A couple reels, a short story, and some thanks..

DanteV · June 05, 2014, 01:27:51 AM

Back a few years I picked up a couple used TLD-15's from a fishing buddy, Dan Waddell, who passed away from cancer not more than a year or two ago. Some of you may have known him as Ghetto Booty.

He was 43 and had 3 young ones.

When I was doing maintenance on them for an upcoming tuna trip in August, I was reminded again of him and the times we spent together. I'll fish this reel till the sticker falls off.

Which brings me round to the true point of this post.. when I popped em open I found this:

So I rang up SmoothDrag and ordered up a couple new drag washers.

Dan would want it no other way.

Thanks to SmoothDrag for a super smooth transaction, thanks to Alan for inspiring me to tear me reels apart, and thanks to Dan for the reels and the memories.

RIP my brother.

anglingarchitect · June 05, 2014, 01:41:30 AM

Nice tribute.

Dominick · June 05, 2014, 02:07:08 AM

Another example that we never die until the last person who knew our name dies. Everyone I've ever known lives in my memory. Thanks for sharing your memories of your friend. Dominick

Shark Hunter · June 05, 2014, 02:28:40 AM

Fish On Ghetto Booty!

He lives on through you. Thanks for Sharing. Rest in peace Dan!

floating doc · June 05, 2014, 04:00:57 AM

Great tribute to your friend. Thanks for including his picture, too.

alantani · June 05, 2014, 04:13:42 AM

yeah, he was a good friend of mine as well. when he got cancer, he withdrew from fishing and concentrated on his family and his health. he left behind a wife and three little kids. one of the saddest things was that he deleted all of his posts from his fishing site. i wish that they would have been archived somewhere. it would have given his children a chance to know their father better.

crackerman · June 05, 2014, 05:44:36 PM

What was his website? There is a waybackmachine webpage that can look em up i believe.

DanteV · June 07, 2014, 03:27:03 PM

The reports and pics Alan spoke of were at Fullspeedfishing.com but he also ran a site fatbait.com if I'm not mistaken. A great profile of him can be found at BD http://www.bdoutdoors.com/forums/threads/meet-m-o-w-35-ghetto-booty.5275/

DanteV · June 08, 2014, 02:05:48 AM

Just got the drag washers from SmoothDrag.. wow that was fast!

My toolbox allows me to be portable and I'll be bringing it on our 4 day in August.

Washers fit great!

Lubed em up and slapped em back together in record time!

Now all my reels are done. Now what am I gonna do to keep my mind off tuna till August??