About

My fascination with fishing goes back to my childhood and my dad bringing home yellowtail and white seabass and halibut. I remember the reels had braided line, and the rod were made of bamboo. When I got into my late teens, I began to fish from the Jetty’s off Seal Beach, off the peers, and later went out on the barges off the coast at Seal Beach and Redondo and others… I loved to trout, bass, and catfish as well, and always found my self at Irvine Lake, Skinner, and others. As time went on and my finances allowed, I began taking the ½ and ¾ day boats out. I became an excellent party boat fisherman and knew most of the guys out there. Nothing like a greasy hamburger on a ¾ day boat, everything tastes so good out there. I eventually perfected an excellent jig fishing capability, and began “tricking out” reels for my self and others. I would drill out the side plated on 3/0’s and put 5:1 gears in, I would take jig masters and trick them out with 5:1 gears and make a drag stack with an extra set of washers which allowed for fishing 30/40lb and the washers could be serviced direct by taking off the handle and the star. Later when the Newell stuff started showing up, I went nuts and started doing reels for all my friends, 501 Penn’s with Newell 300C side plates and 5:1 gears. Extended handles for cranking jigs, all of it. I also got into True Line rods and had a very fine set of True Line TNT, D8, and others. I began wrapping rods as well and did cork tape, and 3M tape which I have never seen anyone do to this day, and began customizing shorter XXH rods for big fish. Later on after I got married to my Bette, you could find me out there fishing at least once or twice a month or more…..:0) Catalina, San Diego, Ventura, surf fish, big bass fresh water San Diego lakes (Miramar–loved that lake), Hodges and other San Diego Lakes, and of course Irvine Lake…. Later as our children grew, I often took the kids fishing at Lake Irvine for trout, wow both my kids caught a trout bigger than I ever did before they were 10 years old…..they showed me up.
My son Aaron used to watch me put reels together all the time even when he was little. I remember working on a Penn Jigmaster and I had all the guts laid out on the table, I went out hunting the following day and was unable to complete the reel and left all the parts on the table. Anyway, in the late afternoon when I got home, I remember grabbing a nice cold milk and sitting on the couch to rest and looked over and low and behold the right side reel plate was put together with all the parts. I got a big smile on my face, because I assumed my wife had decided to put the “puzzle” together. So I carefully took it apart and everything was in perfect order except the dog spring wasn’t right, even the drag washers were in properly. Well a few minutes later Bette came home with the kids and I smilingly said I guess you put this altogether for me, good job, just have the dog spring to turn around the opposite way. Well to my shock, Bette exclaimed that Aaron had put it together for me. I don’t think he was more than 4 or 5 years old at the time, I was shocked, but then ergo here we have Aaron the founder of ReelSpeed and one heck of a fisherman, and a professional at working on reels. It’s no accident; this stuff is in our blood, what’s great about it for me is that Aaron has the same pride and attention to his work with that old time work ethic that comes from the Clark/Hamby’s line of hard workers who take pride in providing superior service to their clients.
Well friends, after many years, we finally packed our California bags and came out to Castroville, Texas–a great town to live in, and I love it here!!!! We got here as soon as we could! Most of our family lives here in South Texas. Castroville is just west of San Antonio 20 minutes. Over the last few years, Aaron and I also having an engineering type mind have discussed many fishing inventions and ideas for reels. Our ardent hope now is to put some of that brainpower into actual production. Please check out or site as we already have some equipment already posted on the site.
I look forward to building relationships with my fellow Texas fishermen whether your a inshore, river, tank, or lake bass pro or just causal bass and my friends from other southern states with the same fishin bug. I will endeavor to go the extra mile. I thank you for taking the time to read my bio and Lord bless……..Cheers!