How did you get started in making reels?
People always ask me how I got started making reels. It is actually a funny story. I went on my first steelhead trip of all places- to the Babine River, what an introduction. I had an 8 1/2 foot 7wt Fenwick fiberglass rod and a (you guessed it) a Pflueger Medalist fly reel. Ned rigged my rod and reel with a set of shooting heads and Cobra mono shooting line and I was off. I had only read about steelhead in books and magazines until then, and so I was really excited about going to see the fish in the flesh, hopefully in my hands.
I arrived at Bob Wickwire's old Babine River Steelhead lodge, and was introduced to some of the toughest wading and fishing I had ever experienced. The weather was unusually warm and sunny and the river was high and muddy. Sound like steelhead to you.. Not! But as luck has it and only luck was the reason I managed to hook and land my first steelhead of about 12-13 lbs. A big beautiful buck. I will never forget that fish. It was a perfect specimen of a giant rainbow trout in color and shape, just perfect. My heart was pounding high up in my throat as I tailed and revived the fish as I released it back into the river. There was an old local Canadian there that day drift fishing with eggs. He said you should keep that one Yank, no one would expect you to do any less- it's O.K. It is your first one after all and a grand one at that. But then- when I let it go he said "Ata Boy Yank" that one will pay you back for years to come. Well as I said, it was luck or maybe fate that hooked that fish as I was hooked on steelhead fly fishing for life from that point on. But it took several years of hard work after moving to Oregon to learn about the fish, to read the river and learn to fly fish for steelhead on my own until I was ever successful again. I have caught my share of steelhead though over the years, and I still love swinging flies for this wonderful fish in the Pacific Northwest.
O.K. so what does this have to do with how I got started making reels. Well as I told you about the weather being warm. It was almost hot that week on the Babine. Fishing was terrible and I had caught one of the two fish in the camp that week. So most of the time we all sat around eating and drinking and getting to know each other. There were some top notch fly fisherman in camp that week with a lot of experience. Older guys and couple of them flew in, in their own float planes. One of the guys was the late Buzz Fiorini of Seattle. He had