redmeansdistortion

It's going to be shoulder with salmon fishermen, and some of them get downright crazy. I love fishing salmon and steelhead but I usually avoid the streams on the west side because of the crowds. Booze and a bunch of people yelling at each other for fishing the same hole can and does lead to fist fights. In your shoes, specifically if you're targeting bass, I'd fish up stream of the dam at the Red Bridge River Access. Down stream of the dam is also good bass fishing, but this time of the year isn't best due to the salmon crowds.

Alternatively, if you don't want to run backing line, go 4 wraps around the spool and terminate with a uni-knot. It won't slip. Even hard running Atlantic salmon never got this knot to move.

I understand where you're coming from, but the Great Lakes, particularly Huron, Erie, and Michigan are world class fisheries regardless of traffic, whether you're targeting bass, walleye, salmon, steelhead, or even sturgeon. I'm sure Ontario is as well, but I've never fished it and have no first hand experience. Any of the piers dotting those lakes are crazy good for smallmouth throughout much of the year, as well as salmon and steelhead outside of the dog days of summer. A couple of my friends moved here specifically because the fishing is so good, one is from southern Indiana and the other from Iowa. People that were born and raised in this state are often ignorant as to how good the fishing is, while visitors and transplants are greeted with an eye opening experience. My one friend from Iowa was telling me not long ago, a good day of walleye fishing there might get you a limit for a full day outing if you're lucky. You can limit out in 30 minutes or less on the St. Clair River, Detroit River, Lake Erie, or Saginaw Bay when the bite is hot. The St. Clair River delta, where it feeds into Lake St. Clair is quite possibly the best smallmouth fishery the world over. There's hundreds and even thousands of them in there at any given time, even in the shallows during the summer. I fish perch in that area often and some days I catch a lot more smallmouth than I do perch, and perch is a 25 fish limit lol.

To be fair, my wife asks me what I want for my birthday every year. So my answer was always, "I dunno? Socks and underwear?" The first few years, she took it literally and I got exactly that. A couple of years ago, she's going through the closet bagging old clothes to give away and says to me, "how'd you accumulate so many socks? You have enough underwear to survive nuclear war." So I smile, give her the look and say "most of this was birthday gifts from you", then it dawned on her that I was pulling her chain the entire time. So now she just says "I never know what to get you, but I know you're going to buy fishing stuff anyway." That's my girl!

Almost there! I'm still waiting on a Duralumin gear set to come in then I can call it done. Now here is where it gets interesting. With the Roro spool, this thing was either over braked or under braked with very little in between. For the sake of experimentation, I swapped side plates with my Millionaire CT and it was money, got the full range of braking without the all-or-nothing I was experiencing previously. When I put both magnet assemblies side by side, I noticed the magnets from the Ringa stick out about 1mm more than those in the CT, which means the inductor was further into the mag assembly giving a more aggressive braking profile. The Ringa is a Magforce Z reel, designed to throw from about 3/8 on up, and this more aggressive braking profile is better for those bigger baits, but not conducive to finesse fishing. I removed the mag assembly from my CT and put it in its new home in the Ringa, and ordered a new CT mag assembly from PLAT to get that reel back on the water. Oh yeah, this thing weighs a whole 6.7 oz now, and will shed another quarter ounce once the new aluminum main gear is in. That's a feather for a round reel. I'm going to take it out on the creek tomorrow morning. Can't wait!

A lot of you all are putting up reels that aren't sleepers, but very well known and occupy the middle price point of the $100 to $200+ range (when new). Sleeper to me means cheap, good, and reliable. With that, I'd agree with both the Revo X and President XT. The Black Max is also another worthy of mention. These are also pretty reliable reels that perform well and punch above their price point. Just goes to show you don't have to be a tackle nerd to have a nice reel.

Baitcasters, trigger goes between my pinkie and ring finger. With spinning reels, the stem of the reel foot goes between my middle finger and ring finger.

Sweet reel, always wanted one of those. The Daiwa SV105 and JDM Alphas SV105 spool is a direct swap on that one if you are looking for something different. That spool is great from about 3g on up, weighs 11g vs the 16g of the factory spool. You can clean up the salt corrosion with white vinegar, it does a knockout job. It works a lot faster than products such as Salt X. Just make sure you rinse it very, very thoroughly afterward. You can always hit the frame with some Brasso or Simichrome and a Dremel with a wool polishing pad. It won't look like new, but it'll look a lot better.

If you're gear swapping, the 7.2 gears from the Alphas SV105 are a direct swap, then the pinion shaft is a direct swap too and will let you run the 34mm Steez spools. I'm keeping the 5.8s, love them for working hard baits in the streams.

