bulldog1935

Titanium neck knife. These are more functional than scat and self-sharpening. The carbonitride edge is a metal matrix composite - microscopic shark teeth that make short work of nipping braid. Impervious to salt. Most common use - putting Beach Cliff on crackers. An outrageous tide phenomenon day. We paddled across 300 redfish hunkered in the tide pass on a winter low tide, grazing the incoming tide. Between us, released 45 of them. Best part, put my buddy on these for his first trip from Colorado - starting at the top. I have the same Spyderco Salt for back-up. Kind of funny, where they stamped the H-1 salt-resistant trademark in the blade, residual steel from the stamp leaves a rust stain on the blade. When Spyderco was closing out the prototype run of the Native, they were selling knives for $25/. I bought half a dozen, gave a couple as Christmas gifts - along with those, every one of my bike bags and fishing bags carries a clipped-in Native or Native II.

No, you can tell the Ultracast plates (C3 and newer) because they have a hump on the right side. The main shaft is longer, with the bellville washers above the A/R sleeve. and of course they have the A/R roller bearing press-fit

then you're getting no end tension - something is probably cross-threaded. If necessary, you can probably buy a right side plate - hopefully it's all in the cap threads On an assembled reel, clutch opened, you can check for end contact by side play in the freespool.

@redmeansdistortion - exception with this part - I'm going to ask how many 6500s do you have, 5500s, 4500s... This is the one. More versatile than fumbling fiber tubes, and nicer to pinion gear life. This reel is set up to cast 3 g to 30 g without touching anything. @MediumMouthBass if your cap is not covering the o-ring, sounds like the Axle clip is lose inside the cap and not seated in the spindle. @redmeansdistortion is spot on about checking that. Worse case would be a bent spindle that is not going all the way to the left side. Most parts you can get on ereplacementparts.com - just not the discontinued 6-pin centrifugal.

your reel has the 2-pin version of this one. The part I showed above is the only one I use on mid-frame Ambassadeurs, finesse to surf. Search the ABU part number on ebay, and you'll find US sellers. They simply snap into the spool, and let you engage and disengage 2 to 6 pins.

You certainly can stack shims - you can get improved BB bullet for the left side - you can get improved spur gear, even BB spur gear for the left side. However, the spindle is not required to turn on Ultracast Ambasssadeur. I would be looking at new spool bearings. That discontinued 6-pin centrifugal is a great weightless part, available from many parts suppliers, p/n 1116727 - it works from finesse to 3 oz, and you pick the number of pins. No reels are easier to work on than Ambassadeur ultracast. I also wouldn't depend on spool tension (applied to the spur gear) to stop a 3-oz weight. Thumb. Maybe @Cbump can reply. I built a 3-oz swimbait 5600 for him. The trick casting 3 oz is having enough centrifugal to prevent start-up backlash. I'll brag that his reel casts it effortlessly, with zero end tension. Lightweight X-deep spool, BB LW upgrades - it responds very well to brake.

My 20-lb 832 is white, so there's nothing to fade. My other reels have Varivas, YGK and Duel. Out of those, the Duel X-wire fades the fastest, but this spool has fished almost 3 years, so I don't care whether it fades - I get the results I want.

Answering the title of the thread, do what you want. There's always a luddite chorus on this topic, and there isn't a generic answer. Bearing upgrades are aimed primarily at spool bearings, reducing rotating mass and inertia, which improves cast distance and brake performance. No one will likely notice the difference unless they measure the results side by side. Jun Sonada has made the effort to measure and report the results from reel/spool tuning, and note his chart includes both low-profile reels and a separate column for Ambassadeur. https://japantackle.com/tackle_topics/spool_tuneup.htm Most people aren't going to make the effort to switch to unshielded spool bearings and racy bearing oil, but it's a big difference casting light weights, and also in the salt, since you're flushing your bearings every time you oil them. Daiwa's mag-seal drive bearings are an advantage in the salt. Otherwise, shielded bearings are a disadvantage, because they become a reservoir for salt - salt water in, steam out. Both on surf reels and BFS, I've measured the results of spool bearing upgrades. The first big step is the switch to unshielded. The lower mass of SiC makes a difference, and casting below 1/2 oz, you notice a big difference switching to unshielded bearings and micro-bearings that match your casting range, as much as 15-20% gain over stock bearings. Slapping in higher-grade orange seal hybrid ceramic spool bearings with improved bearing oil (ABEC 7 will be delivered that way), you'll likely get that 6% difference. Full zirconia - a strange animal that sounds like the world is coming apart - while they do what's advertised and can be ignored, there are better choices if you're going to give the maintenance attention. Edited for @T-Billy Salty SD in 1/4-oz niche. SDS full-ceramic air bearings on left, and KTF IXA SiC micros on right. Both make deep-spool SD cast like BFS. But the full-ZrO ceramic were so loud my buddy commented across the tide pass (150'). Also for the whole corrosion thing below, some SiC bearings have salt-resistant races, others don't. The KTF bearings are both salt rated, and rated to cast 20g. The trick, you have to buy from KTF through a broker, where I build up a cache of small orders before I ship.

