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Abu Garcia, For Life!
Abu Garcia, FOR LIFE!

These words are more than just a tagline – they're what drives our company. Abu Garcia reels are designed to last a lifetime and be passed from generation to generation. From the history-making original Record to the hottest low-profile on the market today – the Revo – Abu Garcia continues to deliver performance-designed reels that last a lifetime.

Does your Abu have some mileage? 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 few tidbits about its history.

Thanks for choosing Abu Garcia, FOR LIFE and good luck!

Charles E. Stewart

  • Model: 5000C
  • Year Purchased: 1960s
  • Where Purchased Hardware store

    My father gave me three of these reels in the early 1970s. I grew up fishing for musky in Ohio on the Muskingum Watershed Conservancy lakes. I caught a lot of smaller musky, but never one over 20 pounds. My largest was one that weighed 17 pounds and measured 41 inches. My father would row our 12-foot More...

  • Bill Williams

  • Model: 5001C
  • Year Purchased: 1972
  • Where Purchased Tackle store

    March 24, 1973. I was pre-fishing for a club tournament on Lake Toho. I was sick and ready to go home when my fishing partner requested I stop and try a stretch of Kissimmee grass before we left. The third cast I hooked a bass that I thought was small until it wrapped itself up in the grass. After More...

  • Tom Harkman

  • Model: Cardinal 353
  • Year Purchased: 1987
  • Where Purchased: K-Mart (by Santa)

    I thought this all-red Cardinal reel was the coolest thing ever when I opened it Christmas morning. This was the first open-faced reel I'd ever used, and I caught my first bass with it. I was only 7 years old, but to this day this was one of the best Christmas gifts I've ever received!

    Tom More...

  • Dick DeWiggins

  • Model: 840500 Ambassadeur Mag
  • Year Purchased: mid-'70s
  • Where Purchased: Cincinnati, Ohio

    I bought this reel to use on a trip to Lake Hatchineha in Florida. My best friend and I were meeting another friend who had moved to the area. We fished with live shiners and I caught my biggest bass at the time – an 8 1/4-pounder. I had it mounted and remember that trip More...

  • Thomas Shofner

  • Model: Ambassadeur 5000D
  • Year Purchased: 1974
  • Where Purchased: Walmart

    Thirty years ago, my buddy had a bass boat and invited me to fish with him very often. He was a bit older than I and had amassed more equipment than I had. When we fished together, he had several Ambassadeurs on various rods rigged for worms, spinnerbaits and crankbaits. We were in his boat More...

  • Michael (Scott) Gay

  • Model: Ambassadeur 2000
  • Year Purchased: 1960?
  • Where Purchased: "My 78-year-old dad can't remember"

    My best memory involving this reel was when my dad gave it to me when I moved out of the house.

    His dad made most of his own hooks, leaders and many different artificial baits. Dad said grandpa made the first float-on trailer for his wooden boat that More...

  • Jeff Mills

  • Model: Ambassadeur USA 5000C
  • Year Purchased: 1999
  • Where Purchased: Walmart

    I caught my first striped bass on this reel and it was my first-ever baitcaster. A coworker of mine makes bucktail jigs for stripers and he recommended the Ambassadeur 5000 or 6000 to me.

    Jeff Mills
    Hardy, VA

    Does your Abu Garcia reel have some mileage? More...

  • Sonny Smyth

  • Model: Ambassadeur 5000A (red)
  • Year Purchased: early 1970s
  • Where Purchased: Bait store near Lake Guntersville

    The best memory I have of this reel is the day my grandfather gave it to me.

    Sonny Smyth
    Greenbrier, TN

    Does your Abu Garcia reel have some mileage? Then why not enter it in the Abu Garcia For Life! contest? Show More...

  • Bill Capps

  • Model: Ambassadeur 5000D
  • Year Purchased: 1974
  • Where Purchased: Howard Brothers Discount Store

    I purchased this reel from a Howard Brothers Discount Store in Opelika, Ala. I was 14 years old and a new member of B.A.S.S. This was my third Garcia reel. My other two reels were a 5000C and a 5500C.

