Lookin' for a specific feature on a reel

[htsmd]

Greetings to all!

Probably my fav' baitcaster of all time is my Garcia Ambassadeur XLT Plus. It has a feature I cannot find on any reel today at any price, but it's a little tuff for me to describe...

When you depress the button to disengage the spool, it also separates the line guide from the pawl and wormgear. The line guide then simply rides left & right on a round bar that is magnetized in the center. The line guide "tracks" at the center, but effortlessly can be "twanged" back & forth across the bar, like it's riding on air... When you cast, the line guide "follows" the line coming off the spool. When you begin reeling, the worm gear catches the line guide and lays the line back on the spool. This makes casting much more smooth and allows for dramatically longer casts, especially with light lures. It also creates a continuous "rhythm" of the line on the spool, so there are no "gaps" in how the line is returned to the spool when wound back up.

My brother just got a Shimano CalcuttaTE 200B and it doesn't have this feature. The line guide stops where ever you disengage the spool. When you cast, the line guide does not move at all. If you don't manually set the line guide in the center of the spool before you cast, there is "drag" from the line spooling back & forth off the spool, especially if the line guide is on one side of the spool and you are using a light lure.

Ditto for my Johnny Morris Signature JMX10HC. In fact, I went to Bass Pro last week and could not find a single baitcaster that has this feature. The salesman didn't know of any reels that had this. I showed it to him on my reel, and then how it works on several of their premium reels, and it blew him away. He had never seen this before.

Does anyone know of a currently produced reel that has this "free running" line guide feature? I need to get a couple of reels, and really would like to have this feature on them.

Thanks for reading through my post and good fishing to all.

[Lvitch]

Never seen that before on any reel ever. You sure yours isnt broken? good luck

[pro reel]

Abu also tried a system where the line guide split in two and both halves went to the sides, the line had no drag through a guide during the cast. When you cranked it. one side went to the other and then clicked back together. That reel was nothing but a lot of trouble. There are no reels currently in production that have that feature, but there are a couple that are trying a totaly different system that doesnt have an eye type guide. I have not seen them yet so I can't comment.

[BigBassin144]

The new Daiwa T3 line guide system eliminates friction while still using a line guide (unlike those US reels' "levelwind bar"). Coming out on the Daiwa T3 1016H in Japan in June, I doubt we'll ever see it in the states. If we do, it will be expensive.

BB

[nofearengineer]

The Toro Winch reel has a synchronous levelwind. That is, the levelwind does not disengage during the cast, as in most low-profile baitcasters. In that case, it is not the line that is moving the levelwind, but the linkage with the spool. It creates much the same effect: the line goes back on just like it came off.

True, it does use up some of the energy of the cast in gear friction, but so would line moving the levelwind back and forth as well.

[walkeraviator]

My Dad has some old ambassadeurs that diengage the level wind like that. It really does help casting distance. He also has a few that just simply center everytime the button is realeased.

[Raul]

I´ve got the plain XLT plus, 521 XLT Plus, Scyncro and the XLT two speed and none of them has that system you are talking about.

The system you are talking about I saw it in the Computerized Daiwa and it never worked well, also the computer never worked well, a friend of mine had one, he paid somewhere in the vecinity of 150 dollars which in those days was a really good ammount of money.

Here´s a pic of the Daiwa

[bamabassman]

raul.........wanna give away those old abu'? i got a few myself, LOVE EM!

[Raul]

Originally Posted by bamabassman

raul.........wanna give away those old abu'? i got a few myself, LOVE EM!

From my stone cold dead hands Bama.

I admit that compared to more modern reels they are primitive, but they were high tech back in the 80´s and durability wise you can´t ask for more, mine are more than 2 decades old and even though they don´t see much action nowdays, I still take them out every now and then, man, they work better than when I got them brand new. I even purchased a NIB 521 XLT Plus Anniversary Special Edition a couple of years ago ( which is nothing more than the 521 with some minor cosmetic changes ) for $120 ( I´m not planning to use it ), didn´t look 120 being too much for it.

[bamabassman]

hahahaha, i TOTATLY understand. i love mine. still use them regularly too.

[DVT Mike]

I had a chance to handle one of the US Reels with no line guide. The claimed advantages are exagerated IMO but that's marketing and everyone does it. I don't thinks it's going to revolutionize modern baitcaster design.

[Raul]

US Reels´ "novelty" is not that much of a novelty, you can call it an improved novelty, that system appeared in the 30-40´s. Let me ask Reel Old Geezer ( kind of the Yoda of old reels ) if he can provide me with a pic of a reel with that system.

[Raul]

Here´s the pic: