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| Let's hear your opinions ladies and gents. Is it a Shimano, Abu-Garcia, Diawa, Okuma, Teca or some other make and model? |
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Posts: 2037
Location: lansing, il | bass pro makes a great reel for 100 bucks, i used the gander mountain reels most of the fall, and had no problems as well. |
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Posts: 476
Location: WI | I really like Pete Maina's reel Bass Pro Shop PMX3000 MH. I got it at Esox Angler Store in Hayward, WI after mybrand new Corvalus blew up. It is made really well. I have a lot of Abu's. but probably will switch them over to Maina's as they retire.
GotOne |
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Posts: 2515
Location: Waukesha & Land O Lakes, WI | The GS reels are nice, they're made by Pflueger, you can get them in both low speed and high speed in 55 and 66 sizes. Not bad at all for about $80.00 |
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Posts: 2037
Location: lansing, il | i might add with the gander or bass pro reels, if anything goes wrong with them, they will pretty much exchange them with no problems! the gs66 low speed is the one i used most of the fall. very nice reel! |
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Posts: 2894
Location: Yahara River Chain | I like my abus. I carry parts while in Canada if they should fail which is nearly never, I can fix them. Also, abu parts are good for a whole range of the abu reels. They have been around for ever & have e proven track record. |
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Posts: 2068
| My 3 Shimano Cardiff 400's held up this year to a lot of abuse - not a calcutta -but a $99 each pretty hard too beat! |
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Posts: 94
| I have some Abu Garcia's about 30 years old that I still use. They just need some PM and replacement parts every so often. |
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Posts: 2427
Location: Ft. Wayne Indiana | I would highly suggest the Tica Caiman CM200's. I have used them the past couple of seasons and really like them. They hold up very well, are really smooth and have nice thumb bars.
Very high quality reel.
Another option is the Gander Mountain 66
I have also used the Gander Mountain reels and don't have a problem promoting these either, nice reel for the money. I would stay away from the gold high speed ones though, as well as the 56's. The best one, and the only one I haven't broke is the Guide Series 66. The silver one. |
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| Buy a used Calcutta 400 on ebay and you are set...Ben |
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Posts: 207
Location: Mpls, MN | Hulbert - Don't you blow through a lot of reels? I recall reading a post somewhere where you toasted 4 reels in as many days. or something like that. Was trying to figure out what the heck you do to them! LOL
I like my Abu 6500 C3s and 6600SSC3. About $50 and $85 respectively.
Edited by mm12463 12/21/2005 3:52 PM
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Posts: 2427
Location: Ft. Wayne Indiana | I used to blow through a lot of reels before I switched brands.
What was I doing with them.....fishing 225 days year will do it. |
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Location: Contrarian Island | it's not under a 100 bucks, but close.... check out the Abu Big GAme 6500 CL at 1stopfishingshop.com
Same guts as the 7000 CL which are rock solid...the guy only has 3 left..he can update the drag to a smoothy drag if you want to...
Edited by MSKY HNR 12/21/2005 4:51 PM
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Posts: 561
Location: Monee, Illinois | Tica's are nice.....Reel like my Okuma very good real also....Never had a problem with my Tica until my last trip so right now the only reel I have not had any trouble with is my Okuma...
pga |
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Posts: 1504
Location: Oregon | I have a Quantum 1421 and it is the nicest baitcast reel I own, no problems whatsoever and will literally cast a mile! Here is a link to one:
http://www.protacklemuskyshop.com/cataloguereels.php?td=type&displa...
I personally would not go with ABUs.....have had several the past few years fail on me. I think ABU used to make a great but the new ones are plagued with probs.
Haven't tried the Tica reels but plan on doing so soon.
Jed V.
BBC |
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Location: Contrarian Island | The Abu I mentioned above was stopped being made a couple + years ago...all made in Sweden not the made in china ones...if you want a solid reel the Big Game CL is worth it...
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Posts: 184
| I highly recommend the Pete Maina reels at Bass Pro. For the price, they are the best reel on the market. I am like Hulbertt in that I fish 250 days a year, and the reels I was using earlier this season SUCKED beyond belief, and I switched back to the Maina reels in July, and had little or no problems with them the rest of the season. That was impressive. Are they the greatest reel? No, but for the price range, you can't beat them!! I just can't afford the expensive ones. It is a shame that you have to pay a F-ing arm and a leg just to get a dependable, reliable reel that you can use more than ten times a year. I just started a company called Musky Armor, and we are already researching how to make an awesome reel and not make it so expensive, something in the $100 range and as good as a Calcutta TE. It might take us some time, but we will do it!! Keep your eyes and ears out for it in the next year or two!! Anyone that has any crazy ideas on how to make the ultimate reel can email me at [email protected]. I want to combine all of the good qualities of different reels into one mack daddy!!
