One Of MY Favorite Reels

Use this forum to share your stuff so round up your favorite reels! Questions can still go to the Reel Talk - General Forum
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Jonathan P. Kring
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One Of MY Favorite Reels

Post by Jonathan P. Kring »

Not an antique, but one of my favorites to cast with. I won it probably 10 years ago at an open house at a tackle store. I can do better fishing with the Non-antiques.
Last edited by Jonathan P. Kring on Thu Sep 07, 2017 5:53 pm, edited 1 time in total.
Cast your cares upon the Lord. Psalm 55:22
Then He said to them, "follow Me and I will Make you fishers of men". Matthew 4:19
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Midway Tommy D
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Re: One Of MY Favorite Reels

Post by Midway Tommy D »

Those are nice little reels, Jon. You did good!
Love those Open Face Spinning Reels! (Especially ABU & ABU/Zebco)

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Ron Mc
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Re: One Of MY Favorite Reels

Post by Ron Mc »

I'll throw up my Lew's Salt, which is going to get some use this fall.

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Editing this to add a friend and fellow salt fisher put together a stable of Abu Garcia 6500C, and are the only reels he uses.
Last edited by Ron Mc on Wed Sep 13, 2017 8:18 am, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: One Of MY Favorite Reels

Post by Jonathan P. Kring »

I've got a few Lews Casting Reels including a 25th Anniversary Limited Edition Speed Spool N.I.B. No Saltwater, only saltwater around here is what I use to rinse my mouth with or what is created by the home made ice cream freezer. Neither any good for fishing!
Lews cast nice.
Cast your cares upon the Lord. Psalm 55:22
Then He said to them, "follow Me and I will Make you fishers of men". Matthew 4:19
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Re: One Of MY Favorite Reels

Post by Ron Mc »

I fish 3, including two BB1-L variants - would love to have the 25th, though it's basically the same as the Salt reel.
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Re: One Of MY Favorite Reels

Post by Jonathan P. Kring »


Been so long since I looked at it, I had to open the box. You are right again!
Cast your cares upon the Lord. Psalm 55:22
Then He said to them, "follow Me and I will Make you fishers of men". Matthew 4:19
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Ron Mc
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Re: One Of MY Favorite Reels

Post by Ron Mc »

Yep, BB-25SE and BB-25SW. There may be a difference in the spool depth/capacity, and your reel has some very nice gold plating and details that make it a nice collectible.
But these were the last runs of the old Shimano design.
I posted this before on FFR, comparing performance of Lew's to my old Millionaire 6H.
bulldog1935 wrote:one more comment on what makes Lew's design cast farther than Abu - no offense to anyone.
The Lew's spool is larger diameter and Much narrower. I've mentioned how the larger diameter is automatically an anti-backlash improvement.
To cast the same distance, the Lew's spool rotates fewer times than the Abu - everything at the spindle is happening slower, while line is peeling off just as fast.
This gives you a wider error window in your casting brake adjustment, as well as in your cast - less backlash with less skill.
But also, the level-wind mechanism is fully disengaged in the cast, eliminating this source of friction in the cast and its affect on backlash control.
The spool is narrow enough that the sync difference between the LW rider and line position on the spool is insignificant.
...
http://fiberglassflyrodders.com/forum/v ... 33&t=59331
this was a pretty good thread (before PB demise) on FFR about why to use bait tackle v. spinning tackle, which began as a rant that bait tackle has no purpose.

I bought my first Lew because the nickel-plated brass worm gear on my Millionaire wore through and Daiwa wouldn't support it (in 1986). That problem is solved on Lew's - the worm gear is 440, and the pawl is zirconia ceramic - together they will grind sand instead of the other way. I had already given my dad a BB-1LM for his b/d, so now it was my turn, a BB-1NG marked for Browning - I'm still using that reel as my salt back-up.
My 3rd Lew's was a NOS BB-1L found on ebay, which I matched with a Falcon Glass rod. If you don't have an ebay alarm set up for Falcon Glass rod, you should add one - my favorite freshwater bait rod of all time (and I've fished Lew's, Lunkerstik).

