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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.


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gopher if you're gonna blow up a reel I guess thats a good way!




The 280 Remington is overbore.

The 7 Rem Mag is over bore.
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Just back from 3 days of muskie fishing. Lots o miles and lots o fish in the boat with the old 6500Cs and they never missed a beat. That is with 65 pound braid and 100 pound leaders.

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As was usually the case, I had the drag locked down tight. We never wanted to fight the fish, as they weren't making me any money if they were in the water. Not really conducive to fighting muskie. I should have contact Abu Garcia to see if they were interested in seeing what happened to one of their pieces of equipment. Literally the only thing I could salvage off the reel was the handle. Heck, the reel seat was even twisted.


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JDK you getting lots of big muskies?




The 280 Remington is overbore.

The 7 Rem Mag is over bore.
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Originally Posted by BobinNH
JDK you getting lots of big muskies?


No big ones yet but a lot of 8-12 pounders. Unreal numbers wink

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Nice....pics? grin




The 280 Remington is overbore.

The 7 Rem Mag is over bore.
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I've repaired over 10,000 ambassador reels and other than an issue they had with the 6.3 gears when they came out with the C4 series I can count the number of main gears I've had go bad on my two hands. In truth the gears just don't take much abuse as that's what the drag is for and even when "locked down" it should still give before anything else breaks and for the gears to go the anti reverse would have to break first. And if the anti reverse breaks you have a mess on your hands!

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Baitcasters are a cluster of great and junk all in the same price range. I use the old ambassaduer 1600s and 3600s, love them. I get them off ebay and hotrod them. I used to use the old green shimano curados but when they changed them i said screw it. I bought 3 ot 4 revos and loved them utill they changed them too. Now I just use a combo of 1600/3600 Abus, revos and I bought a lews last year. I like the lews just fine.

As far as shimano goes I think they went to $hit when they changed the old curados about the same time they changed their spinning reels that I was a huge fan of. Thats all I would use for years. Since then I havd bought a symetre, a saros and a stradic and the only one still smooth and functioning well is the saros. Im done with shimano cause im not paying 250 bucks for a spinning reel that a 99 dollar pflueger supreme can out preform for less money and longer. Screw shimano.

Last edited by seal_billy; 06/24/16.

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If your Ambassadors are Swedish made I will purchase. I own many reels & while s few might cast a bit farther the Swedish Ambassadors were & are great reels. I have 2 0f the 2500C reels & they are some of the best light casting reels ever made. I gave away many of the old red Ambassador reels when the multi-bearing models came out. Own a number of 5000C's that are good all around casting reels. A friend just gave me a reworked red Ambassador 5000 & its a great reel. The 6500 is still a great reel for cats & stripers in southern lakes & rivers. I even have a 5000D(no drag when you hold reel handles) that's great for flipping & a 5000 that was made in the US.


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When I replaced my old 550o's some years ago; I bought Revo Inshores and have been pleased/ I like being able to go from fresh to salt water with the same reels.

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Another vote for the LEWS speed spool low profile reels.

I use two of them with 30# Power Pro braid for just about everything steelhead....

I really enjoy tossing spoons for steelies and caught a pretty nice chinook this summer while doing so.

After spending some time in my boat running the LEWS, folks want to know where to buy and how much!


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So far so good. Have not been able to kill one yet and I use mine a lot.



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The 280 Remington is overbore.

The 7 Rem Mag is over bore.
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The only casting reels I use are my original BB1 Lew's Speed Spoon bought in the 70s, and an arsenal of five Swedish made Ambassador 5500s, one 6500, and a 4500 that is now mounted above the spear hole as a decoy hanger in my dark house.

I can still get parts for my reels when needed, but despite heavy use, I have had very few problems with a few of them, and no problems with most of them.

My old glass Fenwick Lunker Stick casting rod is complete with braid for casting my beloved Bass-O-Reno plugs. I still catch everything on that setup, including pike, muskie, walleye, largemouth and smallmouth bass.

My brother has all the new stuff, and while it seems very nice, I resist change when it comes to my memories and sporting equipment that continues to work. He certainly doesn't catch more fish than me.

One type of older reel I have a love/hate relationship with are the old Mitchell spinning reels. They are very nostalgic for me but the line has a tendency to get under the spool once in awhile. These are used now for simple vertical jig/bait fishing right alongside the boat for walleye and panfish.

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Steel rod? My Mom bought my Dad one of those back in the late 40's I believe as a birthday gift. It's still out in my Mom's garage, I'll have to take a look at it sometime.

As for Muskies going after a lure, most people new to Musky fishing are so surprised at what's happening, they stop reeling to watch and the Musky looses interest. The correct technique is to reel as fast as you can when you have a Musky following your lure. If you think about it, in nature a fish being attacked isn't going to slow down, it's going to try and swim away as fast as it can. My Son had a Musky follow up in Canada. Being young and with fast reflexes he had that fish coming in so fast it rammed the side of the boat.

As for favorite reels, I like the older Quantum Tour series. Available in 6.3 to 1 or 7 to 1 retrieve ratios, they're the best casting reel I've ever used. I buy the older blue colored ones on Ebay or Craigslist for $100 to $150 depending on condition. Original list price was $279.

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I have had a few of the steel rods laying around after my grandparents moved and I was given some of my grandfather's old fishing equipment. I never used them. They were kind of short and had only a few line guides.

Walt, (or anyone else) have you done "figure eights" along side the boat after a muskie follow? I have hooked few that way. One of my friend's brother did a few of these at the end of every cast, which accounted for a few hook-ups on muskies that he had not seen following his lure.

At that time we were fishing a lot of Mepps Giant Killer in-line spinners with the silver spinner/black skirt. Our muskie fishing at that time was done on Lake of the Woods Whitefish bay and Sabaskong bay, and later Lac Suel.

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I haven't, but my Son has hooked fish on the figure eight. Well actually he doesn't do a figure eight, he just goes in a big oval pattern. His feeling, along with some other fisherman, is that the figure eight slows down too much in the turns, thus the big oval pattern to keep the lure moving at a constant rate.

I caught my first Musky years ago on a Mepps Giant Killer fishing with a guy I worked with who claimed to be a big time Musky fisherman. He was using pool cue like rods with absolutely no action whatsoever and couldn't cast a lure beyond 10 feet. I snapped the Mepps onto a rod I had built with a fairly fast action and could cast it quite some distance. So after years of trying, he had to watch me catch a Musky, something I'd never even bothered with at that time.

These days, my favorite buck tail is a Vibrax Musky Buck. Something about the bell and gearing at the front of the lure that emits a vibration seems to work. In clear Canadian water, natural colors work best for me, like brown, black and brass with just a touch of orange somewhere on the lure are what I reach for. For slow trolling, the absolute best lure for me is a gold and orange Suick. It hammers northerns and Muskies equally well but you have to keep working it, pulling forward with your rod then letting it slide back to get that dive - float - dive action.

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Good idea on the "oval" versus the old figure eight.

We mixed in the Suicks (always black).

Our go-to jerk bait was the Reef Hawg, which wags side to side on each pull.

We never tried trolling with jerk baits. That sounds like it would work pretty well.

We used the big Bagleys plugs for trolling occasionally.

Speaking of pool cue rods, my first muskie rod was a Fenwick with that "action." I still have it, but will never use it again.

Speaking of other techniques…we used to night fish the shallows with the large Black Jitterbugs on the Man chain of lakes in the Hakensack area south of Bemidji.

Last edited by cabindweller; 01/07/17.
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