

I could have used any reel lube and I already had the proper tools, but I figured you can't go wrong using the original manufacturer spec'd stuff. Having the parts nicely separated and organized made things go much smoother.įor tools and lube, I bought an Abu Garcia Maintenance Kit. I discovered that that particular pearl of wisdom was essential because there were a lot of small parts that were easy to lose and even easier to forget where they went. One particularly great piece of advice that Catfish Edge gave was to use an egg carton to store the pieces as I removed them. But some quick Google searches cleared up all questions as they arose. For example, I had no idea what a "pawl" was. The only issue I ran into was my own ignorance about mechanical parts jargon. The instructions from the Catfish Edge site were spot-on. The Ambassadeur reel is simple, purposeful, well-laid out, with good parts quality, and built for service.

An admiration for old-fashioned quality, when reliability and serviceability were held in higher regard than number of features and minimizing Cost Of Goods Sold. Disassembling it, examining the innards, and seeing how it works, I got that same feeling I get when I peer into the chassis of an old Hiwatt tube amp, or look at a vintage Leica or Hasselblad camera. Having now taken one apart and re-built it, I have even more respect for them. And notwithstanding the issues I'm having with mine, they'll cast very long distances. If you take care of them, you can pass them on to your children. But they're elegantly simple and have a long-standing reputation for quality. They don't have all the fancy features and ergonomic designs of whatever the latest bass reels are. The Swedish-made Ambassadeur round baitcasters are a true classic.

So armed with the instructions on the Catfish Edge web site, I opened her up. But this particular one hadn't been casting very well for the last month. This last weekend I spent some time cleaning and lubing one of my Abu Garcia Ambassadeur 6500C3 reels.