I know friends in Ontario and Vancouver, who buy and sell online, and keep PO boxes in Buffalo and Seattle. and noteworthy, our OP is rock-throwing distance from Buffalo. Niagra Falls NY, Lewiston PO, etc.

Someone who looks like me said this. All you'll care about is how can I fit it on a spool, and can my reel manage threadline this small. Where I used to fish 6-lb 832 in salt spinning finesse for seatrout, I fish X-braid in PE#0.5 and #0.6 on spinning, and #0.8 on BFS, both for snook and redfish. PE#0.8, 16-lb X-braid is the same diameter as 6-lb Sufix 832. My 3000 and 4000 MH spinners fish PE#1.2. I fish PE#1 and #1.2 in BFS to MH frogger for bass. Because of the shallow spool capacity, you'd call the inshore ML and bass baitcasters BFS, but they're all about casting into next week and horsing big fish.

@garroyo130 The current Varivas 8 is as as good as any. They differentiate a bit on the coatings, Avani Casting has a harder coating, comparable to Duel X-wire, and I like these a bit better on casting and BFS - supposed to prevent line dig. The softer coatings cast farther on spinning, by coming off the spool quicker, and the best I've used there is YGK Bornrush, but I also fish Varivas Max Power on spinning, YGK Oltolos finesse (photo above). Last fishing trip, I loaned that Stradic C2000 to my buddy on his long finesse rod, and he was doing cartwheels over the cast distance. I'm pretty sure Florida Fishing Products Distance Braid is Varivas - the first braid I was really happy with, and still happy fishing that first spool after 3 years. Many of the Varivas lines are aimed for finesse and only come in smaller fractional PE# sizes. Likewise, many are aimed for offshore, and only come in multiple PE# sizes, up to PE#8. Can't go wrong with the basic High Grade X8. Any of them will be a notable step from what you're used to. The X-braids became the standard in Japan beginning 2019. They all use the same high-strength center strand, there are some differences in the outer fibers, such as fluoro added to G-soul to increase density and sink rate. What they're really up to now is working FTP coating formulations. But again, all the X-braids are made basically the same way by Izanas.

@Fallser - jerk in a spinning cast is rewarded with distance (not necessarily accuracy). Jerk in a fly rod is a tailing loop, and in a baitcaster, it's backlash. So you a load a baitcaster much more like a fly rod, with smooth power. Hopefully, switching isn't necessary - why limit oneself; however, you do find when you take all three, the fly rod is least likely to be taken out. And especially if you have good finesse tackle, the fly rod is mostly redundant. There are places, again, usually in rivers, where fly rod stealth reigns. Can apply to salt marshes and wading skinny flats as well, if you have the skills to load and deliver using a fly rod without hubbub, e.g., 70' on the 3rd stroke. The thing is, good finesse tackle will mostly double that without effort.

If you want to throw into next week, go to Varivas or similar Japan X-braid, PE#1, PE#0.8, or down to PE#0.6, but this works best on a shallow braid spool. For the same diameter, it will be more than twice the test of 832. They get there by starting with finer, higher-strength fibers, a single center-strand that's 80% of the strength (they're all made by Izanas in Japan), tighter weave, and finished denser with a fused teflon-based coating. There's a Varivas store on Amazon, and they stock it onshore. Bait finesse empire offers several brands and has YGK X-braid Upgrade in PE#0.8. Here's the line capacity calculator for stacking lines if you need to use backing, e.g., 20-lb 832. https://www.pattayafishing.net/advanced-fishing-reel-line-capacity-estimator/ here's the diameter chart for Japan braid by PE# https://www.jpfishingtacklenews.com/japanese-line-size/ Try it once, and your brain will never think pound-test again, because the braid strength will be irrelevant.

