Thursday Review: The ORCA Reel News for April 2013

The mail brought the most pleasant surprise: the latest issue of ORCA's Reel News for April 2013. As the official organ of my favorite organization, ORCA, it is always the magazine I am most looking forward to. And this one did not disappoint.

However, it is with a huge measure of sadness that I greet this new issue. This is because my good friend Robert A. "Bob" Miller, the legendary Pflueger Pfacts columnist, has filed his final column. After 14 years, Bob has retired from regular column writing, although he promises to pen some occasional witty pieces for which he is famous. It's a bit of a sad day, but I do have hopes that one day Pflueger Pfacts will be revived…

I also love this issue because one of my articles, "A Tale of Two Reels: Primo Livenais, the Dalmo Featherwate, and the Forgotten Tournament Surf Casting Reels of Walter E. Murad" appears in it. This article was ten years in the making, and was begun with my late friend Harvey Garrison, who has been on my mind of late. I also did a short Reels of the Trade article on Danielson Co. trade reels.

Other articles include Mike Cass' piece on colored Penn reels, Bob Douglas on JVH B Ocean reels, Ben Wright on Ambidex reels, Mike Farrier on the Underreel Controversy, and of course, Jim Schottenham on the auctions of the past two months.

It's a great issue. Richard Lodge is the capable editor of the Reel News.

-- Dr. Todd