redmeansdistortion

My side business is reel repair and tuning. Most of my customers are locals that seek my services through another fishing related forum I frequent. Quite a few of them are charter captains around the Great Lakes and they send me many reels at a time. Winter for me is the busiest time of the year since the lakes are frozen and everybody is either sitting in a shanty jigging for perch and the rest are wading the streams for winter steelhead. I don't make a killing doing it but I supplement the income from my day job nicely.

I believe the handle was used in the 2nd gen Silver Max before they switched to the curved handle and star wheel. You can get it on Jerry Foran's website for ~$10. I think it's only 3.5" long, might be the angle of the photo making it look bigger.

I slapped this guy together out of components from my parts bin. Nothing special, 2 spool bearings, bushing level wind, Carbontex drag, 6.3:1 gears, lightweight brake blocks, and a frame from a late 70s Abu 5500C.

As long as it's stamped Made in Sweden on the side plate, shut up and take my money.

I wish Abu still made the Pro Max, Black Max, and Silver Max with the one piece aluminum frame like they did in the 90s. I have some of those that are coming up on 30 years old with mostly original parts aside from a Carbontex drag upgrade. I use mine casting plugs and hardware for steelhead and salmon and they just keep on going. A hot 20lb steelhead would probably make quick work of the reels that bear those names today.

I've bought most of my reels used from eBay. The majority needed nothing more than a good cleaning and lube to perform well. That said, I did get a few that were cobbled together and had some incorrect parts inside or even missing parts. If you're a DIYer, used reels can be a great value but every so often issues do crop up. I don't advise buying used if you aren't familiar with reel repair and tuning, but even then there's a plethora of YouTube videos out there that are a big help if you're up to the task.

It's really hard to say. I've bought and sold a lot of Ambassadeurs on eBay. I've bought some in great shape with little or no boat rash for as little as $20 shipped. I've seen near mint examples fetch upwards of $100 and I've also seen beater looking reels sell for close to that. I suppose it depends on who's shopping at the time of listing. The more oddball and/or limited production reels bring the most money. For instance, if it had side plates that were different from the usual red, silver, or black, it would bring coin. I've seen reels in purple, sunset orange, chameleon, and electric blue go for good money. If you want to get the most from it, list it as an auction and take good photos. If you take poor photos the chances your reel sells for a low price increase exponentially.

Since I'm a shore and wade fisherman primarily, I spend good money on wading boots, hiking boots, and hiking sandals. For wading, I have a pair of Simms Flyweight boots that ran me ~$200. I also use hiking sandals for wet wading in the warmer weather, a pair of Keens Newports that set me back about $100. My troopers are my hiking boots made by Merrell, they ran me ~$200 and I can't kill them. They've crawled the snowy banks of many rivers fishing winter steelhead, gone hundreds of miles through the backcountry of Michigan looking for brook trout, and many miles through the woods to fish lakes off the beaten path. My hiking boots and wading boots are more comfy than any sneakers I've ever owned at the same price point.

Fenwick HMG 7'6" Light 1/16-3/8 is a fine rod. I use one with a Penn Fierce III 1000 fishing stream trout and it makes for a nice combo.

Acquiring some of the parts needed to build this took some time as it's hard finding brand new Ambassadeur side plates in black. These came from an Abu Black Max 5500 I bought with a tweaked frame, perfect candidate for a parts reel. This reel is a mix of new and old down to the last detail. The handle nut with "OIL" engraved, the anti-reverse dog, the vintage black Abu Garcia decal on the side plate, the small star wheel used in the 50s era Ambassadeurs, and the chromed brass frame used in the late 70s model 4500C. On the inside we have Boca Lightning spool bearings, a single bearing level wind, lightweight brake blocks, Carbontex drag washers, 6.3:1 gears, and a lightweight line guide taken from a new production 4600C3. Lastly, the swept handle is a new production unit used on the new C3 reels. It's nice and smooth, and this weekend I'll see how it is on the water. I'm kind of thinking about selling it but it took a fair amount of time to get some of the parts so I just might hang on to this guy.

What kind of fishing are you doing? A float rod will be different from a drift rod and a hardware rod. Hardware implying spoons, spinners, and crankbaits. 8'6" is a great size for a hardware rod, look into something medium power 3/8 to 1oz. If you're drifting, step it up to 9'6" to 10'6" and ML to MH. For float fishing, something 11' or greater will be best since it helps considerably mending your line on those long floats. Float fishing is by far the most fun due to the challenge. My float rod is 11'6" ML power set up with 8lb mono. It's a riot fighting river kings and steelhead with that one. Keep in mind my experience is different from others here as I fish Great Lakes salmon and steelhead which do not get as big as those of the PNW.