My next project, Daiwa Millionaire Ringa SSS. Bought this from one of the members here and it will soon undergo a transformation for creek fishing. The Roro spool is already on the way. Along with that, it'll have a handle from an Alphas Air Stream Custom. A driveshaft, star wheel and associated click hardware from a Millionaire CT, a drag clicker, and a Steez handle bolt to round it out.

Hard for me to pick, but so far it's my tricked out Abu 1600C IAR. Also love my tricked out ABU/Zebco Cardinal 3 My Millionaire CT probably gets used the most, lots of trout and smallies have been brought in with this guy.

Uni for braid to spool, Albright for braid to leader, improved clinch for leader to lure.

Still an unnecessary step. Just tie the correct knot and be done with it. Easy peasy.

I don't do tape or backing. 4 loops around the spool and finish with a uni, that knot isn't slipping and no tape adding unnecessary weight.

Plus the all important aspect, using sharp hooks. If your hooks can't pass the fingernail test, they should either be sharpened or replaced.

I'm usually running somewhere between 1lb and 4lb of drag, depending on line of course. Most of you would find 2lb is quite a bit if you got out a spring scale and actually measured. Improperly set/locked down drag is a bad habit that haunts bass fishermen the world over and carries over to other species unfortunately. Every so often, I'll take a newbie salmon fishing that has never chased those kinds of fish. Most of them have extensive bass fishing backgrounds. The first thing they do is immediately lock down the drag, then wonder why they keep breaking off. A raging 20lb+ king fresh off the lake will make you appreciate a nice and smooth drag.

Grease on gears, pinion yoke, driveshaft stud, and brake plate where all sliding parts go. A little grease on the pinion yoke studs as well. Oil the spool bearings, worm gear, worm bearing(s), and a drop of oil on the idler gear stud. Run the idler gear and worm cog dry.

I'm going to piggy back on this one. Yes, lots of excellent aftermarket spools available. The higher quality spools are from Roro, AMO, and Ray's Studio. Ray's spools usually have an SV style inductor, but some also come with the shorter Magforce Z style that's better for distance casting. The Roro and AMO use a fixed inductor, which is better for stream and creek fishing. In the OP's situation, I would opt for the fixed inductor found in the AMO and Roro spools. The moving inductor found on the Ray's and Daiwa factory spools takes some RPM to be effective, while the fixed inductor is always providing braking throughout the entire cast. The close range casting inherent with stream fishing lends itself better to the fixed inductor. The good news is that a moving inductor works well itself, just not as well. The smaller 30mm and 28mm spools found in the previous and current generation Daiwa Alphas do well, but their larger 32mm and 34mm cousins do not. Those small diameter spools spin up mighty fast.

That Tsu Dragon is a pretty legit rod. From a quality perspective, I'd say they're pretty neck in neck with budget offerings from Lamiglas, particularly the X11. I have the 5' casting and 6' spinning models, they're both great for what they sell for. It is a Chinese Domestic Market rod, but you do get a lot for the money. When I bought mine a couple of years ago, they were only ~$50, but have gone up in price due to the increasing popularity of BFS.

Less line means your reel isn't going to retrieve as fast as it would with a full spool, other than that, you'll be fine.

The brake plate on this guy is pretty different from the 1500/2500 reels. It shares more with the Morrum of the era than it does the former. Interestingly, the pinion bearing/bushing isn't held into the side plate by a retaining clip, but sits directly on top of the pinion gear. The pinion yoke is also very close to what's found in the Morrum. Unlike the 1500/2500, this one has a kick lever like the Morrum so the spool is engaged the instant you turn the handle. The 1500/2500 will have one or two posts at the base of the driveshaft to re-engage the spool, so you're either doing a half turn or a full turn of the handle. Avail makes a 4 post driveshaft that requires only a quarter turn to get the spool moving.

That was a once in a lifetime score on my end. The seller was a lady in the middle of nowhere Indiana. I inquired about it, and she said she didn't ship. Bummer. A few weeks later, I'm browsing listings and still see it up, so I ask her again if she would ship. She says maybe, but she will check with her husband first. Later in the day I got a message saying she would ship and it was a done deal. I've always wanted a 1500C/2500C, and thought the 1600C/2600C were too far beyond my reach seeing as most of them go for $400+ depending on condition and if the box and various literature are included. These reels were made only 3 years, 1998 to 2000 right before Pure Fishing assumed full control over Abu Garcia. Mine is a 1999 model, one of 470 made that year.

I haven't tried less than 2g so far, but I can't think of any baits I regularly fish that are that light. 2g works great, I can rip it good and get some good distance, plus pitching in the creeks is a dream as well. Now I know why these reels are so well loved and consistently sell for increasingly high prices as time goes on.

