My best memory involving this reel was when was white bass fishing with my dad and we were catching them as fast as we could reel them in.

Randall Beauchamp
Llano, Texas

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My best memory with this reel was hooking a huge bass on Lake Toho, Fla. while fishing a BASS tournament. My Speed Stick handle broke at the screw, I grabbed the reel from the bottom of the boat, but the bass was gone.

Don Kraft
Alger, Ohio

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This is the first baitcaster I owned. It was easy to learn how to cast it. It's still in excellent condition and I wouldn't be afraid to use it anytime.

Joe Melko
Wheeling, West Virginia

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My best memory of this 5500C, my first Ambassadeur, does not involve catching a big fish or winning a tournament. Instead, it relates to my learning the art of baitcasting from a great teacher.

It was early winter of 1976 and I was a sophomore at Huron College in Huron, S.D. I had read More...

A good friend of mine bought a red Ambassadeur 5000 – up until this time we were throwing spinning equipment, which was about all that was available in this area (it being primarily saltwater) But us kids were bass fishing in the canals and reading about the beginnings of competitive fishing. More...

Growing up with four older brothers was always a tough proposition come opening day of trout season in Pennsylvania. I was always given the broken, hand-me-down spincasting reels, while my older brothers fought over the shiny new ABU 520 (we called it the upside-down reel).

In the More...

My brother gave me this reel the day before he left for Iraq. We spent alot of time fishing together when he returned from service.

Jim Lane
Columbia, Kentucky

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I've used these two reels continuously since I first bought them. They are definitely my favorite reels for fishing Hula Grubs - I don't have large hands and they are very palmable and have good line capacity. I used one of these reels to catch my first bass over 10 pounds.

Tom Grace
Aurora, More...

The was the first reel I ever purchased with a thumb bar and a flipping switch. It's been used for pitching and flipping jigs. I've won tournaments with this reel, as well as caught many 5-pounders on it.

Tommy Russell
Concord, North Carolina

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This was the very first reel that I purchased with my own money. I made the purchase on the recommendation of my best friend's dad, who was my fishing mentor. He owned almost exclusively Abu Garcia reels and that's what I learned to fish with.

This is also the reel that I caught my first More...

I was in the U.S. Air Force and went to visit my parents in Clermont, Fla. Dad would take me to his many orange grove ponds that were something like a story from a magazine. You never saw anyone and even back then, few gators.

I had a 521 spooled with 10-pound line, throwing a homemade More...

In the '80s I saw a fishing show where the host was fishing with a brand-new bait called a Slug-Go. No one down here had ever heard of such a bait, but to me, it looked like a perfect fit for fishing all the grass we have. I ordered some from Bass Pro Shops, and when they came More...

I have too many memories of too many fish caught in too many states on too many lakes. All from my Abus. I'm positive, though, that my best memory will come this spring with my vintage 5500D which was left to me by my grandfather in his passing 16 years More...

I caught two fish with this reel that I had mounted. The first was a largemouth that weighed 7.20. The other was a smallmouth that weighed 5.10. I've caught bigger fish over the years, but those were very special to me.

Keith Moss
North Augusta, South Carolina

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It's a reel that was given to me years ago by my cousin – it was his father's. I used to fish with his dad growing up as a child – it was my first experience fishing for bass. His father was killed in a plane crash years ago and I was given this reel.

The drag slips, so I don't use More...

The first baitcast reel I ever used was an Abu Garcia low-profile Black Max I purchased when I was in 6th grade (using money that I saved from my paper route). From that point on Abu Garcia has been the only brand of baitcasting reel I have owned, and I've included a picture of a few of my favorites.

Although More...

This was my first baitcasting reel that I purchased in 1976 when I was 16 years old. I had to teach myself how to use it and it took two seasons with countless backlashes to learn. But the time and effort paid off when I caught my first bass on it with a spinnerbait.

Robert More...

My best memory involving this reel is that dad made me earn the money for the reel and rod. After getting the cash together I bought the reel and a Shakespeare Wonder Rod.

I've used this reel for everything from catfish to bass. Dad's gone now but the reel's still in More...

There have been so many memories, it's difficult to pick just one.

This unexpected prize came my way by an out-of-the-way baitshop on the way north one summer long ago. Stopping to buy last-minute widgets for the tacklebox, I noticed this reel tucked away by itself – More...

This reel was given to me after my uncle passed away in 1957. The reel has never been fished with – it was used in casting contests in the early 1960s. It was an enormous improvement over all the reels used by my casting-club members. I won numerous trophies with this reel and it is my prize possession.

Reagan More...

I had recently joined Colorado's first BASS Club - Mile Hi Bass Pioneers – in 1976 and was interested in upgrading my fishing tackle. One of Colorado's best-known bass pros was a gentleman by the name of Dick Gassaway. He was a rep for Abu Garcia and invited a number of us to More...

I used this reel and my other two 5000s to fish and place in many Indiana team tournaments during the '70s and early-'80s.

I really take care of my equipment, thus they're still in fine shape. My only additions were Gator Grip handles and routine maintenance. I still use them More...

I used to be the caretaker for a 150-acre lake surrounded by 800 acres of land. The lake was loaded with big fish, with the average size being 4 to 5 pounds. There was this one cove that, every time I entered it, I'd see a large wake leaving the shallow back of the cove. I always thought More...

I was taught to bass fish by my grandfather with a spinning reel – reeling from the left side of the reel. When I decided to start fishing bass tournaments I knew I had to have baitcasting reels to compete against the big boys. I found that Abu Garcia had one of the first left-handed More...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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

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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...

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

Sonny Smyth
Greenbrier, TN

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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...

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

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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...

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...

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

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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...

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

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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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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

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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...

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...

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...

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...