I only ever blew up one of my Ambassadeurs, an old red 5000. We were finishing up a night tournament. I was on a point outside the bay we had to run up into for the weigh in. Trying desperately to put one more bass in the well, as I had four good fish and one scrawny 12 incher. Chucking a chartreuse spinnerbait across this point, and here comes a very noticeable V wake like a heat seeking missile heading for my blade. It was a good muskie, probably 40 inches, but not what I wanted with only 20 minutes of fishing time left. I frantically reeled trying to get the blade back before the muskie caought up with it. She caught it right next to the boat as I tried to snatch it out of the water. She ran right under the boat with it, jammed the gears and snapped a $200.00 St. Croix rod with about 3 days of use on it. She messed up that reel so bad, there was a dent in the side plate where she destroyed the spool and torqued the shaft so bad I literally couldn't move the handle. I took the reel apart and the drie gear had about three teeth left on it. The rest of the gear spilled out on the table when I finally pried the side plate off.