Interesting, are you using the deeper Avail spool cap? Here's mine, using an Avail AMB1520R, Hedgehog Air bearings, 6.1:1 gears, Avail pinion bearing, Avail ported idler gear, Avail double bearing level wind, Avail line guide, carbon drag, and a Simon Shimomura handle in the 'Rock' color. I was looking for one of those Haneda Craft handles like you have but they appear to be sold out everywhere in the 70mm I was looking for.

I've fished this reel a lot lately, more than the rest in my collection. So why have I fallen in love you may ask? Why fall in love with an old, outdated model when I can surely have a better experience with something new and state of the art? Please follow along below. A little background, I'm an 'old' guy. Well not old, more like middle-aged. Back in the day, I grew up fishing Ambassadeurs and still used them predominantly up until maybe 5 years ago. They were never the bleeding edge, but they always worked, and worked well within their confinements. The Ambassadeur has always relied on simplicity first and foremost, and with that simplicity comes a whole world of tuning and upgrade options. Even to this day, it's the most bare bones reel you can still buy new. Simplicity in construction also means simplicity in operation. To those not in the know, it's probably the easiest reel there is to set up. Where people fail is asking too much of it from the beginning instead of learning it, much like any other. Heavy? Yes. Slow? Indeed. Primitive braking? Yup. Even though this particular example is more than double the weight of something like an Aldebaran BFS, the weight does play to your benefit. How? Easy, it balances out a combo much better. A balanced combo, even if on the heavy side, will be less fatiguing to fish than a lighter more tip-heavy combo. Like many, I appreciate the weight savings inherent in the newest reels, but at the same time, those featherweight reels can make for a tip-heavy combo. The only way to balance out a tip-heavy combo is to add weight at the end of the rod butt which may involve a little surgery on behalf of the owner. As far as speed is concerned, these are very slow reels bringing in 16" per turn in the 4.7:1 gears and 18" per turn in the 5.3:1. They can be sped up with a set of 6.1:1 gears which brings them in line with modern 6:1 reels, about 23" per turn. On the braking end of things, this guy relies on the antiquated, but tried and true centrifugal braking system, but also the "other" friction brake, the spool tension knob. In recent years, it has become frowned upon to use the spool tension for braking purposes. If one can put aside all of the dubious claims competing manufacturers say about using the tension knob to control the spool, you will find it's a quite basic, yet highly effective braking system. The best part? It's infinitely variable and provides a higher degree of control than a stepped magnetic brake like found in more modern reels. Micro adjustments can be made to get the spool to behave exactly how you want. Furthermore, there is an index ring surrounding the knob so that it's simple to tell how much tension (brake) you are applying. It's simple and works exactly as it was intended. It's a very much overlooked braking system by today's standards, and was found across almost all makes and models at one point. These days it's only Abu and Akios using them in their reels. So how does this guy cast. you may be wondering? It's awesome! Getting deeper into it, I can run my spool tension wide open and rely on the centrifugal brake when fishing lakes or other wide open spaces and maximize my distance. When it comes to pitching in an overgrown creek, I like to apply just a tiny bit of spool tension so I can keep the spool controlled making those in-close casts. Mag brakes are made for Ambassadeurs by companies like AMO and Avail, but none of them are externally adjustable and too fiddly on the water as the reel needs to be partially disassembled to adjust. The spool tension brake is as simple as it gets. In closing, these are incredibly well engineered reels. They don't have the fine tolerances of the more contemporary Japanese made round reels like the Calcutta Conquest and Millionaire, but those looser tolerances mean it takes a lot more crud to bind them up. The Ambassadeur is still the golden standard reel to a degree, and its DNA is in every baitcaster on the shelf today. The centrifugal brake, free spool clutch, thumb bar, and multi-disc drag were all patents held by ABU until the 1970s. When those expired, they chose not to renew them, opening the door for other manufacturers to use the same basic design, which is still used in every competing reel. If anybody has been on the fence about these, you should at least try. Yes, they can be expensive, but if you look in places outside of eBay, there are still deals to be had. My 1600C IAR set me back $100, considerably less than an eBay reel. A friend of mine who collects reels, finds 2500Cs frequently at garage sales and estate sales at near giveaway prices. Patience can pay off. Chances are, being a BFS fisherman, you will need to spend money on parts like a ported idler, spool, bearings, worm gear, and line guide, but those add to the value of the reel. Worst case is you break even should you decide to sell it, and at best you will make a profit. With that said, eBay reels are a bit much from the get-go making any savings near non-existent. Put in the legwork and you just might be nicely rewarded.