bulldog1935

If surf leader counts, 40-lb Gold.

Bike shops carry Phil Wood Tenacious oil - I checked Amazon, and their price was double what it should be. Also at bike shop, any brand freehub oil will work.

A dozen years ago, I spent a lot of time in Corpus - all my major clients in rock-throwing distance. When I had an afternoon to kill, I'd sweep the pawn shops, looking for old leverguns, falling and rolling blocks that possibly made their way from S. Texas ranches (never found one that wasn't too pitted to be interesting). The shop that carried the most tackle was in Flour Bluff, over the bridge from Padre Island. Most times I was there, the same teenagers arrived to sell tackle. No question they swept the canal neighborhoods (VRBO rentals) on Padre Island and "collected" tackle. (probably at night, probably from docked boats)

This limits your options to a 5-power heavy-action rod, to cast a 3-oz swimbait. This is Japanese IM6, not for everybody because of short ferruled-blade and separate rod-grip configuration, but it's a sweet moderate taper that loads deep even at its 1/2-oz low end. Regarding reel size, I have this matched with Isuzu 720, equivalent size to Ambassadeur 5000.

When grease gets pushed out of the way - it's out of the way. Viscous oil will continue to flow into the bushing/spindle joint.

@Jaybert ZPI made their mark with customized flipped reels, which incuded Ambassadeur Morrum, and '13 Metanium - they made a wide range of tuning spools + mag brakes, handles, and trim for Revo, Daiwa, and Shimano, including Conquest. At one time, they made this Conquest star drag, PSD-06. Unfortunately, Yahoo search turned up more examples of PDS-15 for my Daiwas, but no PSD-06.

@Jaybert My only thought is swept handle works better with a swept drag star - see @redmeansdistortion's red SW103: I like the OS ZPI star I found for my '18 Ryoga - also on my '21 Zillion A couple of nice straight handle choices, NS Craft available in 70- and 80-mm length, and swaps for Shimano-A/Daiwa-S knobs Avail Power Handle 4TS, in 100- and 110-mm lengths, also swaps Shimano-A/Daiwa-S knobs. When I built this 6.3-geared Zzeta custom 4500CT, I was shooting for Conquest look.

The only difference between '18 Stella series and '22 Stella series Shimano worm drives is a slight increase in spool pitch across all 3 frames. This says Shimano was so confident the '18 series was over-designed, they pushed it a little harder with a slightly longer spindle. The increased spool pitch should also give slightly increased cast distance.

NOS by individual Abu p/n, or aftermarket gear sets to improve MOC and drive ratio. You have to be careful with small frames, because high-ratio gears may brinnell the pinion on big fish - that's why Simon Shimomura's 6.3 brass gears with boss pinion is on my 2500CIT. (sorry, no gear photo - I think @redmeansdistortion posted a photo of Simon's gearset) In the case of C3-CT surf reels, I bought loaded brake plates from RocketReelCo, because it was cheaper than buying the gears/BB-mainshaft-stack parts individually. Gear run-in is noticeable on Simon's brass gear set, as well as stainless pinions on C3, but they all smooth-out soon enough. Stainless is the only gear MOC that improves with (normal) use and never wears out - FCC stainless work-hardenes more than any other MOC, and gear teeth reach knife-blade hardness. Zzeta also makes a carboloy spool spindle for C3, which is on all my surf C3's - more wear impervium.

The beauty of Ambassadeur, in addition to extreme bench-race aftermarket parts, you can always find NOS OEM parts - especially pinions. Always new A/R dog. This '77 4500C got NOS brass main + pinion to replace the steel main. This one got new pinion, couldn't find new brass main (except in UK), but I had two steel main gears to pick the best. Both '77/'78 4500C got NOS alloy LW pinions to replace nylon, and both small-frames (1500CI and 2500CIT) also got new alloy LW pinions. I've even had luck finding Isuzu parts in Japan. NMB bearings, drag stack shims, LW bearing collar. This used 720 got a major workover - badly needed the new A/R dog, and works wonderfully.

You can (I do) use any of the Shimano worm-drive series, Stradic to Stella in salt. They all have the common features that make them salt-worthy. Vanford has a frame pinch that some have complained about - the stem is shorter and knee closer to the rotor. I have a C3000MHG Twin Power, C2000 in Vanquish and Stradic, 4000 and 5000 in Stradic strictly salt. If you're going with a medium frame, C3000MHG would be my choice. You can still fit 2500 spools, shallow spools for finesse braid. Deeper spool for mono. Stock 1215 spool is perfect for inshore braid. If you want one reel to cover finesse to salt beast, that's it. This is my C3000MHG wearing C3000S Vanquish spool for PE#0.6 finesse braid.

My vote is Boeshield - the carrier and cleaner is mineral spirits - the residue is a wax with corrosion inhibitors. I have a salt finesse rod with Alps guides first showing rust 8 years ago, still fishing and not changing w/ Boeshield application. Vinegar might work better, but I worry about attack on partially cross-linked epoxy in guide wraps.

