEEK silver items— a dinner spoon and large laddle spoon.
The FATC held a nice 175 item auction tonight at 7pm as a club fundraiser. Anything for sale that walks in off the street goes into the auction and club members can sell items, too. There’s a 10% premium for buyer and seller and of course 6.5% sales tax. Here’s a box of lures and a tournament jacket from the 1960s-70s that sold. There were also a few nice JVH reels and two really nice empty boxes for a large Penn Senator, which I’m told by Ron Gast can exponentially increase the value of a stand-alone reel.
Another great Daytona show, Its been a long time since I have seen so many fantastic reels in one place at one time. Also, its been a while since I have seen so many great reel collectors in one place at one time. What a great group of people!
My wish is for the Daytona show to continue to attract more reel collectors every year so that those who attend can see, purchase, sell, and learn more about antique fishing reels. There were experts in all sectors of the reel collecting hobby in attendance. Almost any question you had a about a reel could be answered by at least one of the members at the show. The collective knowledge of reel experts in attendance was astounding.
If you missed Daytona this year, or have never been to a Daytona show, be sure to make your plans early for next year, you won't be disappointed.
Congrats Butch for winning best of show for your Stevens reel display.
Last edited by reeltackle on Mon Feb 25, 2019 2:46 pm, edited 1 time in total.
Thanks much Ed for your great hospitality, along with all you other Florida folks! And congrats to Butch for that Best of Show award! I was thrilled to see that, especially since Bill Hoerter showed yet another great display, this time outlining detalls of the history of Conroy. Bill won a well-deserved best reel display award, but the Stevens story outlined such an important corner of Florida reelmaking. Hats off to you, Butch and Bill!
Yes, great reels for sure... but i didn’t travel 3500 miles round trip to see reels.... it is truly all about the people and boy, do we have a great bunch!!
ORCA member since 1999 Honorary Life Member
Specializing in saltwater reels...and fly reels...and oh, yeah, kentucky style reels.....and those tiny little RP reels.....oh, heck...i collect fishing reels!...and fly rods....and lures
Truly a great show and great people. Found a lot of great reels. On Saturday towards the end of the show I asked a number of members if they had reels that they would like to donate to the Silent Auction at the Tulsa Convention at the end of May. I was overwhelmed by what our ORCA members gave me. When I added up the value of the reels based on prices they were asking, it totaled over $4,000. That was unreal and they were all good reels. Our great ORCA member from Alaska, Joe Conners, provided $2,800 of the total amount. Since ORCA is a non-profit organizations, all members who donated will be provided with a letter for tax purposes.
If you can not attend the Tulsa convention, but would still like to donate something, give me a call.
Yes another great show & I was very happy to receive an award for my House of Conroy & its Reel Stampings display along with Butch Carey & his Reel display. If someone had told me 19 years ago when I first joined FATC that 2 reel displays would win awards at one show I would have said no way. We need to really thank Butch Carey for all his efforts to get FATC to recognize that FATC's name was antique tackle & not antique lures. Butch stayed in there & kept punching after being told a number of times no way that FATC was a lure collecting club. Butch, my hat is off to you & you not only did a service to ORCA you did a real service to FATC in that our attendance is definitely helping them offset their unfortunate loss of so many great lure collectors that we all learned from & miss.
