Fishing Abilities is a small organization (only 3 people) and have done a lot with very little. We invented an electric reel which allows a person with one arm/hand to operate. We just started selling on May 1, 2011 and it has already helped people in 10 different states, Canada and Australia to be able to fish again when they never thought they would be able to. We have done this with no advertising, just a few YouTube videos and a website, if we can get a little more assistance the sky is the limit as to how many more people we can help!

We decided to go non-profit in order to keep our cost as low as possible and all of us are just volunteering our time. Our payment is hearing the stories from people who have purchased our reel, such as one from a gentleman in Arkansas who bought a reel for his brother who had a stroke a couple years ago, his brother who used to love to fish didn't even want to leave the house after he had a stroke. When he took his brother out fishing for the first time they both had tears in their eyes when he caught his first fish. His brother told him "I never thought I would be able to catch another fish."

Our goal is to help anyone who wants to fish regardless of their disability or financial situation. We are also looking for monetary donations to help us accomplish this.

How did Fishing Abilities start? My name is Dan Badur and I am the president of Fishing Abilities Inc. I have loved to fish ever since I was old enough to hold a pole and at the age of 15 (31 years ago) I fell out of a tree and broke my neck thus becoming a quadriplegic. My love for fishing remained, I just had to find a new way to do it. I found an electric fishing reel, modified the button where I could push it with my head & my brother made a rod holder that mounted to my wheelchair, once again I was able to fish. Over the years many things have been modified by several different friends, such as speed control for the reel and a new rod holder that allowed me to set the hook and the latest modification was adding a twitch to the rod holder in order to work the artificial baits better. My friend and business partner Ken Stelmaszek added the twitch for me and then suggested we duplicate my fishing system in order to help other people like me fish once again, thus began Fishing Abilities Inc.

We have several ideas on new equipment that we want to make to assist even more people and will get to them eventually, but with some help we could get to them sooner and not keep people waiting and wondering if they could ever fish again.