Paging Alan Tani

Alan:

Any opinionon the new Record Series Abus?  I saw one at OPS in Rohnert Park and I was in LOVE    The large spindle spool begs for straight spectra rockfishing.

i saw the reel.  very nice.  it has carbon fiber drags, but no teflon grease.  you guys can fix that, right?  go for it!  alan

Thanks Alan.  That is my next reel purchase, it will go perfectly with my Kunz ling-stick.

definitely looks like it has the bling-appeal worthy of a kunz rod.

what's this about the

large spindle spool

? I didn't see that covered here:


http://www.tackletour.com/reviewabugarciarecord.html
or here:
http://www.jacksonlures.com/Commerce2/AbuRecord.html

I'm assuming this means that the spindle part of the spool is a cylinder with a greater than normal diameter?

is it just to avoid putting a ton of expensive spectra on there?

since the drag washers are the same size on a 40, 50 or 60, why not just use a 40 series instead of 50 if one is going to use spectra? the only issue I see is that only the 60 has a clicker (just like only the 6500 C3,C4 have a clicker, which seems a little behind the super-line times).

I guess a smaller spool would mean the effective retrieve rate decreases faster than with a wider spool, but that would only happen after a lot of line is pulled out.

wanting a left-hand abu with a clicker, maybe for salmon next summer, I bought a 6501 SSC4 for 40 odd bucks from http://www.ffo-tackle.com.  it's no record, but it looks like it'll do the job.

If you don't want to use spectra the spools can be replaced with the spools from the old c3s or c4s.  The only thing that I really like about it for rockfish is the thum bar.  other than that it seems about the same except for the drag witch we all know can be fixed and one more Bering on the spool shaft that would help casting but make it more susceptible to saltwater.

pat, can you check a box and tell us if the main gear is stainless steel or brass.  brass limits the drag pressure to 8 pounds.  stainless does not.  thanks.  alan tani (sorry, having trouble logging in).

I don't think there is anything magical about the reel, its just a nicer version of what I already love, and its only about $30 bucks more.  The materials are nicer, details like the handle, drag star, bridge, and thumb bar are nicer, etc.  The big diameter of the spool would allow me to skip the base layer of mono I have to put on my spectra reels which would be kinda nice.  Definitely want to go with the narrower 50 series, no clicker need for rockies.  Thanks again for your expertise Alan.

The main gear is brass Alan.

no comments on the wider spindle? 

thanks, pat!  the brass gear limits the reel to 8 pounds of drag.

jm. the larger spool is probably there for spectra.

maybe 150 yards of 20# spectra, pat?

nice reel. classic lines.  i'd pull the new carbon fiber drag washers and grease them, and also grease screw holes and lube the bearings.  alan

Alan why would Tackle Tour claim.

Drag: We tested the drag in our lab for power, consistency, and smoothness. When cranked all the way down we were able to produce a potent 13.5 pounds of drag pressure!

absolutely no doubt that you can do that!  that's why i asked about stainless steel gears.

i had a guy that asked about 10 pounds of drag from an ambassaduer, probably a 5500 c3.  i said no.  he said try it anyway.  so i spooled the reel up with 40# test mono, set the drag to 10 pounds, tied a surgeon's loop at the end of the line, looped it over the trailer hitch of the truck, and walked 75 feet from the driveway to the side street. 

the gears were toast.  and a new set was $20, which included tax and shipping.  so maybe they just tugged and got 15#'s on the scale.  i doubt that the covered any distance.  no way you could fish this reel with 30# spectra and 10#'s of drag.  not if you wanted to keep this reel for a while. 

Is there a small reel that you could fish the spectra with 10 lbs of drag?

well that is good to know about the 8lbs. thanks for that bit of wisdom!

I have no idea what I typically set my drag to, I never measure it. but the gears
still turn no worse than before, so I guess less than 8.

Do they sell stainless gear upgrades anywhere? no doubt something
else would break then. pretty soon you have a diawa saltist in your hands.

20lb fireline is equivalent to 8lb mono diameter (more or less). 125 yards almost fills a 4600 spool.
you have room for a good mono topshot over that.

the ratio of capacity of a 5500 to 4600 spool is 1.85

30lb FINS braid is 8lb mono diameter so I guess you can have 250 yards of 30lb braid on
a 5500.  which is plenty for rockfish, ling and halibut under 120 feet unless I just haven't figured something
out yet. caught a 25lb-ish halibut so far, but only an 8lb ling. maybe the big ling needs
the big drag and string, I don't know.

So I guess I'm back to wondering why bother with a 6 series for spectra if the drag washers
are the same size as on the 5 and 4 series and a 5 series will hold 250 yards of string
that is more than twice what the gear train can hold?

what can you catch with 8lbs of drag? Everything short of tuna around here?

Sean, you should like this, this is ammo for buying a saltist or avet or something! finally an excuse for
a more expensive reel, lightweight plus high drag pressure!

I would guess 150-200 yds of 20# power pro 6# diamater. 

I like to run 30# power pro with a topshot of about 10 feet of 20# mono  for rockfish I would guess I set my drag at about 6#s I wouldent want to use strait 30 on the kayak for rockfish because I dont think I could break it off if I got snaged.  The reason I use 30 instead of 20 braid is so I break the mono instead of the braid.