Altex 3 for Orvis "medium spinning" '67 bamboo

[skep]

Thanks for all the advice on the reels. So far I've bought a couple; though neither the one specified for the rod (Orvis 150A). Both came by way of eBay. What a garage sale!

The first is an old Pflueger 648. Looks to be the right vintage/size. And with the shipping, the price came to under $15. So maybe worth picking up.

The second is a reel recomended by Ron, an Altex. The one I picked up is an older model. Frankly I would have passed it by, but Swim-jig was bidding too, so I figured it must be OK!

As it turned out, I almost got shot down at the hammer by a couple of British snipers. But my bid was $00.27 cents higher. I think I brought it in at $107.50. That seems like a lot to me for an old reel. But I've never done this old reel stuff before. And I figured if Milt was into it, and a couple of English guys wanted to repatriate the beast, it must be worth sumpin'.

We'll see. I buy these things to use.

Question, should I paint it? I imagine it's still on eBay. it's #7185229028.

Oh, the Pflueger is eBay #7185052935.

[Stu Lawson]

Your Altex sounds like a nice reel. I'm in the process of selling several myself. Your question, "Should I paint it?" has to be answered this way. If you want the reel to (possibly) look better, and you don't care about its value, then go ahead. But please know before you get out the paintbrush that you will forever destroy the reel's value as a collectible by applying the paint.

Stu Lawson

[Ron Mc]

good price on the Altex. Just to be warned, that model has no anti-reverse, so you will have to learn to hold the handle and the rod together in one hand to land a fish. But it can be done.
I fished my Altex yesterday and had a blast. I did miss a big bass when I had the anti-reverse disengaged and let it spin back a couple of licks and gave the fish slack.

[Reel Geezer]

Ron: most old geezers never used the anti-reverse on spinning reels, except to stop the line when you laid the rod down in your boat. We always back reeled when fighting a fish, just as we did with a casting reel. Most drags today are quality and you can use them when fighting a fish, but back in the 50s and 60s the drags stuttered so bad that they were useless except on a big fish. That's why there was an A-R switch on almost all spinning reels and many bait casters. This year I have upgraded my casting reels and learned I don't need an A-R button on them. However, most of my spinning reels are Cardinals and I still cinch up the drag to get a good hookset, and turn off my A-R and backreel when fighting a good fish.