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.

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.

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

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.

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.

JDK you getting lots of big muskies?

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

Nice....pics?

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!

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.

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.

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.

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!

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

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.