bulldog1935

https://fiberglassflyrodders.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=33&t=76517 The essay I linked, I titled Paradigm baitcaster design - design changes on a reel model that became so universal, we wouldn't recognize a baitcaster today without them. Heading in a different direction, back to our OP question, Japan has an underground market in Isuzu bench-built synchro reels. These reels are in such demand, the Isuzu-branded reels are sold by lottery, and the finishes they make for lure shops are sold in advance by reserve. They also build Megabass Pagani. ^ these two are mine ^ these two aren't. Historically, the reels that retain their original value in current inflated dollars were bench-built - if you go back 100 years, it's Meek, Talbot and Jack Welch Heddon (vs. mass-produced Heddon) bench-made Pflueger (vs. mass-produced) - Kovalovsky, Bogdan, Fin-Nor. Valuable postwar mass-produced reels in today's market originally stood apart from the herd because of their quality and durability - green Penn, Ambassadeur. Here's one - Seigler USA bench-built lever drag.

I'm a huge fan of Lew's Super Duty G (LFS), which I have two for inshore, and also a fan of Lew's mag brake. Generally, their centrifugal is a better brake for casting over 1/2 oz. On TX coast at least, you're mostly fishing 1/8 to 1/4 oz, 3/8 for deeper flats and slopes. The reason, we fish so much <2' grass, even with 3/8 oz, you'll spend more time hauling up grass than fish. Lew's mag brake casts the light end almost as well as BFS. Not too many people love their Lew's enough to do this to them. My first one, the cathodic coating on the magnets showed filliform corrosion beginning after 4 years in the salt, so that's the first thing to watch for - watch and replace these, because the corrosion product of the magnet is more corrosive to the rest of the metal than the salt. When I replaced mine, I used stronger Nd-magnets, and had to use fewer magnets to get the same cam-adjustment profile

My drag gets set with a spring balance first time I set up the reel, and never changed. The only time it will get changed is swapping a spool on a spinning reel, and after baitcaster maintenance when the star drag gets removed. My drag has never let me down, from finesse to bluewater. When you use Cal's drag washer grease, never leave excess. If you wet the washer surfaces including the edges then remove all of it, you've left the perfect film on the drag washer. Also, you only use Cal's on carbon drag washers. Felt/fiber washers and silicon carbide washers should be used dry. Cal's grease is heat resistant, and doesn't lose its viscosity or decompose with heat - up to a limit. If you need to go higher (offshore), you can buy grades of heat resistance, e.g., from MTCW. A friend told a story about repeated bonefish break off because he had never used drag grease on his drag washers, and his carbontex drag froze up. His tune was changed.

My first baitcaster was a 6H in 1977. By 1980, I could fish it from weightless to 2-oz spider weights in the surf.

@Delaware Valley Tackle In 1954, Isuzu Ind. (not the car maker, but a family-owned machine shop) took apart an Ambassadeur. They were already bench-making fishing reels. They've been bench-making their own version since expired patent rights let them. It's an underground market, even in Japan. They built Megabass Pagani. (Bright River builds the Pagani rod handle). Isuzu's motto is, "Born in Europe, Perfected in Japan" Isuzu sells their own marked reels by lottery, and they mark more reels for lure shops across Japan - most of those are sold in reserve when the model is announced. They come off the bench with full BB LW. Last year's version of Smith Plugger was the 50th Anniversary model. Here's their drive, and my '21 small-frame Smith Plugger. To get one across the big pond, you have to bird dog Yahoo auctions, and buys I can live with only come up about once or twice/yr.

Hi friend, My 4600C3 is a 6.3-geared Royal Express - one reason for the long 90-mm handle. I picked up spare 6.3 main gear and pinion along the way (either ebay or Dad's Ole Tackle website, also Mike's Reel Repair in BC) - stashed them because I knew I'd probably want them later. I ended up using those gears when I built a custom 4500CT (non-level wind) entirely from parts for salt use - shore microjigging. And yes, the answer to your question, you only need those two gears to speed up your reel, and the parts are out there. Reel width decides the worm gear, and there are only two idler gears in all Ambassadeur history - all the recent ones are the same. For both of these parts, there are ball-bearing upgrade aftermarket parts that pop right in. These reels are a blast to work on, because all the parts are big, and everything makes sense.

