Home Forums Fishing Freshwater Time to retire my Ambassadeurs

I was passing through Slander Mountain yesterday and they had a whole table full of their own brand bait casters out. I want to say they were about $55.00. No idea what model, but boy, when I spun the handle, man the bearings have sure come a long ways. My old Ambassadeurs aren't nearly as smooth as the new stuff. Might be time for an upgrade.......

No doubt stuff is light and smooth today. But last year I burned out two Shimano's due to nylon gearing that did not stand up to the pounding of heavy jig fishing.

I have made a transition to Lew's for metal gearing. To get the same features in a Shimano we are at $400 plus.

Point is make sure the reels will withstand the abuse. If you go gentle on those Gander mountain reels they may last a long time.

Don't trash the Ambassadors. Google up "Boca Bearings" for an upgrade in quality and smoothness for those durable old reels.

Those low profile Lew's are very good reels. I quit my old round Abu's as soon as I palmed those low profile reels. I keep the old round Ambassador reels for cat fishing only now.

I don't work my stuff too hard these days. Most of my spring fishing is for panfish to fill the freezer, and a few walleyes here and there, a couple bass trips, maybe a fight or two with a northern. I haven't put any serious wear on my gear since I quit fishing bass tournaments.


I really liked my Ambassadeurs for the tournaments, as they just never seemed to die.

Does anybody know who makes these reels for Gander Mountain?

I'll be checking out the Lew's reels too. Ironically, somewhere in the man cave I've got two brand new still in the box Lew's baitcasters circa 1985. I won them as part of a prize package from a two man team tournament down in Ohio. Never saw any need to switch out at that time, as my Ambassadeurs were giving me no trouble.

The new Lews are very nice! I particularly like the model designed for braid. Use it a lot for heavy jig fishing.

I'm so ancient, I've never fished braid.

Bob's your Uncle on the "Boca Bearings". I regularly use 6500 Ambassadors for surf casting. I've got one of Reely Ron's 13 bearing 6500CS MAG Elites.

If you haven't heard of them, you might want to check out Akios Reels. I'm loving the 656 CSM LITE, I picked up late last year. It casts a mile. I cast it in the dark for a couple hours under a sliver of a moon two weeks ago.

What model Shimanos were they that you "burned out" the nylon gearing? Where was the nylon gearing? It certainly wasn't the main or pinion gears but if there were nylon gearing it was something like a cog gear to turn the level wind. These gears are actually designed to give and break if the worm gear gets something stuck in it, this way a $2 nylon gear goes out instead of blowing out a $20 worm gear or warping a $100 frame. Ambassadeurs also have these nylon gears to run the level winds.

Curados purchased a couple years ago....they quit. My older Chronarchs never quit.

In that price range I'll buy Lews I still have a pile of Shimanos.

Gopher, my friend, if you have never fished braid, you are nowhere near ancient. There are those of us who started out on direct-drive casting reels wound with black Dacron braid. On a five-foot steel rod. THAT is ancient.

If you could cast one of those things 50 feet and only get a monster bird's nest once in three tries, you were a real expert.

The older Shimanos are great reels, baitcasting and spinning. Chronarchs were, and are, fantastic reels.....

Several years ago I asked a reel repair man which reels he sees the least of in his business. He quickly answered "Shimano."

MM: Yeah my older Shimanos won't quit.

I'm on line buying older ones off eBay.

And new Lew's.

Never tried a Lews....

Bob, do they make their own reels instead of rebranding and what is it that makes them tick compared to other reels?

I still have a Pfleuger Supreme on a 5 ft. steel rod that my dad used up in Canada on lots of fishing trips. It's one of my prized possessions. It comes out of the man cave once a year for a trolling run with some old Creek Chub Pikie Minnows. Matters not if I never catch another fish on it, I just do it to remember Dad. A nice northern entertained me this spring. After a good fight, he won his release. I'd guess he was about 35" long. I'd like to think dad was smiling that I caught him, but madder than hell that I released him.

If you are catfishing, then a nice round C7000 C3 with braided line is all good...

Other than that low profile revo's for flippin

Great story GG!!

Those old knuckle busting Supremes were the top of the line baitcasters in their day. My Dad also had a one of them and I can remember more than once as a kid when using it a big pike seemed smash a lure when I didn't have a good hold of the handle and a strong thumb on the spool. The spool would spin and my knuckles would take the brunt of the pain inflicted by the spinning handle!

You are 100 percent right on releasing fish in those days. My Dad was not one to release fish either.

Mike I'm no reel tech...I use them, have them serviced and abuse them till they croak. I have been doing a lot if heavy jig fishing past couple of years and much of it involves heavy braid, 3/4-1 oz jigs and moving those jigs fast in deep water grass to get the needed penetration when fish burrow.

Moving rods hard with no stretch braids seems to place a lot of stress on the gearing and spools, causing them to develop slack in the system....after a season or two of this, some reels are not "tight" anymore. That kind of abuse croaked those two Shimanos after 1 1/2 seasons. The Lews OTOH held up without a whimper

Anti reverse gets sloppy. The Lews OTOH, and my OLD Shimano Chronarchs, have stood up better to the abuse dished out by braid. When I discovered this I started using my old Chronarchs which had been in moth balls.

Like I said I am also on the internet looking for those old Chronarchs. Take a look.....there is a brisk market in the older Shimanos with metal gearing.The newer Lews are built like that.

I don't know who makes the Lews,and I have not abandoned Shimanos by a long shot...it depends on the technique. But I have maybe 10 Lews right now and friends and I have been very happy with them. They are well built and stout and have been used hard. I have not had any returns of Lews for a single repair.

I keep 50-60 rods rigged and ready for each bass season. The majority use Shimano. But not all of them and the Lews are gaining a lot of favor.

Other than Shimano I don't think any of the reels companies make their own low profile reels anymore. Abu's are made in China and Korea in the same plants that make Lews, BPS, 13, etc low pro reels.

Now I see why the stress on the reels Bob. Braid is super tough on any reel, and when fishing deep with heavy jigs the stress is even greater.

How has fishing been this year on those deep fish? Our deep weedlines are just starting to grow and the fish starting to set up on them. We have gotten some nice bass so far this season.

Reelman, thanks for the information....

Mike due to some health issues this year I have not been able to fish. Hope to be back on the water by end of July.

But on my favorite lake those deep weed are starting to develop now and should be coming along stronger toward the 4th of July.

I had one of my best big fish summers last year on those weed lines using those big jigs. I also did well with heavy footballs on the rock piles down to the thermocline...maybe 23 feet is where it was forming last year.