@T2DM Twin Power is the bad boy, forged alloy rotor to increase stiffness, especially in the 3000 size. Honestly not much finesse about this reel, made to be pushed hard. https://www.jpfishingtacklenews.com/finally-shimano-announced-new-20-twin-power-is-tough-style-spinning-reel/ You gain Japan bench building and parts-matching for extra smoothness. The best finesse Shimano is definitely Vanquish, which is a JDM reel.

The one thing people may miss on threads like this by aiming for a "cheap" BFS "starter" reel. You can always take the approach of buying a $60-$90 spool instead, that will swap into one of your nicer reels, then you have a nice BFS reel, and a budget for a nicer rod. It probably comes from 50 years of fly fishing, where you match the rod to the day's water, mix and match reels and lines. But I take this same approach with my casting reels from bass to inshore, have more rods than reels, and move the reels and spools around.

We hit the tailwater one morning at 14 degrees - it was a little colder than that this morning. My buddy Ewell. Danny wasn't sure we were having fun yet. I released a huge rainbow hen, 26' - she fought so long and hard I pulled her against my leg and flipped the fly from her mouth - this was the only photo I got. The reason I know her size, a guide's fare caught her two weeks later, and she's the current state record. Though I've caught larger, and know of several others over 10 lbs. That day did the norm for a s. Texas blue norther - warmed into the 40s. This week, we don't get a thaw until a few hours around Christmas dinner. But it's dry, no snow or ice, unless the sprinkler got turned on.

@PressuredFishing Thanks - I kept the draft open a couple of days to edit like an article before posting. When I shared it with a friend, he told me I was letting too much good information out of the bag. BR automatically saves your post drafts - it stays there forever, even if you close the window, until you delete it or hit Submit. Especially the plugs, I've been working on for several years - the ones I Really can't do without, have a few stashed in package, e.g., certain Ryuki colors. If you run across Eclipse RB77 STX45, do not pass go - Tackle House makes this lure and offers this same color, great lures in a range of sizes (also shad shapes) - but only the "Eclipse-tune" has silhouette glow. Half-oz dredging plug works as a shoolie diviner - one cast will tell you if they're under your light. Has only caught a few, but one cast will get 4 or 5 bumps if they're there - change up to the small stuff. I had to go back to my fishingshop.kiwi order to identify the jigs, but there's just a couple of Duo, many Xesta, Major Craft, Angler's Republic, Ja-Do, Magbite - the last two look the most promising for action, Xesta has the best colors. It was $52 worth - worth it? - will let you know in late Feb - they're sure made to cast. I buy enough at kiwi I have rolling bonus points to cash in. I went through their online catalog, brand by brand, throwing lures that looked right in my cart, went back and edited my cart for what I really wanted. Kinda like BR posts, if you have a log-in there, your cart stays open indefinitely, so you can come back to it later. Though kiwi charges $40 to ship, their lure, line and rod prices are deeply discounted, and if you place a big enough order, it easily offsets the shipping compared to other JDM vendors with $25 courier charge, or onshore importers with much higher prices (e.g., kiwi only wants $8 for a Ryuki S). They also carry the full range of Meiho boxes at discount, Smith split-ring tweezers, Vanfook ME plug hooks... Kiwi also sells the Zeake clip-jigheads and Vanfook twin dancer hooks with ring that I use on the shrimp cigar cork dropper. The small Zeake hook is also used in the rig, reversed in the clip and buried in the shrimp head - it's ballast, and keeps the head stiff. When you click the cigar cork, the shrimp doubles over like a shrimp evading with its tail. It settles down head-first, like a shrimp swimming with its legs. I've been fishing shrimp tails this way since the '80s, when we could get Stazo clip jigheads here.

@BASS302 Almost all are sinking plugs, and they're made that way - some have rolling bearing balls that travel to the back for a cast, and also click the wobble - I think those steel beads move side-to-side to click. The glow in the Duo Tetra Works Toto 35s (35 mm) is the pink or blue soft bead, and came that way (the "larger" Tetra Works glow plugs in the jig box are Toto 45 mm). The Tetra Works 35s are very light at 2.1 g, and very small - I replaced the size 16 trebles with size 8 plug hooks. The Smith D-Compact 45s (45 mm) weighs 3.5 g, and has scored well in past years, both under the lights, and in daytime tide passes farther up the TX coast. No glow, but good color, texture and flash - size 6 plug hooks. (the bottom hook is doubled on the split ring in the photo set up, normally rides down) Duo Tetra Works are salt lures with salt split rings and hooks - still have to swap tiny trebles for useful singles. Most of the non-glow plugs are stream trout plugs - I swap both the bronze split rings and treble hooks - looking to get 11-16 lbs out of #0 and #1 split ring test. The really soft bronze split rings and tiny trebles, I just cut them off and pitch them. Duo made a limited run of Salt Ryuki 45s, which still have trebles in my plug box. Another note, the single plug hooks fish better on BFS than spinning finesse - they tend to foul the line on spinning casts, but BFS keeps the line tighter and prevents that.