We need to get some bass on this cool thread before it gets skated off to OFS. These are my short river kayak rods made for close fishing and for round reels. The old-style rods are new, JDM Smith Ltd. and Bright River, but they're made like old school bass rods from the 70s, with separate offset handles and rod blades that you can swap, like old Fenwick/Champion. Top to bottom, my frogger is Ambassadeur 4600C on graphite Smith GFO-60MH, 1/2 to 1 oz; The 4500C in the middle is on a 5' Bright River Concorde MM, composite glass, 1/4 to 3/4 oz; The 5'6" S-glass ML on bottom, Smith FO-56, is matched with a Smith Plugger, small-frame synchro reel, bench-made by Isuzu Ind. I have one other Smith graphite blade, ML that swaps best into the lower combo, making it 6'3".

C3000MHG is shallow spool, but it has larger spool diameter, plus beefed-up large-frame drag, spindle, and rotor in a mid-frame.

The recommendation would be not to go below PE#1 diameter to avoid line dig. That said, I've fished PE#0.8 on 3 BFS reels including Daiwa with no problems (and Big fish) A line I've gone back to lately is Varivas Super Trout Advance Max Power easier to link than say - but it's on 2 reels now - - https://www.varivas.fishing/products/super-trout-advance-max-power-pe-x8/ This is threadline, and needs a shallow spool to work best. I can strongly recommend this aftermarket spool, which has moving SV rotor to solve cast jerk. https://www.ebay.com/itm/113871839091 The vendor is in Thailand, where Ray's Studio is made. The reel below is going into 4th (hard) year without a backlash.

Tsunami Airwaves Elite. The staggered ferrule has great action.

the fact that bowing to a jumping fish is a conscious forced decision doesn't change its value or result.

All correct @MN Fisher a solid set on a running fish is better than jamming him on the strike. Have you tried "bowing" to a jumping fish? This is an automatic reaction coming from fly rod and 3-lb tippet - your rod drops and your arms go forward. Size 18 to 22 hook, etc. As far as solid hookset goes, this girl was in a constant tail stand with her head flapping when she came up. At the boat, she slammed her head on my hull 3 or 4 times.

@oldschoolbasser We have an Ambassadeur photo thread that needs more photos.

Hi friend, I just wet the knot with pink-label Zap CA+ while it's hanging with a light load My knots have lasted 3 years, though good thing I put on a new leader in the spring.

Wrong choice. I use improved Allbright knot on both ends - of course, I've been rolling these 40 years. Double-uni is the right knot to join mono of the same diameter, or braid of the same diameter, but not mono to different diameter braid.

Somehow, this discussion ended up on a different thread, also. Daiwa's Zero Set is just what it says, it sets Zero on the spool. Zero tension, zero side play. A little side play is a better result than a little tension. You can probably live with up to a mm of side play, but what you're really looking for is incipient side play. Find side play and dial it out. If you have too much side play, it affects the mag. If the reel is leaning toward palm plate, the spool slides that way and increases mag. More likely, you'll cast with the handle down, which can reduce the mag you went to the effort to set. As the spool slides that way, there's less inductor mass in the mag field, etc.

@WRB is correct - you want incipient side play. Adjust spool tension to side play, and dial it in to where side play just disappears. I know it's off topic, but you can mess up your Daiwa SV brake with excessive side play - the spool can slide toward the reel handle side during cast, and you won't have enough inductor mass in the mag field to work.

no, it has to be a Tatula spool with longer spindle. The only moving rotor Tatula spool I can find on Express website is 32 mm for '20 Tatula. Give a fixed rotor a try - if you have a smooth cast, it won't be a problem and will cast your lures into next week.

yes, that will save you a lot of potential start-up backlash with (inadvertent) added snap at beginning or end of your cast stroke. Folks seem to like the blue Ray's Studio SV spool on my Zillion - going into 4th year in salt ML niche (1/8 oz) without ever a backlash, and always casts farther than I need.