My dad's older Lew's Salt is a BB1N variant with the anti-reverse selector. The only weak part on a Lew's reel, I've replaced the bronze anti-reverse pawl on my BB1NG (30 years hard service).
The BB25S are full-time anti-reverse.
Last edited by Ron Mc on Sat Sep 16, 2017 5:37 am, edited 2 times in total.
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Re: One Of MY Favorite Reels

Post by Ron Mc »

I'm in the process of staging gear for the upcoming coast kayak trip (still a month away) - new stern light - checking boat boxes for completeness, removing surplus gear from travel bags, will eventually get around to waxing the boats and Boeshield on the fasteners...
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Reels need lube, maybe minor cleaning from storage, new Boeshield. Found my 35-year old fly fishing fanny pack has frozen solid zippers, and I'll be replacing it (had to cut it open to recover leaders and tippet - salt tackle lives a rough life - even YKK zippers).

I'll be loaning my daughter's rigged boat, and some of my tackle.
As I'm going through my gear a little bit every evening, one other reel shines - my old Penn 4x00SS spinners, which are over 30 years old.
At first picking one up, they wind stiff. One drop of oil on each side of the main bushing, handle, one on the spool shaft, and they're spinning like tops. My Penn 4400SS has fished thousands of miles, thousands of fish - landed big kings and jacks, and just won't quit. The 4200SS UL has landed 30" reds, and here's my daughter horsing big sheepshead on the flats.
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My old guide buddy at the coast fished his Penns, propped them in the garage, and took them out again without even rinsing them. The only reel ever made that can be ridden hard, put away wet, and keeps going.
I don't treat them this way - all my tackle gets a bath after a coast trip.

Don't have a 4x00SS photo to show, but here's a beauty 716.
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In my book, these count as the smoothest and most reliable spinning reels ever made, though Tommy has a great argument with his ABU/Zebco.
I'll also add my top-line Tica Cetus XUL has held up so well for salt pier fishing, I've added a medium Tica Libra to break-in on this trip. I'll have a fishing report late next month - they're a really good buy.

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BTW Jon, the reason this is a salt topic for me, I very rarely use anything but fly tackle in freshwater.
In the salt, fly fishing is best reserved for sight-fishing, and conventional tackle takes over for most blind-fishing, such as drifting a kayak.
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Re: One Of MY Favorite Reels

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In my book, these count as the smoothest and most reliable spinning reels ever made, though Tommy has a great argument with his ABU/Zebco.
They've proven to be great old "war horses", along with the original gray Shakespeare "Wonder" line. They're all well made and I think, at least for me, it boils down to user friendly subtleties like the worm gear anti-reverse, in-the-body drag stack and easy during the play rear drag adjustment, but, hey, they've all proven, over time, to be very very good reels.
Love those Open Face Spinning Reels! (Especially ABU & ABU/Zebco)

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Re: One Of MY Favorite Reels

Post by Ron Mc »

I've gone to copolymer lines. My favorite for 3-lb XUL is Kamakazie Fire Power from Australia, and in heavier lines, I've bought big spools of Seaguar Senshi.

(a line I tried once and wouldn't wish on anyone ever is Berkley Fireline - it's on the Penn 4200SS where my daughter is fighting sheepshead above - our day ended because the line stretched and slid inside the windings on her spool and locked up - but that's ok, too, it was a good day for schoolie specs)
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I'll show off my Japanese salt "tetra" rod. Only the Japanese could come up with a name like this
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It's a 7'9" extreme ultralight salt rod, glass core and exposed glass tip, linear graphite over 70% of the blank,
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and weave graphite giving it a strong butt
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It would actually make a good super-progressive dry-fly rod, which most people use for XUL.
The reel is the diminutive Tica Cetus

it's perfect for catching nursery seatrout off the pier at night, but our last coast trip, over the submerged canal lights, I sight-fished and landed two specs over 20" with it.
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Re: One Of MY Favorite Reels

Post by Jonathan P. Kring »

I bet once she gets those fish hooked, she "wrestles" them in!!
Cast your cares upon the Lord. Psalm 55:22
Then He said to them, "follow Me and I will Make you fishers of men". Matthew 4:19
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Re: One Of MY Favorite Reels

Post by Ron Mc »

In folkstyle, you get points if the other wrestler cries out (seriously) - I keep listening for the sheepshead to cry Uncle.
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