Josh Smith

Was it any good?

Hi Guys, Been looking at the older Shimano reels as I think they might just complement my Ambassadeurs nicely. I've been wanting a reel for cranking, too, and have been deciding between a '70s 5500 or buying something else. Mostly, though, I put the bid in for $22.50 because I figured it would be cool if I won two reels for that price, and I'll be danged if I didn't. I figure I'll clean 'em up, service them, and see what happens. The rods are shipping with them, too, so the shipping cost of $15 ups the price to a little less than $40, but still a deal, I think. What can you all tell me about these reels before they get here? Thanks, Josh

Lift, reel. Lift, reel. Lift, reel. I've horsed 'em in when I had to, you know, out of thick cover, and this is one reason I prefer Ambassadeurs. They can handle it. The 4.7:1 and 5.3:1 (21ipt and 26ipt) ratios work best for this. However, for general open-water, there's no real advantage, and with treble hooks, you don't want all that much torque. When I river fish, I have not noticed any difference between 21ipt, 26ipt, and 31ipt when fighting the fish. I have time to let the rod do the work, and I frankly very rarely feel the reel handle in any conscious manner. I kinda' doubt I'd feel a 100ipt reel handle during a fight, though. Regards, Josh

Let us know how you like these. I have been debating on getting one. Regards, Josh

Thank you all, gents. I'll take it apart and look at it. Between Dad and I (mostly Dad!) we have several retired/broken spinning reels I'm sure I can part out. Will see today what's in it. Just in case, do you have the Shimano part number, Smallie Mike? Thanks again! Josh

Hello, I use a little Pflueger President reel for my UL spinning setup: As you can see, the line tapers on the spool. This is about as full as I can get it before it begins overrunning the rear of the spool. The drag is tight, and does get slightly worse when I loosen the drag. I've never seen any other spinning reel do this. Is this an intentional thing by Pflueger? Is there a spacer in there that's too thick, or something? I'm not a spinning reel guy and use this out of necessity for really light lures; I'm not well-versed in spinning reel construction or maintenance. That taper bothers me. Any insight would be appreciated. Regards, Josh

Hi Guys, Thank you. Before I started playing with palming the reel, I fished with two fingers in front of the trigger with my thumb on top of the reel, in a semi-palmed position. It's what was comfortable for me. This time around, after my time off, I've found that palming 4600 and 5500 Ambassadeurs is about perfect for my shovel-sized hands, so I do. Vance, my son, just wants to emulate me. I did pick up a little Lew's baitcaster sometime back; it was supposed to be used for panfish, I think, similar to the BB1 but much smaller. It's his size, but it wouldn't hold up and even I have trouble casting with it. I think I'll work on encouraging Vance to find his own way to hold it. I emulated my dad a lot, but also had to work out my own salvation. Same will be true for Vance. Regards, Josh

Hi Folks, I wonder if anyone has any suggestions for "palmable" baitcaster sizes for an 8-year-old boy. He's ready and does well enough with the one I gave him to practice with, but it's too large for him to palm. Thank you, Josh

Iodine worked!

I repeated using 5 drops in a mouthful of water. I gargled for 60 seconds and spat. We'll see. The first time this looks bad, I'm going to the doc for antibiotics. Still, I'd like this to work, and it seems like it wants to. Lots of the old techniques are forgotten, as are doses etc. Regards, Josh

Hello, I've played with cheap tablets, the Chinese versions, generally Allwinner. They work OK. The charging systems break in 6mos to a year, but they do work for as long as they charge. The problem is bloatware and spyware. I unlocked/jail broke/gained administrator privileges on one to get rid of that crap. I followed it all the way down into the root directory. When I deleted them from the root directory, the tablet stopped working. Let me phrase that a different way: Spyware/Adware is part of the operating system of some (most?) of these cheap tablets, and cannot be erased without bricking the device. That would be like Windows running a Trojan SAM in its root directory, with the file being required to run. To make it more fun, the Android version was altered just enough to run on this hardware that no other version I could find would run. Cheap tablets might work well, but there's a mighty big tradeoff. I'm personally looking at the Samsung models. Josh

Update: Some pain is back, but it's only the deeper pain. There is no surface pain as is normally associated with a sore throat, and to locate the source, I tried a benzocaine lozenge. It didn't help, so it's deeper in the tissue, possibly viral. I'll give it 24 hours and then repeat the dose. Regards, Josh

Naw... The poison is in the dose.

