I was surprised at all the comments regarding Mike's. I was given their name by the folks at Highwater.
Mike's has provided excellent service on 7 reels of mine this past year. I just sent him 6 more reels to service.
Where are all these reels coming from?
My brother is starting to suffer from the more unpleasant parts of Alzheimer's and has been sending me his fishing tackle as well as that of our dad (d. 1974). All of the reels needed cleaning and servicing and Mike's has done a great job on every one. Two reels of my dad's(still in the original boxes with manuals and bills of sale ) Gillian at Highwater told me never to fish with as they are too valuable in OEM form and I promised to bring them back to show her dad once everyone is vaccinated.
When I get the reels back I take them to Highwater and have new line and backing (where applicable) put on them.
I am not sure what I am going to do with these extra 13 reels probably put them in wall case.
My brother was a great fly fisher (he had a lease on the Miramichi River), and had I learned fished everywhere.
I never knew how much he fished as he was pretty low key about it but it all came out when were in NYC and I wanted to get fitted on a try gun so we went to Holland & Holland.
https://www.hollandandholland.com/
The store is now closed (it was on Park Avenue) with only a Dallas Store left outside of London.
We were dressed like two Canadian guys would be in January and when we went into H&H we were rebuffed by the first staff member who greeted us. This doofus was trying to tell me they didn't have guns at H&H, I figured it was hopeless and saw my brother coming over to me with a huge grin, he drags me back to the fishing counter where they have these photos on the wall of guys fishing. Jim starts to tell me he know most of these guys and starts to tell me where he met them fishing. This guy and I were on Baffin Island, I met these guys in Scotland...etc. etc he is going on and on.
Now a different guy comes up to us and asks if he can help us. I tell him no, I want to see if I could get fitted on their try gun because I shoot left and have 38.5 inch arms but I had been surprised to learn from their staff that they didn't carry guns and I was just collecting my brother who had I just learned knew and had fished with half the guys on the wall,
The new guy says "who told you we didn't have guns?"
I point to the snotty guy, and this fellow says come with me please, "If you have some time?"
We get into a private elevator and go to the Gun Library where he pours us each a scotch (it is just after 10) and proceeds to show us (once we wash our hands and put on white cotton gloves a gun collection they just bought of Col somebody's H&H guns. I held a 6 gauge double barreled Tiger rifle and a lot of amazing Drillings . The new fellow was the manager.
I told him that I needed some guns restocked to fit me and that I couldn't afford one of their guns but wondered if I could pay for a fitting as my gunsmith in BC wasn't comfortable fitting me because of my freakishly long arms and being a lefty to boot.
He told me they couldn't do it but to go to the Berretta Gallery
https://www.beretta.com/en/new-york-gallery-/
on Madison Ave and give his card to a certain person and ask him if he can help you, (He said he was pretty sure the fellow would help me because he was starting work next week at H&H.)
I said how much will it cost and he said give him what you think is fair (cash). I did and the guys at Italian sporting goods restocked a shotgun and rifle for me.
