bulldog1935

Line roller is Shimano's weakest point. The Japanese have half-a dozen brands that all fix it the same way. Since I fish salt, the whole sealed line roller idea is a bad idea - saltwater in, steam out. Note, the Shimano line roller is chromed brass (outside only), single ball-bearing, rubber seals and nylon bushings - actually, the nylon parts are galvanic insulators from the yellow metal. This is the same line roller on Stradic to Stella. All the upgrade designs use a better braid groove, same corrosion and wear resistance inside and out, no seals, and dual ball bearings. Spins like a bicycle wheel.

That rod is cane, Norm Thompson Armourcane, which is the same impregnated Farlow's blank sold by Lee Wulff, and sold as (post-fire) Leonard Duracane. 7'6" 5-wt - eventually burned a hole in my pocket, and I sold it, because it's a good value, wide-range functional, and a Gateway rod into cane. Brass Brit ferrules, and the nicest thing about it was the thick-section alloy reel seat.

More proof I began on the darkest side, and my all-time best 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.

I probably set differently from most bass fishermen - my reaction sets are light - kinda like "starting" the hook, mostly coming from salt, hooking big fish with soft mouth membrane. Then on recognition of fish-run, I give a couple of solid sets with power and no jerk. I also use medium leader for abrasion resistance, rarely going below 10 lb, and most often 12- to 14-lb. (JDM leader rates breaking strength rather than lb-test).

C2500 is small frame 2500 is medium frame. @ConnorC - note, there is a significant drag difference between the two reel frames. (small frame uses felt, medium frame carbontex stack). I fish Stradic (large frame and small frame), Vanquish (small frame) and Twin Power (medium frame). Large frame needs a heavier rod to balance, and a favorite rod match is St. Croix Legend Glass. Medium frame and small frame, one-ounce-spread across the reels, can interchange without noticing weight difference, except on the lightest rods (<70 g). Weight difference has never clicked as significant to me, and I don't have a Vanford (new name for Stradic CI4+). Vanquish (magnesium) is the same weight as Vanford (composite), but like Twin Power, is bench-assembled in Japan with technicians matching parts to improve drive smoothness. Vanquish was designed from go to be the ultimate finesse reel, and in a side-by-side comparison, you can recognize the improved drive inertia over Stradic, but even harder to tell the difference against Twin Power. Twin Power was named right, it has everything you gain from forged metal in both body and rotor. I'm sure Certate shares this level of assembly attention, but I also think Shimano worm-drive design (same as Stella) wins an edge. Shimano worm-drive uses labyrinth seals which also improve smoothness, and Certate's edge is both in sealing and light weight. @FishTank has a sweet duo there, and I love the double handle on his Certate model.

I find a lot of uses for PE/acrylic mylar film tape. One of the best is seizing an arbor knot in braid to spool. the tape is extremely tough, only comes off when you want it off, and doesn't leave a glue residue. The tape is so tough, I use it for seizing knots in kayak trolley line, and the tape lasts as long as the double-braid sailcord.

The thing about medium-frame Twin Power, it's not only a beast, it also makes a finesse reel. C3000MHG is a PE1215 spool - 150 m, PE#1.2 - perfect capacity for both bass and inshore. Could make the rod match-up a long story, but looking for an even shallower spool to fit my mid-frame Twin Power, I matched the reel with Vanquish 3000SHG spool (same capacity as 2500S, which would also swap), stacked PE#1 backing with PE#0.6 working line - this came out great. Part of this spare spool choice was remaining stock to fit my '20-series reel - the magnesium spool is also lighter-weight than aluminum spool. The point is perfect line lay result with finesse braid on medium-frame reel and a swap-in spool. One reason I called it done with Shimano worm-drive reels, '19 to '20 models, is the flexibility in swapping spools (I always have a spare in matching frame size).

Bad spool bearing or dirty LW bushing. The LW pawl could also be dirty and dragging on the worm gear. A couple of spool spur-gear thoughts It could also be the end of the spur gear against the palm-plate brass bullet, but that would get quieter reducing the spool tension on the face plate knob. A loose spur gear would both rub the fixed spindle and have bad engagement with the idler gear. You came to the right place, there are at least a few Ambassadeur junkies on BR gear forum. I would spool the line somewhere, and take the LW down to clean and polish bushings and bushing races on the shafts. Clean and oil everything. Always a good time to replace or upgrade spool bearings. If you want to change the nature of your reel, there's a world of upgrades to spool and level-wind, both the Japanese, and Mike's Reel Repair in BC. Mike's offers complete LW kit with dual-BB wormshaft, and offers lighter LW-rider and zirconia pawl. They sell separate BB idler gear options. You can race these reels as far as you want to go, including casting threadline and weights down to 3 g. It's worth noting Abu also likes these upgrades, offering them in bench Factory-Tuned limited edition reels in JDM ($490).

You haven't mentioned a size. My (JDM) C3000MHG is the smoothest reel I own, and a perfect spool depth for 0.19- to 0.24-mm braid. Drag, stiffness, it's a Beast.

both good reels, Certate is lighter, Twin Power has the edge on line management, especially with fine braid. Also probably has the edge on keeping that accurate line management longer.