    I put my 5000D on a heavy-action, 5 1/2-foot pistol-grip Lew's More...

  • Dennis Unruh

  • Model: 5000
  • Year Purchased: 1965
  • Where Purchased: Herter's catalog

    My best memory with this reel was catching a 42-inch northern pike in heavy timber – stressing my Abu Garcia 5000 and Fenwick rod to the maximum – on April Fools' Day, 1975.

    Dennis Unruh
    Lincoln, Nebraska

    Does your Abu Garcia reel have some mileage? Then More...

  • Jim Bowles

  • Model: 5000
  • Year Purchased: 1975
  • Where Purchased: From a friend

    I bought this used 5000 (year of manufacture unknown) for $7.00 in 1975 from a friend needing gas money. I paired it up with a Lew's Speed Stick pistol-grip rod. After many years of bass and backlashes, I retired the rod and reel. It has now come out of retirement and is being used by my 3-year-old More...

  • Scott Edwards

  • Model: AbuGarcia 4600C Gold USA BASS
  • Year Purchased: 1993
  • Where Purchased: Walmart in Amory, Miss.

    This reel was the first reel I ever bought with my own money. I was about to turn 11 years old and I'd saved up the money for a new reel. My dad took me to Walmart and said, "Pick out a reel." I looked into the glass case they keep the reels in and I More...

  • Joel Chin

  • Model: 2500C
  • Year Purchased: 1977
  • Where Purchased: The Fishing Store, Burbank Calif.

    This is the best light-line and worm reel ever made. The largest fish I've ever caught with it weighed 9 pounds with no problem!

    Joel Chin
    Rosemead, California

    Does your Abu Garcia reel have some mileage? Then why not enter it in the Abu More...

  • Brian Van Boskerck

  • Model: 5000C
  • Year Purchased: Around 1968
  • Where Purchased: Gift from grandfather

    Pictured is my Abu Garcia Ambassador Model No. 5000C made in Sweden with pearl handles intact, S/N 43101. It was bestowed upon me by late grandfather in 1985. Before that, at the age of 7, while teaching me to cast with it, we caught a 5-pound bass.

    Brian Van Boskerck
    Helotes, More...

  • Rick Martinez

  • Model: T3000
  • Year Purchased: 1998
  • Where Purchased: Woods-N- Water, Northport, Ala.

    This was the best darn reel I've ever owned and I bought another as soon as I could save up!

    Rick Martinez
    Boaz, Alabama

    Does your Abu Garcia reel have some mileage? Then why not enter it in the Abu Garcia For Life! contest? Show us your "classic" More...

  • Gary Hicks

  • Model: Revo Premier
  • Year Purchased: Late 2007
  • Where Purchased: Bass Pro Shops

    My Revo Premier is credited with quite a few memories, but one in particular stands out not only because I won the tournament in the last few minutes of the event, More...

  • Gary Pearl

  • Model: 5000
  • Year Purchased: 1976
  • Where Purchased: Louisville, KY

    This red Abu Garcia 5000 started out on a 9-foot Kingfisher rod with a 16-inch bottle float. We fished for channel cats at pay lakes and it's what we all used – it would cast a mile. Abu Garcia has been with me since I started fishing. I've bass-fished since 1982 and the red 5000 is still in my More...

  • Kenny Kraft

  • Model: 5000
  • Year Purchased: 1977
  • Where Purchased Billy Abel's Land of Sports (now out of business)

    I started bass fishing when I was 10 and the 5000 was my first open-face reel. I used that reel for over 29 years fishing for bass, redfish and speckled trout. I lost count of how many fish I caught on that reel. As the years passed and I would purchase a new 5500 More...

  • Brian Cope

  • Model: 5000 C
  • Year Purchased: 1972
  • Where Purchased Woolco

    From pulling weeds, washing cars, selling pecans and cutting lawns, I finally had enough money to purchase this reel. I was 9 years old and didn't know how to use a baitcasting reel. While on a camping/fishing trip with my church youth group, I was determined to learn, and while the other kids in the group More...