There are 2 ways to fish inshore all winter - mullet are really big, 5-6" - one way is to fish big topwaters and suspending Corkys for a few large fish that will take them. The second way is imitating tiny glass minnows, and fishing where they're concentrated in bait balls. Both daytime structure where they're focused by tide currents and wind currents, and night-time lights. The bait balls also concentrate gamefish, which will sip tiny lures. Often, you'll see the gamefish, and they ignore everything else you throw at them. Winter shrimp are also tiny, and also are drawn to lights at night. Cold rain here over the weekend. Saturday, put a dozen tamales in the steamer to graze all day, and began arranging lure boxes for our Arroyo Colorado trip on the February new moon. The arroyo in far south Texas, part of the Rio Grande delta, includes a dredged barge channel, one side lined with houses and dock lights. The schoolie male speckled trout that travel 20 mi/day to chase bait, sweep through here every night. Finesse and stealth will get you a limit every night, and they're all males. The dock piles stack up with snook, redfish are deep under the lights. Results from one night last winter, and 3 licensed fishers. We've made this trip on 8 new moons, 6 winters in a row, so I know what works and why, and I've had time to put all this together. The trick to catching specs is getting multiple followers, so they will feed in competition. Even then, we've seen them in pairs, closed-mouth, pushing the natural bait on the surface to test it. While the fish come to us, it's anything but fish in a barrel. Change-up is important - stealth is especially important - they have 4 miles of lights to choose other than ours. Plug box - this box doesn't glow. Blue is a primary color at night - pink becomes important under the lights because of transmitted light through glass minnow bodies. Speckled trout will hit larger prismatic lures for slashing into a bait ball, but both redfish and snook are picky about individual bait size. The smallest are 38 mm Duo Ryuki S, and have been my most productive lure on winter snook. The smaller lures have hook swaps from micro-trebles to plug-single hooks, and fish best with BFS. You look at the dock light structure as a bowl, with the bait "hiding" inside the light, and gamefish feeding from the dark. You target the edges of the light bowl. The largest lures are for dredging deeper in the channel, beneath the light bowl. There are also a couple of prop-tail topwaters, in case I hear a slurping snook in the nearby dark. This is a dredging lure glow box for fishing under the light bowl. Flashy silhouette-glow and pattern-glow lures are especially effective. Solid glow works well enough casting into the dark beyond the lights. The larger plugs fish fine on ML to MH tackle. The 3" clicking cigar corks are fished with a 4' leader for shrimp, either live if we can get it, or if we can't get live shrimp, the Nikko Okiami rigged for kicking evading shrimp - the plastic is made from krill. The lightweight cigar cork dropper rig fishes best with finesse spinning tackle. This year, I'm adding metal micro-jigs - 3 to 5 g, down to 20 mm length. Most of these have pattern glow, cast like a bullet and flutter slowly to deep. Also glow micro-plugs in this box. Top left is a squarebill wake bait with soft glow - right below it is a bottom-bouncing soft glow plug. You catch the snook against the dock piles outside of the lights. The small metal jigs on a matching all-range finesse rod are my best shot at an over-slot snook this year. Something else about the metal jigs, they are inexpensive, only $3 or so. The boxes are Meiho 1200NS - 10" x 7" x 1", fully adjustable - they're amazing for arranging trip boxes, and take up very little space. Also didn't show plastic bodies we'll rig as tandems on finesse spinning tackle. These include 2" weighted swim shad, and neutral-density suspending that you fish on a small worm hook without added weight. A fly rod with sinking line, an intermediate slime line or Teeny sinking shooting head, small size 6 whistlers or hi-ties, also works well for change-up.