A little video of my 4500CS doing some free spool. I fish piers with this guy as well as float fish and drift the rivers. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QWeK89enJFA

Vintage gear can be a lot of fun to fish with. Sure it doesn't have all the bells and whistles or light weight and sensitivity of what we have today, but that doesn't mean it isn't fun. There is nothing more raw feeling than fighting a fish on an old hollow fiberglass rod topped with a knuckle buster, it's a d**n hoot all on another level. A lot of those vintage baitcasters had no drag or anti-reverse, it was all thumb all the time. You had to be very good with that thumb too, because they didn't have the hold-your-hand features we enjoy today.

I probably have the smallest car here, 2016 Ford Fiesta ST.

Find a fiberglass rod of the same era and put it on a wall. You could also service and fish it. It's a fine reel and could be made better with a few choice upgrades. There are no bearings on that reel, just bushings so it will be pretty limited in the baits you can throw. 1/2oz and heavier will be best. If you swap the spool bushings for bearings, add a double bearing level wind, a double bearing idler gear, some lightweight brake blocks, and Carbontex drag washers, it'll feel like a completely different reel and will cast baits down to 1/4oz trouble free.

Fellow salmon and steelhead fisherman here. If you are a float fisherman, look into a Kingpin Zeppelin center pin reel and pair it with an 11' or longer float rod. The Zeppelin runs about $750 or so. A center pin looks a lot like a fly reel but has a free spinning spool to present your bait as naturally as possible in the river current. I've watched guys float their presentation over 100yd down some stretches of the Au Sable River here in Michigan. There is also no drag mechanism, you'll use your palm for drag and fighting fish. Pins are great and quite a few salmon/steelhead guys "graduate" to them. I haven't yet due to the cost of the reels but I know quite a few that fish them exclusively in the rivers.

Your line is digging in to the spool. This usually happens for two reason, horsing out a nasty snag or winding the line on too tightly. I keep a 5" section of wooden dowel with my tackle to get out of snags. I wrap the line around it a few times and pull it loose.

Same here. I order a lot of parts from them and never had a call go unanswered. They've even been helpful enough to the point I was able to procure some parts they don't normally sell, like the stud for the anti-reverse pawl for instance. I usually add the anti-reverse pawl to reels with the IAR bearing as a backup in case the IAR gives up the ghost. The hole is already in the brake plate to accommodate it.

Did this one for a customer of mine. He wanted a brute for king salmon fishing and he got it. For this reel, I used a new-old-stock Abu 5600C (circa mid/late 70s) frame with the red thumb bar. It's chromed brass so it's extra heavy duty compared to the stamped aluminum frames Abu uses today. It took a little modification to get it to work with the newer style brake plate, but it's smooth as butter. Additionally, it got a double bearing worm gear, double bearing cog, Boca Lightning spool bearings, Abu Rocket clutch washer and fiber brake blocks, stainless steel 6.3:1 gears from Pimp My Reel, Carbontex drag, and a Revo Inshore power handle. Should be no thing for the Great Lakes kings.

I can't wait to see your designs. I built a Prusa i3 clone a few years back and printed some lures off of Thingiverse but none of them really performed well.

I built my own, something like this https://www.sportfishingmag.com/fishing-line-spooler-diy/ It ran me less than $10.

All I really use are Ambassadeurs from the 1000 size all the way to 6000. I've paid as little as $10 for them as non-working parts units on eBay. Turned out most just needed a good cleaning and lube. I actually bought another one today for $15 that looks to have very little use. Seller's description stated "Missing some screws and bail doesn't always lock when you turn the handle. Maybe with some TLC you can fix it." I'll have it back to fishing in under an hour.

Get out the rattle can, problem solved

I'm not so much into the fancy aspect as I am the tinker factor. I love tearing into things, finding out how they work, and attempting to make them better. Often times, this comes in the form of used higher end reels from decades gone by. I'm the same way with my audio equipment. I build my own speakers and amplifiers and they compare favorably to the $100k+ per pair speakers and monoblock amplifiers some guys in my audio club run.

Smallmouth every time. They actually peel drag. Largemouth fight too much like the weeds you catch them in.