  • John Barbaro

  • Model: XLT-LH
  • Year Purchased: Early '80s
  • Where Purchased: Local tackle store

    When I switched from spinning to baitcasters, I wanted a left-hand-retrieve baitcasting reel. It made more sense to me to retrieve with my left hand and set the hook with my power hand (right), like I'd been doing with spinning gear. In the early '80s, Abu Garcia was one of the few More...

  • Jim DaRosa

  • Model: Ambassadeur 5000 (red)
  • Year Purchased: 1968
  • Where Purchased: Cousin Fred's in Carbondale, IL

    I learned to baitcast with an old Shakespeare baitcasting reel. It was the kind that, when you made a cast, the handles turned. But the Ambassadeur 5000 was the very first freespool baitcaster I ever owned. If I recall correctly, I purchased it for $29.95 from More...

  • Bill Harris

  • Model: Ambassadeur 5000
  • Year Purchased: 1950s
  • Where Purchased: Gibson's Discount Store

    This reel has seen the heydays of largemouth fishing at Jack Wingate's lodge in the 1960s where it was used to catch huge stringers of bass out of the stump-laden waters of Lake Seminole.

    I also used it when I went to Canada to pull smallmouths out of the rocky lairs of More...

  • Robert Urfer

  • Model: Abu 507 & 505
  • Year Purchased: 1982
  • Where Purchased: Swap shop

    I've been an Abu Garcia man since I started fishing bass tournaments in 1977. Around 1982, I was introduced to the Abu 507 spinning reel – a very fine reel for casting, flipping, skipping, and it never backlashes.

    I now own 14 507s and one 505. I also own all the parts that are available More...

  • Bill Ledley

  • Model: 5500c
  • Year Purchased: 1977
  • Where Purchased: Best department store

    I purchased my first Abu Garcia reel in 1977 when I was around 11 years of age. I clearly remember walking through the Best department store and spotting it in the glass case. It was beautiful, shiny black with a red thumb bar. The 5600C. It was the Cadillac of baitcasters.

    I awed over More...

  • Phillip W. Sexton

  • Model: 5500c
  • Year Purchased: 1971
  • Where Purchased Otasco store (now out of business)

    This reel was my first baitcaster and I had moved into the "big leagues." The 5000C was mounted on a Lew's Speed Stick – a black reel on a black rod. I joined a bass club and fished as a non-boater.

    While fishing a tournament from the back of the boat and trying to More...

  • George "Scott" McDonald

  • Model: XLT-Plus
  • Year Purchased: Winter of 1985-86
  • Where Purchased: Bass Pro Shops

    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 More...

  • Ned Kehde

  • Model: Cardinal 4
  • Year Purchased: 1971
  • Where Purchased: Western Auto in Columbia, Mo.

    I have 12 Cardinal 4 spinning reels, which I use four to five times a week. And I use no other reels but these vintage and durable Cardinal 4s.

    On each outing our benchmark is to catch 101 bass in less than 5 hours, which happens about three times a year. On average, we More...

  • Ryan Heise

  • Model: Revo STX
  • Year Purchased: 2005
  • Where Purchased Forrest Wood Cup Expo

    I was lucky enough to grab this STX shortly after it came out. The best part is that I get to share it with my 5- and 8-year-old kids and can't wait until my 1-year-old can sling it. I have yet to tune this real and I've fished a bunch with it the last few years. It's taken a beating, since More...

  • Tim Hancock

  • Model: 5500c
  • Year Purchased: 1979
  • Where Purchased Richway department store

    There are too many memories with this reel! It has handled spinnerbaits and buzzbaits for many, many years, and now, it's my designated swimbait reel. If you look closely, you can see part of a 3-ounce Megabait Charlie hooked to it. And it's already taken a couple of 5-pound-plus largemouths.

    The More...

  • Nathan Smith

  • Model: Ambassadeur USA 500
  • Year Purchased: 1991
  • Where Purchased Walmart

    I was 13 and I was going on a fishing trip with my dad on the St. Johns River and he had an old red 5500 that I was very envious of. I had to beg my mom in the middle of Walmart for the last $15 in order to purchase the reel. Just like most kids want to be like their dads, I wanted my first More...

