My buddy and I were fishing a tournament on a very hot 1998 summer day on Indian Lake in Ohio. We didn't have much weight and it was getting late in the day. I skip-pitched a tube way, way back under a boat dock that also had a submerged boat lift next to it. A 3.75-pound largemouth grabbed the tube and took off like a rocket – way back under that dock and boatlift. Thanks to some very good line, my XLT-Plus' tightened down drag and its very solid gearing, I managed to winch that bass out of that mess. We didn't win that tournament but because of the additional weight that fish provided, we moved up in the points standings for that tournament and the year, and made the end-of-year championship by very few points.

Also, my five friends and I have taken a yearly fishing trip up to Lake St. Clair since 1991, and my XLT-Plus has gone with me every year (I actually have two). On St. Clair, you catch a very wide variety of fish from bass to muskies. My XLTs have stood up to every fish and every kind of fish I've ever hooked without a problem.

This last year, I finally started phasing out the XLTs, as now I'm replacing them with Revos. If I get half the usage out of the Revos that I got from the XLTs, I'll be happy. I'll never get rid of my XLTs, probably for sentimental reasons. They definitely made me an Abu-Garcia man for life.

George "Scott" McDonald
Huber Heights, Michigan

Does your Abu Garcia reel have some mileage? Then why not enter it in the Abu Garcia For Life! contest? Show us your "classic" or well-used Abu and you might win a new one. Click here to submit a picture of the reel, as well as a detailed story or two about its history.