Chad Cain |
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Posts: 1270
| Most all Abu baitcast reels are still made in Sweden the exceptions are the newer low profile and the 7000's are assembled there. |
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Posts: 484
Location: St. Louis, MO., Marco Is., FL, Nestor Falls, ON | I have fished the Pflueger Trion 66's for about 4 years now. I fish 200 days per year in fresh and saltwater. I have had no failures. I just clean, lubricate and fish. I, too have Abu's that are over 30 years old. But in all honesty, while reliable, they just don't match up to the newer reels. I also fish Calcutta's and they certainly are better than the Pflueger's, but I can get two Pfluegers for the price of one Calcutta and the difference isn't that much. I have been happy with the Trion 66's. |
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| I nominate the Bass Pro Pete Maina reels too. I had everything but Calcutta's (can't bring myself to spend the $) and the best one with the least probs is the Bass Pro reel. |
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| For under 100 it'd have to be abu, in the 100 to 200 range it might be a diffent story. I like the higher end shimanos but have never been impresed with their lower end reels. I've had a couple different shimanos right around 90-100 and thought that they should be $50 reels tops and would take a $65 abu over them any day of the week. |
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Posts: 354
| After reading Rpieske's responses a few years back I have the Trion 66 a shot. They are every bit as good as he states. I have
been very pleased with both their durability and casting performance. Not as nice as the Diawa Millionaire but as stated above
I can buy 2 trions and have change left over for the price of one Calcutta/Millionaire, etc. Great reel for the money. |
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Posts: 3913
| I haven't used many of the reels discussed above, so my opinion is limited. But limited insight rarely stops me from offering ideas.....
I use the 5000 and 6000 series Abus. I don't recall how much this consideration was discussed in this thread, but I would emphasize that the 5000 and 6000 series reels are VERY easy to work on. Exploded diagrams are free from the Abu web site. Replacement parts are readily available. And more important (to me) I can easily improve the performance by replacing the stock parts with "reel candy" like Smooothie Drag Washers (a must) and adding a second bearing to help the worm gear. So, the 5000 and 6000 C3's are like late 60's Cameros - you can do all kinds of easy stuff to trick 'em out.
From my experience, the weakest parts of the reels are the drag washers (which are weak right out of the box), the Pawl which always wears down with many hours of use, and the stinkin' handle pads that pop off when I set the hook really hard on trees and such. Gears wear down, too, over time, but those can be replaced (you can even change the reel's original retrieve speed). All of these parts are available and inexpensive; I have a little reel repair kit I take on trips in case I need to fix a reel while on the road.
Check this out: for the past 3 years I've bought only the 5600AB. 5 so far. Yes, the Anti-backlash model that everyone hated. I've found them in mint condition for as little as $12, box and all. Never paid more than $25, I think. I strip out the anti-backlash stuff and rebuild the reel with various parts I order from Hatterass Outfitters. I probably have about $40 invested in each one. They work great for me.
I would be curious to hear if folks above are able to easily maintain/clean/repair/improve the reels that they recommend. What's your opinion, Reel Repair Dude? |
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Posts: 485
Location: On my favorite lake! | I have to give the nod to abu garcia 6500 c3's and c'4s. They are made well and if something does go wrong with them, the parts are accessible. You can also modify them. Morado also makes some good quality reels. I bought one of these for $30 and it has never ever given me a problem. |
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| Thanks for the responses guys. I ended up buying an Abu garcia 6600SSC3 from Reed's for $67 after tax and shipping was all tallied. Not a bad price at all. |
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Location: Northern Wisconsin | so far my abu c3's have held up well but one of my gander gs66's blew out after only a week of
using it. i may have been doing something wrong too though and the nice thing is gander gave me
money back with out a problem. |
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Posts: 1504
Location: Oregon | Hey Ranger,
I wish my luck with the ABU's had been as good as yours! I bought two of the anti-backlash ABU's a few years back too. (I have two others, they are another story). I immediately starting having problems with the backlash stuff so took it all off. Then the worm gear went on one of them and reel flat wouldn't reel on the second. I sent them off and they fixed the worm gear and told me a small part had mistakenly not been installed on the second. About six months go by, worm gear blows again, the reel quits reeling on the second one again! I send them off, they repair both and send them back. Maybe 3 months go by and the worm gear goes again on the same reel! So I set it aside and keep fishing with the one ABU that still works. After a month or so it starts to squeel with every cast so loud it's frightening and then the spool stays in the "release" location after pushing the buttom, I give up! I continue fishing with my bantams that are both 20 years old and still working perfectly! I send them both back to ABU with a letter asking that they replace them with one reel that works, they tell me "too bad". So I am all done with ABU.
On a side note, I have an acquintance that works for Sportsmans Warehouse and he tells me that the ABUs are returned far more than any other reel they offer. I don't know why this is since they look to be well built, strange.
Jed V.
Edited by RiverMan 12/25/2005 10:41 AM
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Posts: 34
Location: St Cloud, MN | go with the cabela's exclusive abu-garcia c5 mag. $90 worth $190 |
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Posts: 32934
Location: Rhinelander, Wisconsin | I have a couple Okumas that have treated me well, got them for about $60 apiece. |
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Posts: 561
Location: Monee, Illinois | Steve Right O on the Okumars (cant spell) like I said before I used to like Tica's until my last time out...It messed up pretty good and they have had the reel for about 2 months now and still have not gotten the reel back. I guess if you are not a guide they don't treat you very well..
pga |
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