TackleTour

I was looking through some older reels of my father's/grandfather's, and saw some old Made in Sweden Abu's. For me either Lew's or Abu Garcia would probably be my choice if Daiwa and Shimano disappeared. That being said, is there any chance another manufacturer will eventually compete with these 2 Japanese companies? I know they probably do in sales; cheap Wal-Mart, KastKing, and Zebco's probably sell more than our beloved reels do, but I wonder if a company will try to compete in the craftsman sense. I would love to see a premium made in Sweden low profile Abu in the $300 range to directly compete with the likes of the Metanium/Zillion/Bantam/Alphas/Chronarch range. Doyo doesn't do a terrible job though, the only things I could think that separate a higher priced Doyo from a Daiwa/Shimano would be: dual pinion support, sometime dual main shaft support, gear quality, drag star/handle gap.
Also I know we have 13 fishing, I just don't know a lot about them so I don't have a fair basis for comparisons...

Abu Garcia makes some nice JDM gear. They also seem to be the most innovative as far as those Doyo and other OEM type reels.

I always wanted to try the BF8 but, those Magtrax brakes leave me wanting more. They could be better on the BF8 but, never tried it

So that's the list, eh?

Well, first off, let's just take a moment to be thankful that we DO have Daiwa and Shimano. I daresay that I might not even be such a gear head if they weren't around to fuel that fire over the years. (Yeah riiiiight...)

I'm looking at this from a light tackle inshore SW fishermans view. I chose Penn (they deserve at least one vote), but truth is there'd probably be ABUs, Quantums, and maybe a Pfluger or two mixed in. Penn and Quantum spinners aren't bad, and, as much as I used ABU big baitcasters in the past, I could probably go back. Ambassadors were the choice back in the pre-Calcutta age. Still have a couple. Are there even any other non-ABU (or Daiwa, obviously) round baitcasters in the Millionaire 300/Calcutta 400 size range? I hear Pflueger has some nice ultralight spinners, and the Penn 1000s (Battle, Clash) aren't too bad. I've got a Quantum PT Smoke Inshore spinner that is a pretty dern solid nice reel. Good drag.

Flip side is that in a Daiwa/Shimano-less world, someone would have stepped up into those roles.

But still. THANK YOU Daiwa and Shimano!!!

Abu of course. All the others is not something i'd even use, just sell.

I just found something that bummed me out while drinking morning coffee... I thought Lew's had actually began to produce dual supported pinions in new reel designs, but they aren't. The shallow spool skipping reel says it has a P2 bearing supported pinion, but it is only marketing jargon. When you check the schematic, there are 9 bearings: 4 in the handle (as always), 2 on the spool, ONE on the pinion, one on the main shaft, and an Anti Reverse. There is a bushing between the spool bearing that holds the pinion, so it isn't true dual bearing support. Normally Shimano and Daiwa have one in each knob and an extra on the pinion and main shaft to also equal 9 but in more key locations. I say all this because I would like the Doyo style reels to adopt better technologies. A true dual supported pinion would be a start, then they can address the gap between drag star and handle.

Abu because they have some nice JDM reels. The only other reel brand on that list I would use if I had to is Lew's.

Easy, Lews.

Customer service is amazing. At the price points, some really good stuff from them. But I'm a fan of Doyo in general.

Abu after that.

The big two make some great stuff too; however, when things go wrong, it's always more of a hassle dealing with the big guys than with lews.

For me it's Abu. I really love the Ambassadeur, just a simple no frills work horse. Their JDM offerings are nice as well, my BF7 sees pretty frequent use, mostly smallmouth fishing.

I know this will feel like a repost, but I still wish Abu would make a run of high end reels in Sweden. Working on and cleaning up my father's and even grandfather's old Abu's gives me such a nostalgic feeling. I know it is obviously cheaper for them to go from Korea, Doyo, but it would be so awesome to see a upper tier aluminum round reel to compete with a Conquest or Ryoga. They wouldn't have far to go, start with double pinion and main gear support, work up a good braking system and tighten some tolerances.

Wasn't there a Rocket Round reel made in Sweden a few years back?

DirtyD64 wrote: ↑

Sun Aug 22, 2021 7:14 am

I know this will feel like a repost, but I still wish Abu would make a run of high end reels in Sweden. Working on and cleaning up my father's and even grandfather's old Abu's gives me such a nostalgic feeling. I know it is obviously cheaper for them to go from Korea, Doyo, but it would be so awesome to see a upper tier aluminum round reel to compete with a Conquest or Ryoga. They wouldn't have far to go, start with double pinion and main gear support, work up a good braking system and tighten some tolerances.

Wasn't there a Rocket Round reel made in Sweden a few years back?

Abu does have a Swedish made round reel to compete with the Conquest and Ryoga, the Morrum. From my understanding, a new model is in development but we aren't going to see it for a bit. I'm sure Abu themselves would love to make more gear in Sweden, but Pure Fishing won't let them. The Rocket round reels you're thinking of are the CS Pro Rockets, which are Ambassadeurs with a palm side tension knob, lighter brake blocks, and higher precision spool bearings.

tincanary wrote: ↑

Sun Aug 22, 2021 8:37 am

DirtyD64 wrote: ↑

Sun Aug 22, 2021 7:14 am

I know this will feel like a repost, but I still wish Abu would make a run of high end reels in Sweden. Working on and cleaning up my father's and even grandfather's old Abu's gives me such a nostalgic feeling. I know it is obviously cheaper for them to go from Korea, Doyo, but it would be so awesome to see a upper tier aluminum round reel to compete with a Conquest or Ryoga. They wouldn't have far to go, start with double pinion and main gear support, work up a good braking system and tighten some tolerances.

Wasn't there a Rocket Round reel made in Sweden a few years back?

Abu does have a Swedish made round reel to compete with the Conquest and Ryoga, the Morrum. From my understanding, a new model is in development but we aren't going to see it for a bit. I'm sure Abu themselves would love to make more gear in Sweden, but Pure Fishing won't let them. The Rocket round reels you're thinking of are the CS Pro Rockets, which are Ambassadeurs with a palm side tension knob, lighter brake blocks, and higher precision spool bearings.

Yeah, that is the one. I really do think some base changes would help. Not sure the tolerances are off that bad, but using key location bearings would help. Before I was slowly introduced to the two Japanese brands, I was amazed when I held a 7 bearing Stradic and it felt superior/smoother than my 12 bearing Revo. Hopefully in the future Abu will compete in these areas, even if it is just having the Korean plant implement these technologies.

Not sure why there would be much discussion beyond Daiwa ans Shimano when it comes to top tier.

In my opinion Abu is definately 3.rd place. Honorable heritage, and still 4500 - 6500 reels are good workhorses, and 5000 - 6000 are good casting machines in heavy weight series. Hoping that they will take 2500 C back to production once again, with such high gear ratio as possible.

I think I use this in another post somewhere way back in the way back but here's my same answer to this quandry. Some situations leave me with no choice

I've always been a sucker for Plueger's spinning reels, the President was my first "nice" reel. Like others have said, I'd probably go with Abu due to their JDM selection of casting reels.