@Randy Price That's exactly why I bought Omega Pro - at 94, my dad can't cast his baitcasters any more.

^best answer^ When I place orders with Plat.jp, throwing in repair parts is easy and becomes cheap with the existing order (+shipping). I'm sure using their repair parts links, Plat will get the p/n change straight, because they're in constant communication with Shimano and Daiwa. They will also post by airmail now, which saves some $

It is nice panfish gear, except when it's nice redfish/snook gear - never try to box-in BFS.

gratuitous 1500CI on stream rod

@tholmes FK is 1951 model change year. here's your reel in 1951 Ward's catalog (D) In case you're wondering, $8.90 in 1951-$ is $165 in today's money.

Daiwa likes X-shrink grip enough to use it on a $900 tuna rod. (along with everyone else in this market - I don't think you can sell a blue-water rod without X-wrap-over-EVA foregrip - the combination is perfect) Winn Grip wraps like bicycle bar tape, so the specific length needed on a rod grip combined with service life will factor out in my comparison. I will also retain my literary license. If you like Winn Grip, knock your lights out - to me, it ages into spongy snake scale. https://www.rodbuilding.org/read.php?2,512216

skipped the heat gun and used the tea kettle. X-shrink vs. Winn Grip - X-shrink is 20 cents, Winn Grip is 20 dollars. X-shrink lasts longer. Here's where personal tastes vary - Winn Grip feels creepy, X-shrink feels silky, but grips like sandpaper. Since I'm here, also used X-shrink to rescue the splitting soft foam grip on 12-y-o kayak stake-out pole. I made indexed-position hand grips on my straight-shaft kayak power paddle by rolling on closed-cell foam with spray contact cement, and covering with X-shrink. Used bent-shaft touring paddle to index the hand position.

I suspect EVA will melt/burn under power-tool heat, but you can probably gently sand them by hand. If you want to improve them - put X-shrink over them - you can buy it on Amazon - "X-Tube Heat Shrink Wrap" Surf rod above, with a layer of cork tape under the X-shrink. Just below is one of my favorite JDM rod-blank series, with my most-hated grip. The grip is too small for (western) human hands, and the ridge on the back is intended to split 3rd and 4th fingers, to keep your 4th (little) finger in contact with the blank. But on me, it splits 2nd and 3rd fingers, and splits them wide - very uncomfortable. I used spare closed-cell foam sheet, blue tape, and X-shrink to test a new shape - easy to cut off and start over. When I liked it, I built up the grip with cork tape, eliminating the ridge, and covered in X-shrink. I did the same thing on 2 rods/ grips, and I love this grip shape. Buy the diameter that's close, but easy to slide over your grip. Easiest way to apply it is boiling water from a tea kettle - pour from the center to one end, then from center to the other end.

X-Protect - X-Protect is a three-lipped rubber seal system which is designed to keep low pressure water out of the reel. The grease between the second and third lips resists high pressure water. Besides the rubber seals, a labyrinth construction is added in order to make it waterproof for a much longer time. All of this does not affect the smooth rotor rotation or (sic) roller (bearing) performance. https://reelcatalog.com/shimano-reel-technologies-dascription The rubber seal is not a simple rubber seal, but part of a labyrinth seal. As far as the design of the A/R roller bearing assembly, it improves roller element alignment under spindle deflection, to prevent slippage under higher spindle/rotor deflection - that is, under higher fish loads - higher drag loads. It also improves wear resistance by reducing roller element contact stress under radial loads - wear can cause eventual A/R failure.

I don't have my first baitcaster, which was Daiwa Millionaire 6H (1978). Plated brass worm gear with 440 pawl. When surf sand cut through the worm gear, and Daiwa wouldn't support parts for the 7-y-o reel, I went to Lew's, zirconia pawl and 440 worm gear. Still have my 2nd, 3rd and 4th baitcasters. (Gave the ersatz Millionaire to a machinist friend, so he could tinker with the drive plate mechanism - also didn't buy my next Daiwa until 2020 - 35 years later). My last BB-25, I retired at the end of 2018. If you want to go way back (before my time), I have Meek, Talbot, and Jack Welch Heddon to tinker-cast and have caught quite a few bass. fwiw, there was never a time spinning tackle was go-to for me over baitcaster, but vise-versa. Most of my life, fly rod was first, and even drift (blind) fishing coast flats, I kept a rigged fly rod in the rod holder, and would swap to it in fish sign.

Honestly, get over 33 and try an Omega Pro (or at least Delta). Adding spool oscillation for line lay really improves cast distance.

answering out of turn, new A/R clutch begins with '18 Stella, '19 Stradic ... '21 Sustain and continues on all newer worm drive series. Discussed on this famous Stradic take-down. It's beefed-up, it's better sealed, doesn't need to be removed to lube the gears. It's also here to stay.

MTCW again only makes TD drag cap for small frame, both Shimano and Daiwa. But if they offered them for medium and large frame, I'd have them there, also.

I promise you it's not over-spooled - none of my reels has ever slipped a multiple line loop on max-distance finesse shore fishing. The spool is full when my fingernail slides flush from the bottom of the line clip groove. Honestly, this is why you want these reels - to get line management this accurate (and unequaled).