  • Rick McDougall

  • Model: Ambassadeur 6000
  • Year Purchased: 1957
  • Where Purchased San Angelo, Texas

    My dad bought this reel for me when I was 10, along with a Heddon rod, and took me to Lake Ouachita in Arkansas to go fishing. We got on a spot that was loaded with fish and I got so excited catching fish I forgot to push the release button and threw the rod and reel into the lake. More...

  • Thomas Ensminger Jr.

  • Model: Ambassadeur 5500c
  • Year Purchased: 1972
  • Where Purchased Won as a prize

    My father and I were catfishing at our hunting camp. We were packing up getting ready to leave and I sat the rod and reel down behing my dad's truck to help load up. I forgot about the reel lying behind the truck and we backed up. I didn't know we had ran over it until I saw the silver More...

  • Tom Morrison

  • Model: Ambassadeur 5500C
  • Year Purchased: 1974
  • Where Purchased Local bait shop

    I purchased this reel at age 14. I have many memories of saltwater and freshwater trips in and around Tallahassee, Fla. The largest bass I've caught on it was 12 pounds, 4 ounces from Lake Jackson in 1981. This reel went to college with me and is still in use today. I went spinnerbait More...

  • Howard Stephens

  • Model: 5500C
  • Year Purchased: 1970
  • Where Purchased: Woolco in Del Rio, TX

    I caught the big bass of the tournament on the co-angler side during the 1999 Bassmaster Megabucks tournament on Old Hickory Lake in Hendersonville, Tenn. while fishing with Mike Wurm on day 2 using one of the pictured reels. It was a largemouth weighing 5-07, and it was caught on a Carolina-rigged More...

  • Nick Hamra

  • Model: 5000C
  • Year Purchased: 1966
  • Where Purchased: Woolworths in St. Louis County, MO

    I just had to have THE black reel. My uncle had a couple of red Ambassadeurs, but I wanted the best – with ball bearings!

    At 13, I worked hard to save up the $32. Bravely, I strutted in to Woolworths and laid down all my cash on the glass display and walked out with More...

  • Reggie Heath

  • Model: 4600 Green
  • Year Purchased: 1987
  • Where Purchased At a local bait shop

    Back in the late-'80s, the Abu "Green" reel was perfect for nighttime buzzbait fishing. I caught lots of big fish with it.

    Reggie Heath
    Green Cove Springs, FL

    Does your Abu have some mileage? Show us your "classic" or well-used More...

  • Scott Bliss

  • Model: Ambassadeur XLT Plus
  • Year Purchased: 1987
  • Where Purchased Buffalo, NY

    My best memory of this reel was when I purchased it. I was at a fishing expo with some friends who convinced me that I should get into fishing tournaments and needed the right equipment. Because of the lifetime guarantee on this reel, I thought it would be easier to sell the purchase More...

  • Lawrence Mooneyham

  • Model: 5000
  • Year Purchased: 1965
  • Where Purchased Don't remember

    I was fishing north of the Highway 43 bridge with a friend on Ross Barnett Reservoir in Mississippi in 1966. I had this reel on a Fenwick Lunker Stik with a worm when I got a strike. When I set the hook, the rod slipped out of my hands and went into about 12 feet of water. There was a lot of brush More...

  • Randy Seabaugh

  • Model: Ambassadeur 2500C s/n 770100
  • Year Purchased: 1975
  • Where Purchased From a local Abu Garcia sales representative

    This is a picture of my Abu Garcia Ambassadeur 2500C. I bought this reel when I was 11 years old. My grandfather was an avid fisherman, and as an 11-year-old boy in the Midwest, he was my hero.

    I'd taken an interest in fishing by watching Bill More...

  • Bill Hunter

  • Model: Abu Garcia Tournament Pro
  • Year Purchased: 1989
  • Where Purchased Given to him by tournament pro Robert Urfer

    This reel has been a part of my life for 20-plus years. I'm 65 and have fished all my life. In the late 1980s I started fishing the BASS Top 100s as a co-angler. I drew a guy from Ohio named Robert Urfer who had the Abu Garcia Tournament Pro reel on More...