A unique website dedicated to fishing information from Florida's Northern Big Bend. This includes the area from the Econfina River west to the Apalachicola River
Chalk,
I have 2 reels just like yours, but never had the problem you described. The thumb bar gets stuck on one of mine sometimes, I take it apart and oil it and it works ok. You might try replacing the braking parts if you can get some. It would beat buying a new reel.
I talked with a reel modifier on another forum about it....He said the spool should click on the palming side.....I'm gonna check that tonight....Probably gonna tear it down, clean it good and oil it....The mechnical brake might have some trash on it to.....TC....I'm too deep in Abus to bail now.... 4 C3s and a C4...I sure have been doing alot of maintenance lately though ...Had a Shimano Citica that I loved til it started acting up.....
The Curado replaced the Citica..I believe....The Citica had a magnetic spool control..would cast a country mile.....I gave up trying to fix it and sent it to Basspro...for repair....They said it was noted for not working right after you took it apart ..That's how I got the Stradic......
I'm playing with the Abu..ordering some ABECO7 bearings and some Rocket Fuel bearing oil..I should be able to burn my thumb print off and create the world best birds nest
Looks like one of the legs on the mechanical brake is bent a hair...Never had it apart..wonder how it bent?
Think that was the main culprit, but there was clods of factory grease floating around and I found hair too .....I got the reel in May....I guess a major cleaning every 6 months for this one and a shorter wig are in order....
Oh No <gasp> a hair? Once they've had a hair in them they're done. Send it to me, I'll get rid of it for you, free of charge.
What kind of oil are you using? On my Ambassadeurs I've found to stick with old school 3-n-1, Marvel or something similar and stay away from the teflon "super" lubricants. They lubricate great, too well I have found, causing the spool to spin wildly out of control when casting creating horrendous backlashes. Another problem I have found with this stuff is in order to get it out of the reel once it's been sprayed it in there is to strip it down and completely degrease everything, then re-lube with something a little more controllable.
Of course I've only been using casting reels, mainly Ambassadeurs, for 30 something years, maybe I just need to fish more for the practice.
Degreased and oiled with 3-1.....It seems to be better.....Rocket Fuel reel oil come highly recommended.....I'm going to order some and give it a try....Almost all the distance casters use it...
Distance casters???? Is that some new type of competition I ain't heard of? What's the current record? \
The reason it's not working right, is because you took the dang hair out of it. It's designed into the brake system. If the hair was black, then you should change it to blonde. Black is a Georgia hair, blonde is a Florida hair.
Chalk, let me know if you still need backing up to the ramp lessons.
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..That's how I got the Stradic......
