Had a Shimano Calcutta 400 TE for musky fishing.  Sold it and bought a Tranx.  Like the Tranx but miss the 400 TE.

Still have a few Abu I use for Spinnerbaits and  Crankbaits . They have worked well for years 

Only have one round reel (2013 calcutta) out of my 16 baitcasters.... 

  I have Calcutta 200, I  bought new 30 years ago with probably 801 million spinnerbait cast on it. A new Calcutta Conquest 300 MD Long Handle for big swimbaits. Six Abu Garcias 5500s that I worked over for catfish trolling.

The last low profile reels I had were a pair of Alphas CT SV70s, one in 7.2 and the other 6.3.  Awesome reels but when I got my Millionaire CT, they took a backseat and were eventually sold.  Now I'm all round reels.  I prefer the aesthetics and in the case of Daiwa and Abu, the customization options.  The current iteration of the Ambassadeur has been around since 1991, and the Millionaire since 1997.  I love my Shimano Calcutta Conquests, but they change the design every 7 years to the point that there is no backwards compatibility with parts.  With the Millionaire and Ambassadeur, you can roll your own out of factory parts.

Haneda Craft is offering a limited run of both brass and stainless 5.3 gearsets for my older '77 Ambassadeur C.  (also for older non-C bushing reels)

 

Because of the bearing configuration, the older C reels can achieve a slicker BFS result than the later Ultracast C3, etc., and why this is my favorite Ambassadeur result.  

In salt shore niche, 6'6" 2-hand Smith SPX rod, this bench '77 4500C casts 3-g microjig past 150' - it got extras, full-zirconia LW bearings, full-SiN spool bearings.  

I'd probably get a round reel if I were to ever throw really large swimbaits but unless I move to a different state I doubt that will happen.

 

The BFS Calcutta is a gorgeous little reel that I've had my eye on for a year. I can see myself buying one next spring or whenever the tariffs go away.

I don't feel like a round reel excels at anything (maybe better in salwater because they're usually no painted). Some low profile reels can have as much torque as a round reel. I use them just because it's something different, that's about it.

Not exactly true.  

The gear diameter on Ryoga gives it a 40% drag capacity increase over low-profile Daiwa.  

 

When you get to big spools like 37-mm-dia medium-frame Ambassadeur, lower gear raio gives you comparable line pick-up to higher-geared LP reel, and you get it done with a larger, tougher pinion gear.  Also, swapping corundum drag washers into C3 drag stack gives you massive drag numbers.  

32 minutes ago, bulldog1935 said:

Not exactly true.  

The gear diameter on Ryoga gives it a 40% drag capacity increase over low-profile Daiwa.  

 

When you get to big spools like 37-mm diameter med-frame Ambassadeur, lower gear raio gives you comparable line pick-up to high-geared LP reel, and you get it done with a larger, tougher pinion gear.  Also, swapping corundum drag washers into C3 drag stack gives you massive drag numbers.  

How big is the main gear on that?  Cal complained of a lack of winding power on the 4600 review due to the miniscule main gear.  Ryogas and Conquest use a large maingear in an offset gear box to get their effortless cranking power and high speed ratio options.  Visually, think the gear box of the Ryoga looks sharp and is one of my favorite features of the reel.  It is part of what makes the Ryoga look modern to me.  Also, where are you getting that 40% increase in drage number?  Comparing 1st and 2nd gen Ryogas to their low profile Steez and Zillion counterparts I see that they have the same drag numbers.  If anything, it's the large main gear and offset gear box (like a low profile reel) of the Ryoga that allows for those numbers.

 

https://www.tackletour.com/reviewabuambc3401.html

I once picked up a Calcutta 51 round reel to try out.  Great little reel, but after all my years with low profile reels, I couldn't get used to the round reel, even at that size.  I sold it, although sometimes wish I hadn't.

14 hours ago, Bigbox99 said:

Cal complained of a lack of winding power on the 4600 review due to the miniscule main gear.

Keep in mind that Cal is a little on the nitpicky side of things.  That's his job as a reviewer.  In practice, the Ambassadeurs don't lack cranking power.  Are they as powerful as something with a larger drive gear?  Not necessarily, but here's where things get interesting.  Abus use deeper gears, which will have more torque on tap than a faster set of gears of a similar diameter.  The larger diameter spool in this case is what "speeds up" the reel, since more line is wound every turn around the circumference of the spool.  As an example, every fall I swap my faster 2500C gears from 6.3:1 to the factory 5.3:1 for steelhead fishing.  I lose about 5" per turn, but now I have more oomph on the bottom end which is more important than speed in that scenario.  I'm after fish in that 5-10lb range that have a lot of fight in them.  The difference in torque is very noticeable, especially on the 30mm dia spool in that particular reel.  Retrieve speed drops from 23" to 18" per turn, but I run a shorter handle which I can crank much faster to make up for it.  There is no free lunch.  You can have torque or speed or try to find a nice balance. 

 

On that note, I've had plenty of Daiwa and Shimano models in my shop with gear brinnelling.  This is only in the faster geared models.  Brinnelling is when the gear teeth become malformed from stress. During the cleaning process, I sometimes find metal shavings.   The reel may operate smoothly, but there will be an unusual amount of noise coming from the gearbox.  The easiest way to find it is to thoroughly clean the gears and check for discoloration on the pinion, specifically where it contacts the drive gear.  If it appears off color, that is brinnelling and no lubrication will fix it.  The reel will still be perfectly usable, it'll just be a little chatterbox until the gears are replaced.  I've seen it mostly with the Tatula platform and Shimanos with micro gearing.  When you read of people saying their reel now sounds geary, brinnelling is the most likely culprit.  It usually happens from fighting fish with the drag set too high or pulling snags with the drag locked.  Brinnelling is much less common in Ambassadeurs due to the thicker teeth hobbed into the gears.

