redmeansdistortion

You'd be well served by either, they're both excellent reels at their price points. I went with a couple of Fuegos because I'm a cheapskate to some degree.

I'd say the Fuego CT is rated perfectly. Not over, not under, just right. What a bargain for what you get, especially when you can find them on eBay and Amazon for $75-ish.

The longest lived reel I've ever owned was a 30 size Shakespeare I got as part of a combo with a 6' M rod sometime in the early 90s. I think the combo ran something like $40 at the time. That was my main fishing rig for a good 5 years then I started making my own money and went higher up the food chain. That combo went overboard while fishing a canal in Lake St Clair about 20 years back.

Will do. We don't get Koke rods on the shelves because those fish are non existent here. The Michigan DNR stocked them back in the 70s but could never get them to establish a population in our waterways. I do have a couple of Okuma SST Kokanee rods I use for casting lures for trout and the taper on both of them is great and they have excellent backbone. The 7' L 1/8-3/4 SST spinner I own behaves more like a 1/16-1/4 when casting. It has a softer tip than the Okuma SST ultralight trout spinning rod which is rated for 1/8-3/8.

Most Lamiglas offerings over the $150 price point are USA made with a lifetime warranty. They're typically known for their salmon and steelhead rods, but they also have a nice selection of bass, walleye, inshore, and surf rods. https://www.lamiglas.com/collections/si-bass-series

I should have this rod Friday, ordered from Sportsman's Warehouse for $59.99. https://www.amazon.com/Lamiglas-Graphite-Freshwater-Casting-7-Feet/dp/B00CO91IF6 It's a Lamiglas X11 7' UL baitcasting rod. Lamiglas markets it to trout and panfish guys as well as those who troll for Kokanee salmon. I'm going to pair it with a Daiwa Fuego CT with a Ray's Studio spool and use it for stream trout and panfish. Should make a nice combo as Lamiglas makes a nice stick. I have a few other Lamiglas X11 rods I use for salmon and steelhead and find them nearly unbeatable in the under $100 category.

The worst for me are those that have seen extensive saltwater use. If you ever encounter one, a good soaking in vinegar will remove most of the salt residue and leave decals intact. It isn't often I encounter saltwater reels due to where I live, but I do get them from time to time as some of my charter customers buy used reels on eBay and send them my way.

In the northern part of my state, there are countless small creeks everywhere and many have some excellent trout fishing. I've pulled nice brookies out of creeks that were merely just feet across.

That's the truth. I used to have dozens of excellent mom and pop stores in my area and they've slowly closed their doors since online shopping became prominent. The few that are still around now have largely empty shelves and seem to make most of their money off of live bait.

I measured the spool itself, not the opening. I had an XT beforehand I could pull the measurements from.

The older ones were about 25" per turn, it went up recently when Abu switched to the higher capacity spools.

The 6.3 Fuego brings in the same amount of line per turn as a 5.3 Ambassadeur, about 26".

I just sold a few of my Ambassadeurs and replaced them with Fuegos. I got one each in the 6.3, 7.3, and 8.1 ratios. I still have plenty of cash left from the sale of my Abus so now I may go rod shopping next. Am I turning into a Daiwa fanboy?

Does anybody have an idea which of the DIY spools fit this reel? Most of what I'm seeing out there is for Daiwa and Abu reels. To make a long story short, I bought this reel off of Craigslist but it is missing the spool and everything else is intact, paid a cool $15 for it. I do have a President XT already and when I measured the spool shaft it shows 58mm, but the spools I see for the other Pure Fishing budget offerings run around 65mm in length. I'm sure this reel is a just another clone from a SE Asian manufacturer and I can't find which other reels are like it. The President XT is made in China, so that rules out the Doyo and Dawon style reels. Any advice?

I only boat flip panfish, everything else is either netted or I reach in the water and grab it if I have no net.

Why not some cheap mono? You can get a 1700yd spool of 8lb Berkley Big Game for less than $10 at Walmart. It's also a pretty decent line for general purpose.

C'mon down state, open water down my way

I usually work on my own reels in the spring. When winter is in full swing, I have charters that send me their reels to refresh before April comes around. I just started repairing reels under a business name less than a year ago and I'm already way overbooked. Hard to do when you also have a day job to tend to. I pretty much wrench on reels from 6pm to 11pm every night and most of the day Saturday. Sunday is my day of rest, or if the weather is descent, I go fishing.

I was considering purchasing the Fuego a year back or so but didn't because I already have a big stable of reels. I also considered the Tatula but since I use a leader most of the time, passed on it because I've read some have issues with the T-wing having difficulty passing a leader knot. I typically run 6ft or more worth of leader.

Some eBay seller had a pair of brand new in the box Fuego CTs in the 7.3 and 8.1 ratios for $130 OBO shipped. Looking at his selling history, he seems to sell a bunch of random stuff, no fishing tackle except for those Fuegos. I threw him an offer of $80 and he accepted, they'll be here tomorrow. I don't need them, but I am excited to have my first decent low profile reels.

I guess this depends on what you're doing. I do a lot of work for charters in my area and most of them use Penn, both spinning reels and conventionals. Doesn't matter if it's a musky or walleye charter or a salmon/steelhead charter, Penn is usually their go to brand because they meet a happy medium between cost, performance, and reliability. I'll say this much, on the Penn conventionals, they never really need much of anything outside of a cleaning and lube. Worst case is you have to replace an anti-reverse pawl but I don't encounter that often. With their spinners, the most common issue I find is their line lay, but that's very easily fixed by shimming the spool and Penn even includes them just in case. I have yet to put my hands on any reel from a well established manufacturer that suffered some sort of catastrophic failure.

This is a big pet peeve of mine, some manufacturers over lubricating. The worst offenders are the Pure Fishing brands. I have yet to meet a Pure Fishing low profile reel that doesn't have excessive grease. Heck, even the Pflueger President XT I own had straight grease in the spool bearings, it was like a whole new reel after cleaning them and applying TSI 321. Daiwa and Shimano on the other hand, they do one hell of a job. At least the ones I've serviced seemed to have been assembled with a "less is more" approach in comparison to the Pure Fishing reels.

Under rated rods: Okuma, I love their Celilo and SST rods. Over rated rods: Loomis, they're at least triple the cost of the Okuma SST and Lamiglas X11 but not much lighter or sensitive. Under rated reel: Penn Fierce III. Same price as the equivalent sized President but with all metal construction, carbon fiber drag, and much easier to self service. Over rated reel: Daiwa Tatula. I love how it performs, but the T-Wing can be troublesome when passing through a heavier leader. I like the Fuego CT much more.

Get the Reel Speed pliers from Dawn at Smooth Drag. I have a set and I'll be buried with them. http://www.smoothdrag.com/Pliers.html

Hard to say what it's worth, condition and rarity are key when looking at the value of an Ambassadeur. Your particular reel is another variant of the Black Max/Pro Max/Silver Max 3600 that was made from the early to later 90s. They're very good reels, but not particularly collectible unless it's the CDL version with gold plated components. I see the non-CDL variants selling for $75 or less depending on condition and if the box and associated literature are included.