Hi All, Years ago I asked a question about old time remedies, what folks did before the widespread use of antibiotics. One answer was that parents painted the throats of kids with iodine. One member I highly respect on the forum on which I asked suggested that I make sure I'm not sensitive to iodine should I be inclined to try this, so I began by using iodine water purification tablets, then straight iodine to purify the water. Seems I'm not sensitive. Since a lot of the time iodine tincture is made with wood alcohol, I've been wary of using it internally. Recently I found "Lugol's Solution". It's not a name brand. Rather, it's a type of solution, not a tincture, and can be had in many different brands. The ingredients on the one I ordered are distilled water, 94%, potassium iodide, 4%, and iodine, 2%. I've had a sore throat for a few days, so I took the opportunity to use this stuff to paint my tonsils. Just a drop on a Q-Tip on each tonsil, nothing radical. I guess we'll see what happens. An hour later I'm not experiencing any reactions, so I'm hopeful. Will report back any delayed side effects, as well as the ultimate results. Regards, Josh

I got a bad batch of 832 fairly recently. The stuff had memory like cheap mono. I heard mixed reviews of Power Pro, but I bought some 65lb stuff to use in salad, and I love it! Anyone can have a bad run, I guess. Josh

Hello, First, what year is it? Is it an old-style or a new UltraCast model? Is the tension knob on the side opposite the reel handle, or same side? Start by cleaning it. I've seen gunk keep these from releasing, but it really has to be gunked up. Otherwise, it's going to be the release arm like Tim Kelly said, or if it's an older model, one of the dual release arms, though I've never seen one of those worn out. I'll watch this thread. Regards, Josh

Hi Folks, I'm seeing a lot of people having problems searching for things here since the switch, because the search is still indexing. If you need to find something, follow these steps: 1. Go to http://google.com . 2. Type in site:http://www.bassresource.com/bass-fishing-forums 3. After you enter the site parameters, type in what you're actually looking for. For example, if I wanted to pull up all posts referencing the Abu Garcia Ambassadeur, I'd type in site:http://www.bassresource.com/bass-fishing-forums Abu Garcia Ambassadeur . I use this technique on about half my searches anyway. It's helpful for pinpointing certain specific things, and it will work now for those who need to search. Regards, Josh

OK, so it's like gunshop talk. Gotcha!

Glenn, I was finally able to use the mobile version. It does not work well for me. Keep in mind that I run a Blackberry 8320 and Opera browser, not Android. It's old technology. I have thought of upgrading and may do so. Last time I went to upgrade, I couldn't find an Android phone with physical QWERTY keyboard. I don't expect much from this meshing of technology, and I don't get much. The icons for View New Content, Like, and a few others are just small black boxes, leaving me to guess what they might be. Others options are entirely absent. I'm not complaining -- like I said, old technology -- but this might give you an idea as to what a few others might be seeing if they're not running newer phones with Android. Regards, Josh

I like it, Glenn. There are a couple things I might change, but that's only because I'm used to vBulletin. Good job. Regards, Josh

Why do you say this? There are not a heck of a lot of docks around here, but I have this mental image of folks hanging out on a pier chewing the fat and fishing. I guess, what is dock talk? And why is it unreliable? Josh

Anyone here use LPs? Those are my first choices, with FLAC a close second, especially as storage space gets cheaper. Josh

What, if any, trailer? Josh

Slowly retrieved squarebills are what's working for me for both bass and walleye. I want jerkbaits to work, but so far nothing on those! Josh

Feller, those folks have trolled the hell outta' the forum, so we don't even say their name. Naming 'em calls the Google Bots in to take a look, among other things. I may have tried them by now, but dammit, if they troll, it's a character defect which speaks of a lack of integrity, and I will do no business with folks like that. Josh