The flipping switch works on Lew's - it turns the reel into direct-drive. ^^ what he said^^ @FloridaFishinFool With flipping switch on, the thumb clutch puts the reel in direct drive - releasing the thumb clutch returns the drive to IAR drag. so you have instant engagement with no crank + clutch-release delay. Striking fish only needs thumb release.

@KP Duty - I still put a band of X-shrink at the front of the butt on this PureLure rod for 2-hand cast follow-through (the forward X-shrink is because I didn't like the EVA quality) fwiw, this is the only China rod that has impressed me - reviews compare its 4-axis blank to Poison Adrena, and in April, it was hooking fish at 180'.

@Big Hands - it's definitely typical of package BFS reels. Generally stated as: Silver Wolf SV TW PE Special is the diversified version of 21 Zillion to be used better with thin, from #0.4 to #1 PE braid lines. Modifications are mainly at spool and level winder. SV Boost PE Special spool is optimized to cast with thin PE braid lines. Level winder moves faster to prevent braids dig-in. Not perfect photos, because one was shot for the purpose, and the other was cropped. But the LW pitch on Silver Wolf is about 20% faster than on Zillion SV TW Silver Wolf is rated down to PE#0.4, though the stock spool is really deeper than the rated capacity, and even on Roro spool swap, I stack thicker braid below my PE#0.6 working line.

I quit thinking lb-test when I switched to braid, and it's easy to accuse me of turning Japanese (I really think so). Gou - - also represented by PE#, is the traditional silk thread dia. scale. BFS reels have increased level-wind pitch, so they're made to fish down to PE#0.4 without line dig. Backlash in threadline braid is very difficult to detect 180-degree bends, so most complaining about line dig are really finding backlash that they missed before. On BFS-mod reels without increased LW pitch, PE#1 is go-to. I have no problem on Steez fishing PE#0.8 and catching snook and redfish without line dig. Smallest line I fish is #0.6 on Silver Wolf with increased LW pitch, but I'll be the first to agree most don't want to mess with line this small.

viscous oil - bushing oil or Phil Tenacious.

maybe fatigue is in the thread itself? ^^ what he said ^^

Reading the water is harder to teach, and I've had an inane skill since 12 y-o. I have many good friends - long-term on the water - who wave a fly rod and never catch a fish - they enjoy the company and the nature, and that works, too - observing most everything except what matters for catching fish. I've never had a problem in the water. Normally, I wouldn't recommend taking a dog, but I had an elkhound who was stealthy beyond words - thought it was important when the fly line was piling up on his head, and wanted to smell the fish before I released it. He read my stealth an knew what to do, never moving until I moved. North dogs have a natural trepidation toward the water (= falling through the ice), so his effort was a form of trust.

On all micro-guide rods, I use fluoro leader mainly for shock tolerance, and tie my Allbright knot so it stays outside of the rod tip. I use paper clips, micro-snap swivels, and micro-swivel bite traces to attach lures. Difference is rods with full-size guides that glide my leader knot, and where I'll fish a longer leader.

@WRB-2.0 - you move that into threadline braid matched w/ 100-200-yd spools, and managing working line level disappears with a good concave hand base-wrap: I was fishing the red 2500CIT in April, casting to 200' (measured on Google Earth), and hooking fish at 180' - never gave line management a 2nd thought, though I need to get it on my line winder and lay a new base wrap before I take out again at the end of the month.

Stealth is Everything in fishing - borrowing from a fly rod post I made on FFR: Stealth is everything in fishing, but it's not in the rod, except how you move the rod and present the line. It's also how you move yourself. My all-time favorite fish story: I was sight-fishing this bass in an oxbow on the Pedernales headwaters - she was creeping, almost yawning toward my cats whisker. The massive yellow belly dashed out and snagged the fly. The bass then fought the yellow belly and sat down at my feet while I was handling her. I released the sunfish, daubed the fly at my feet and caught the bass - only time I ever had a 5-lb bass wait in line to eat my cats whisker. Stealth is the single most important element in fishing, and every good fish is a stealth success story. My favorite stealth talk was given by Gary Borger - he began with an academic interpretation of fish intelligence, which gave trout an IQ of 6 (carp scored IQ 12). His argument was natural selection - curious fish become food. His thesis - Big fish aren't smart - big fish are cowards. My lifetime fly-rod redfish and black drum were both sight-fished on these epoxy flies: the redfish on the mylar spoon, the black drum on the bucktail crab. Both fish knew I was there, but they can't tell you from a heron in a funny hat. Both also took 5 to 6 presentations to be enticed. Easy to muff, especially with your heart in your throat.

and me without my hip-boots

Quite simply, the 90% reduction is the line contacting the line guide itself. Doesn't really take an engineering degree to envision this. TX PE No. 75665.

Minor exception to this, though it fits well enough with my Ryoga 1016 and newer-generation magnets (common to MagZ and SV). My CV-Z with decade-older MagZ magnets is persnickety about centering line guide position for cast. If you begin cast without setting up to center the LW guide, it both measurably reduces cast distance and increases tendency to start-up and mid-cast backlash.