The common theme is closer to extrapolating what others have posted on other threads in the past, and a veiled threat from BFS. Five or 6 years ago, a thread was OP'd on FFR forum, thesis that spinning tackle makes baitcast pointless, because it can do everything. The fact remains, there are situations where tight-line casts, range control and instant retrieve with baitcaster can't be duplicated with spinning tackle and good manual bail technique. Though I'll add nothing is more accurate than fly casting, because you're always controlling the exact length of the line. Fly fishing shines in moving water, where the effort to use it is small for the payback. But in many places, fly fishing is just an obstinate choice.

Kind of a pointless thread. I began spinning tackle in 1968, fly in 1974, baitcaster in 1977. I was throwing weightless spiral casts on baitcaster in the '80s. I can remember my last backlash, 2018, caused by a single wrap on the rod tip. Only wind knots I can remember were my friends borrowing my spinning tackle and disregarding my manual bail instructions. They learned their lessons. I prefer spinning tackle on complex rigs like tandems and clicking-cigar-cork droppers. Spinning tackle won't fish this lure well, fouling the line on the hooks 3/4 casts - no matter how well you feather the line, the line is never quite tight enough - while baitcaster keeps the line tight enough to never foul the hooks on the line.

left out the part about getting hit in the head with the badly hinging weighted fly. Heavy weighted flies are fly fishermen gone obstinate. Smarter to use the same weighted fly on BFS. Or even better, skip the heavy flies and fish Teeny T-series lines, which are spliced sinking shooting heads - the straightest line from rod tip to hook point. All you need is chain bead to keel your cats whisker hook-up. Here's my friend Randy at work, who doesn't fish weighted flies, either. Randy only fly fishes for tiger muskie, unless he goes offshore for tuna - again, where a weighted fly would be pointless.

you're thinking about this all wrong. What gets left behind when the water leaves is the problem. You should never consciously dunk your reel in saltwater, but nothing is worse than the surf, because of the ultra-fine sand carried in the water. I hope this thing is on.

Everything about the Arroyo Colorado is wonderful - it's the most successful conservation project in Texas. I know 3 people who are clinically OCD, including my PhD boss, and it's quite creepy. But I'll read it as engineer is lifestyle, and I'm looking for something specific in all my tackle. BTW, if you want the details, here's what was wrong with the child-size grip - - it absolutely hurt to hold - too small diameter, too short to grip with 3 fingers; the ridge in back split and spread your grasp wide between middle and 3rd finger. I fixed it with scraps from other projects I had on hand. Tried it first with 1/16" closed cell foam, blue masking tape, and X-shrink to make sure I'd like the finished shape. Then cut that off and made it final with cork tape. The trick was cutting all the correct tapers into the edges of the cork tape sections, so the shrink would seam all the edges together. The trick with X-shrink - use a tea kettle, and pour boiling water from the middle to each end.

I added two rods this month. If you read about my long shore-micro-jigging rod on the Redfish Rodeo in October, it was on a trial, and proved to be a great rod, but at 8'9", more length than I need in a kayak (that rod also has plenty of opportunity for shore micro jigging on Feb trip). This 7'3" Abu Salty Stage Prototype Baitfinesse rod takes its place for big fish and extreme light lure range on kayak. (Kurodai is black sea perch). This is a stunning rod, with the exception of a butt grip too small for human hands. It casts 3 g past 120', will cast up to 20 g, fishes down to 1.5 g, powerful butt, fast mid, all the light stuff is in the short solid tip. I wouldn't hesitate to fish it in bass finesse (I bought it for redfish from a kayak). Aside from casting, the stunning part, it weighs only 80 g and is shocking-light-in-hand. The grip solution - I added thickness and reshaped the grip to work for me using cork tape and X-shrink. Very happy with the result. Added a bass travel rod, bringing my bass rod arsenal up to 7. While I will use it for bass, that's not why I bought it. 5-pc Legit Designs travel rod. They packed in kryptonite, a Meiho box (my favorite lure boxes), a neoprene zip case inside that, and a rod sock inside that. Anyone looking for a versatile packs-small travel rod, this rod is really powerful, fast, a bit on the heavy side, but still casts 1/8 oz (below its rating) quite well. My real goal for this rod is an opportunity redfish rod when we bike-fish Laguna Atascosa NWR in February. Every night, we'll be dock fishing for snook and schoolie male specs. We plan to ride the no-motors NWR roads (roads are closed for the ocelot population), explore the Cayo and shoreline of Rattlesnake Bay. I picked it because it's the most rod that will exactly fit in my bike half-frame bag.