I have just joined after coming across your wonderful forums and I am excited to be here, I have always loved angling and everything that goes along with it, but my experience is limited in recent years due to the commitments of my life. I am very eager to ask questions, get answers, learn and share what I do with you all as from everything I have read so far as I browsed its a very welcoming community.
As for a bit about me, my name is Isaac and I am 24 living in Perth, Western Australia. I study at university and am about to complete degrees in both psychology and criminology. I have just recently proposed to my girlfriend (or, fiance now I guess!) and she has as much of a love for the outdoors and things in it as I do. On a more sombre note, just the other day my father passed away (47 years old) and that is what really prompted me to join your community. He was above all else an outdoorsman and he loved fishing and taught us all about it, and it hit me that I needed a way to really reconnect with him to move on so I decided to dedicate myself and my upcoming holidays to getting properly into angling again and the learning that goes along with it. More specifically, I have an interest in a more traditional style rather than what I was often exposed to when it comes to fishing. My family would often go out on the boat and would have multiple modern rods on the go in holders, draglines, that sort of thing and it felt absolutely skillless in all honestly - there was no heart to it, or respect. I prefer to use a simpler and older kit and find a river somewhere quiet and appreciate what I am doing and where I am.
I am as far away from educated or artisan when it comes to this topic so I am extra grateful for being accepted as I don't yet feel like I have much to add to the community. But if you will all entertain me for a while, I am eager to learn something new and maybe find something meaningful to help rebuild my life after recent events.
As a starting point, I wanted to share these reels with you which have been in my family for some time. They were in extremely poor condition as my father let their care go a bit, but I have restored them myself to what you can see now - I don't know much about them, and would love to know their make possibly, as well as maybe some recommendations on cane rods they could be paired with and if they are fly reels, or whatnot - as I said, don't know much about it!
(Photos are front & back)
) and welcome.