New Member Dave Elliott

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Stunt Fisher
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Posts: 42
Joined: Tue May 11, 2021 4:46 pm

New Member Dave Elliott

Post by Stunt Fisher »

Greetings from Omaha, NE, the home of, well not much. Born and raised in this area but I moved around a bit after my teens. I have loved fishing all my life. I’ll fish for anything that puts up a fight. Well, except catfish. Maybe I’m a fish snob, but I just don’t like catching catfish. A buddy of mine loves catching them, but I just can’t bring myself to even liking it. But I digress. My interest in old reels started when I came upon a shiny Pflueger Summit 1993L with its original leather pouch. You know the one - shiny, elaborate engraving, looks like some real craftsman took weeks to make and makes you think you have something real valuable, until you find out that a million were made and everyone already has one. I paid too much for it, but I was hooked. That was about five years ago.

As of now I have about 80 reels. I only collect bait casting reels and most of my collection are reels that are not very valuable as collector reels. Mostly Pflueger and Ocean City reels. Inexpensive, available, and easy to work on. I buy what I can, take them all apart to the last screw, clean and lube them, reassemble them, and move on to the next reel. Generally, the fun of rebuilding them is worth the ten or twenty bucks I paid for them. So now I have 80 reels just laying around my office. A small handful of them are in a barrister bookshelf, but most are everywhere else. I have to find a good way to display them.

I did meet an old reel collector here in Omaha. I won’t use his name, but he is as nice a guy as you’d want to meet. He invited me to his house and showed me his collection. I think he said he had somewhere north of 800 reels. Man, that was a sight! Saw some real nice gear. Old outboard motors, old trolling motors, old lures, and old reels. He had things I had only seen in books. That was cool. Don’t tell my wife, but I’d like to do something like that. You’ll know I succeeded when she’s kicked me out of the house.

I did join ORCA a few weeks ago to find information on reels, read some of what you guys (and gals?) post, and generally just to keep my old reel juices flowing. I downloaded some old Pflueger catalogs to look at. I love that those are available. A few that I downloaded could use a little editing. Well not really editing, but some of the pages are turned sideways and some of the pages don’t fill the whole pdf page. I cleaned them up before I saved them to my hard drive. A question for the group: Would I offend anybody if I straightened them out and sent them back in so the next person who orders them doesn’t have to? I’m not really altering the original intent of the publisher, just cleaning them up a bit.

Thanks for sharing all that is on the website. I really enjoy you all sharing your knowledge and photos of your collection. This gives me something to aspire to.
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Bill Muth
Super Board Poster
Posts: 681
Joined: Sat Sep 13, 2003 11:38 pm
Location: Minnesota

Re: New Member Dave Elliott

Post by Bill Muth »

Welcome to ORCA Dave! I lived in Omaha when I started collecting about 30 years ago, it's a great collector group that is very welcoming to folks new to the hobby.
Wanted: Horton, Bristol & Meek reels, reel boxes, and catalogs!!!!
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kyreels
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Posts: 1147
Joined: Mon Feb 06, 2006 6:12 pm
Location: Louisville, Kentucky

Re: New Member Dave Elliott

Post by kyreels »

Welcome to ORCA Dave. Our club welcomes digital savvy volunteers that are willing to help out on the library. Please contact David Lehmann, librarian to discuss how to help. You can contact any member via PM or email using the Contact Link on the right hand panel of the message window.
Matt Wickham
Collector of Casting Weights, KY Reels and KY Tackle
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Midway Tommy D
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Posts: 3135
Joined: Sun Jan 20, 2013 11:23 pm
Location: Eastern NE

Re: New Member Dave Elliott

Post by Midway Tommy D »

Welcome, Dave, you're in the right place! I have a feeling Bill & I know exactly who you are talking about. :) Personally, I prefer open face spinners, but all the older reels are fun to collect, service & restore.
Love those Open Face Spinning Reels! (Especially ABU & ABU/Zebco)

Tom DeLong, NE
ORCA Member - 2027
Shellbelly
Advanced Board Poster
Posts: 246
Joined: Thu May 20, 2021 2:21 pm

Re: New Member Dave Elliott

Post by Shellbelly »

Hey Dave! I'm across the country from you, but I've bought a some reels from up there. Good folks. I'm new too. Be sure to have some fun in here. There's opportunities all over the place so dive in and don't be scared, they don't bite.
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