New So Cal Member

[bassmagnum]

Howdy! Ross E Mariano is the name, aka bassmagnum. That nickname was giving to me by one the crews that decked for when I was operating sport boats. I caught bass, salt and freshwater and big ones, and Tom Sellick/Magnum PI looked like me hence bassmagnum. I was born to fish and was fishing as soon as I could hold a rod. It would become my life's occupation/career. At age 12 I got my paycheck from Ed McEwen. Back then Sportfishing was considered a Recreational Occupation and pretty much unregulated and ignored. I got my 100 ton Operator's License in 1978 and ran boats based from San Diego up to boats based from CISCO landing in Oxnard with the bulk of my career being spent in the Malibu area. It was at that early some of the older guys who fished with us and were also collectors saw my interest in the tackle and started teaching me about it. I started collecting back then, primarily Penn, because that's what I fished but I have all kinds of stuff. For that matter I still fish them. As I got older the time came to start thinning things out so I started researching what I knew I had as I've a storage unit with gear I've forgotten about until I come across it. I found ORCA and periodically would come here as a guest for information. Recently I came across a couple of spinning reels that I found no information on and those that I knew who probably would have known are no longer with us. I had been communicating with a friend, Terry Battisti, who is a member here and he came up with valuable information that came from here. As a result, I'm now a member of this very knowledgeable group of people and I hope that I will be able to contribute to that knowledge not only on technical but also from the fisherman's perspective. I want to say thank you and also thank you in advance for any responses should I fail to say thank you

[john elder]

Welcome, Ross! I’m in San Diego, so share your interests. I’m anxious to hear more about your collection. We all started out in Penns before climbing the mountain, or perhaps it’s better described as falling into the abyss !

John

[bassmagnum]

Hi John! Thank you. It certainly could be described as an abyss. You get rid of one only to replace it with three

[kyreels]

Welcome! I saw your membership come through, thanks for joining ORCA as a full member. We look forward to seeing your collection and interests. There are a lot of saltwater reel folks out there. New members may want to learn to use the search features to look at older posts on their interests, as well as use the online members only area to view the Library and Reel Talk back issues.

[Richard Lodge]

Welcome to ORCA, Ross. John may think all of us started with Penns but more than a few started with old wind-up automatic fly reels and Johnson baitcasters. Not much use for saltwater reels in the Midwest where I grew up. Living on the East Coast now with the striped bass coming up the coast to Maine for the summer.
Richard

[bassmagnum]

Thank you, Matt and Richard. I may have worked on boats but I've done quite a bit of freshwater fishing as well. The days I wasn't on the ocean on was the lake in my boat fishing bass. I regularly fished bass tournaments and I do have a handful of automatic fly reels

[bassmagnum]

One thing I should've added is I'm not very active on the computer. I have never had a job where a computer was required hence my lack of computer skills. I've never had a desk job or have worked indoors. I actually have an aversion to them. I'm to old to have learned them in school and to active outdoors to take the time out to learn them

[GaryWB]

Welcome Bassmagnum,

I'm in SoCal also. Up in the Temecula area

Take care
Gary

[Bud Chaddock]

Hello. I too spent many years working on sport boats in San Pedro, San Diego and a day or two in Redondo. Filled in on Freedom on days off from working on the Wild Wave and New Hustler II. Spent many days on the Gentleman and skiffs out of Paradise cove. Also Aquarius in MALIBU. Also remember (geez I am old) catching steelhead in Malibu creek. I write for Western Outdoor news now and then. Grown up with many of the jig makers as a kid and also worked at Sea Way boat building. Fished Albacore lift pole and harpooned swordfish as well as commercial rock cod and squid. Welcome.