@redmeansdistortion This is why I made the decision to unload my Shimano Metaniums & my Bantam reels save 1. After months of additional study on the 21 Zillion HD and Zillion USDM, and most all of my information that mattered most came from @bulldog1935. It’s easy to compare Shimano's gear set with Daiwa. A bunch of chatter about & even pics of Shimano gear sets and of course the noise issue & pics of broken main gear teeth (aluminum)  I’m still not sure what shimano was thinking but for me, it no longer matters. I bought 5 zillions and 1 - 25 Daiwa 200 Coastal with Hyper everything technology. (All this year) Imo, the Coastal 200 is closer to a HD Zillion than a Tatula. As soon as Bulldog sells me his Monster Ryoga, I’ll be good to go. 😆 These Daiwa reels are very good thus far. Now if we can get them to re-engineer Daiwa USA , we’ll have it made. 😂

I tried a round one once.  I couldnt get use to it.  Only low profiles for me for bass fishing.  When I fish with my buddy in the Gulf all we use is round reels but thats a live bait style.

18 hours ago, redmeansdistortion said:

On that note, I've had plenty of Daiwa and Shimano models in my shop with gear brinnelling.  This is only in the faster geared models.  Brinnelling is when the gear teeth become malformed from stress.

 

18 hours ago, redmeansdistortion said:

If it appears off color, that is brinnelling and no lubrication will fix it.  The reel will still be perfectly usable, it'll just be a little chatterbox until the gears are replaced.  I've seen it mostly with the Tatula platform and Shimanos with micro gearing.  When you read of people saying their reel now sounds geary, brinnelling is the most likely culprit.  It usually happens from fighting fish with the drag set too high or pulling snags with the drag locked.

Yes, I agree, because I've experienced this firsthand more than once when after a very long cast where I needed to lock the drag to move the fish through heavy veg and pads that they dove in to. In both cases the reels were Doyo built Plueger Supreme XTs, and both were noticeably geary afterward.

 

I highlighted this in response to another poster's question on geary-ness shown below and it earned me a flippant "laugh" from a reel "expert".

 

  On 8/24/2025 at 11:16 PM, Bazoo said:

I can tell a minute difference after greasing the gears, but it goes away quick.

Should I get a reel specific grease? Which one?

 

Any other things I can do?

Not really besides a new gear set. Just the nature of the beast, depending on the particular reel, with that particular earlier DOYO geartrain architecture. I've felt them go from relatively smooth to geary after cranking in a 5 pounder through heavy veg and pads with locked down drag.

@PhishLI - yep, a lot of that going around

 

 

@redmeansdistortion I haven't seen this on any of my or other people's Shimano or Daiwa reels but have seen it on one Abu Garcia Winch and a few Lews over the years but I did see a video of a beat up 20 Metanium on Facebook. It was eye opening.  The reel was a mess though.  I took this screen shot of it. This gear is toast.

 

Wish I could post the actual video here. 

 

My reels aren't made by DOYO, as they are made in china, not Korea.

21 minutes ago, Bazoo said:

My reels aren't made by DOYO, as they are made in china, not Korea.

Doyo has facilities in China as well as Korea.

5 hours ago, Bazoo said:

My reels aren't made by DOYO, as they are made in china, not Korea.

Doyo also have chinease production lines.  My 2012 Pro Qualifier came from a Doyo china based production line while my JM Signature series, based on the same platform, came from Korea.  You'll see it with BPS. Lewss and Abu reels.

 

 

I didn't know this. Thanks.

4 hours ago, Bigbox99 said:

Doyo also have chinease production lines.

So does Daiwa. My 2018 BG2500 has made in Chyna on the foot.

11 hours ago, Bazoo said:

I didn't know this. Thanks.

Same here Bazoo. News to me. So I asked AI "does doyo make reels in China?" And this is the AI response:

 

"No, Doyo Engineering Co. Ltd. does not have manufacturing plants in China; it is a South Korean company that manufactures fishing reels for various brands, including those sold in China. While Doyo's facilities are in South Korea, it is possible that some reels sold by Doyo's partners, such as some models from Penn or Orvis, are made in China"

 

So for me, if a Bass Pro reel says Korea on the bottom of it, then it is a doyo as far as I know. But if it does not say Korea on the bottom of the reel then I have always thought it was not a doyo and possibly made in China.

 

This has been important to me because it is the dividing line between Bass Pro reels I will buy and those I won't.

I compared the Z2020 to the first gen Ryoga 2020 and 1016 over years of use. The ryoga is certainly more solidly built, and has a superior gear set that will outlast the one inside the z2020, but when it comes to torque/power, they're indentical. This is the main reason why i don't believe that round reels have an advantage anymore, but then again, not against every low profile reel, obviously.

All reels are a gearbox - you and the handle are the engine - the torque comes from the input - handle length.  Without varying handle length, all you're comparing are gear ratios and stock handles.  

 

The response of the gearbox to the added handle length - increased input torque - is what matters for durability and long life.