Home Forums Fishing Freshwater Super tuning a baitcaster?

I have been using old 3600 ambassadeurs for 20 years, I have shimano and revos too but I like the small round reels better especially with braid and florocarbon. I have stumbled across boca bearings. They make ceramic bearings for the spools of casting reels. I am toying around with the idea of going though all my 3600s and supertuning them with ceramic spool bearings. They are supposed to cast quit a bit further than stock bearings and are said to be smoother too. Any of you guys done the ceramic bearings in your casting reels and if so did it make them better?

Don't know about ceramic spool bearings but ...

If want to make the standard ball bearings slickery smooth use Rem Oil. There are other specialty super tune lubes but I've found Rem Oil to work really good ... almost too good. You can get some hellacious backlashes with Rem Oil.

If it's one of the really old reels that has bushings instead of ball bearings then it would be worthwhile to upgrade them.

No bushings, they all have bearings but those reels were hit and miss. I have one that I can almost cast the line off the reel with a 1/2 oz spinnerbait and another I could only get half that distance with a 3/4 oz carolina rig. They say when you change them you go from a 15 or 20 second spool freespin to 50 seconds. May have to slide another brake out!

I've had a couple small saltwater reels tuned by a fellow that posts on bloodydecks.com.......these guys are decades ahead on reel and rod tuning.

I much favor the smallest Shimano Trinidads with Allen's tuning. The lack of level wind is not the problem that many think.

I use the #12 for large lake trout and would think it to be great for muskies also.

Sounds interesting let us know how it turns out..

I remember an article from antiquity in either Fishing Facts of InFisherman about slicking up reels by applying some sort of compound and then spinning the works with a variable-speed drill.

I burned the bearings out on a couple of my Curados throwing Alabama rigs. Guy put ceramic bearings in and it really made a difference. They cast smoother and farther.

Thanks I am going to try them. We cant use alabama rigs we call them Tennessee rigs and make our own because we are only allowed to use 3 hooks. They are rather amazing.

Same thing here. We can have as many baits as we want but only three can have hooks.