Fixed inductor spools are by far the lightest, e.g., Roro-X and AMO. These are down to 4 g, and will cast the lightest lures notably farther than anything else out there. You also need to stick to light lures with them and cast without jerk. They have no defense against start-up jerk if you cast heavier lures (3/8+ oz) or snap your wrist. The fixed rotor turns your SV into a full-time linear mag brake (solving mid-cast backlash). Moving inductor spools such as Ray's Studio are a bit heavier (7 g), totally forgiving, and make up for all the shortcomings of stock Daiwa spools. They will still cast 1/8 oz beyond your dreams, but not quite in the 1/16-oz league as the Roro and AMO spools described above. What they add is the ability to fish heavier lures and you don't need to be very particular about your cast. The moving rotor acts like a centrifugal brake to eliminate start-up overshoot (backlash) from spool jerk.

Adding to that, when you get a big fish in shallow water, and you're in a kayak, whether it's a bass on a wide flagstone river bottom, or redfish in the grass, you must have enough rod to stop them from going under the boat. Their aim is not to go down, but to go 30 yards wide of you on the other side. If your rod is too soft and they take it against the hull, the leverage will simply make it explode. Of course you're guiding the rod around the boat when you can, but a strong fish close to the boat still has a few exploding lunges left in them. It's different when you're in deeper open water or even wading - you can wait out a fish using a rod with less butt power.

I'm the full-time Japan shopper, so I throw in ZPI Racing or Hedgehog Alchemy depending on where I'm loading up a cart. Here in the US, SurfcastProShop normally carries RocketReelCo RocketFuel from UK, but he's totally OOS. BaitFinesseEmpire normally carries Shimano and Hedgehog, and he's totally OOS. Tried CarolinaFishing, who normally carries ZPI - OOS. TackleTrap comes through - medium light and drag-down shows ultralight https://tackletrap.com/products/hedgehog-studio-alchemy-oil-medium-light?_pos=1&_sid=1bb6daa64&_ss=r @galyonj - they formulate the oil viscosity and their "secret" ingredient is nano-diamond that polishes everything in its path. https://zpi-japan.com/products/F-zero.html#extralong_cast They're in all the products I listed, and regardless of opinion, they win casting tournaments. And of course the subject here is micro-casting - getting the most with light weight. On unsheilded spool bearings, you never need more than a drop, but you need that drop about 1/mo when you're fishing. Odds are, you'll never empty the bottle.

@Fishing_Rod my back acre is 150' wide, with a clearing the full width, and conveniently spaced wild shrubs for distance markers (also make good skip-cast targets). I'm able to do distance trials swapping different rods, spools and spool bearings. Since I shore-fish salt, mostly in winter imitating glass minnows (tide passes and nite-lite dock fishing a navigation channel), dialing in distance and reliable casts are very important for that niche.

@ghost thanks again, it was a great question that allowed me to sneak in some useful stuff. To me, it's the US system that rates everything by lb-test that confuses everyone. The rest of the world uses diameter for lines and line capacity, and Japan sticks to their traditional silk thread diameter scale, even using it on mono and fluoro leader. (#3 leader, #1.5 1520 large frame spinning spool)

@ghost - right here, friend PE#, dia., equiv. mono, braid test (varies greatly by braid mfg, and spool capacity is based on diameter.) Per Jun Sonada, you can fish down to PE#1 on a reel with a swapped-in BFS spool. Smaller than that, you should be using a reel with increased LW pitch to prevent line dig., e.g., Silver Wolf, Air, etc. All that said, I have no troubles fishing PE#0.8 on BFS-mod Ambassadeur 1500C, and Steez I showed in my first post, which is my best light-lure caster.