Finesse-Fishing.com has closed and has nothing left to sell, other than a few used books. I have decided to leave the website up as a resource for people interested in fishing with light rods, light lines and light lures - true finesse fishing.

The Reel Deal

by Les Albjerg
(Caldwell, Idaho)

I have all the parts now for making the Abu Ambassadeur 2500c into a Micro Finesse reel! In the first picture you will see my nice clean reel that came back after a total refurbishment in Texas. Installed is the handle that I really like. So as I begin installing the Japanese parts, everything that was worn is new. It has been totally cleaned and lubed. The second picture is the ultralight parts that I bought. The solid spool has a 2mm depth and weighs 5.7 grams. This is the spool that Angler Saito uses. I figured "in for a penny in for a pound", so I ordered the perforated spool when I ordered the new braking system and the ultra light level winder. The light spoon comes in at 4.8 grams and is 1.8 mm deep. The third picture is the new braking system that I am putting in. The part on the left doubles the smoothness of the centrifugal system that is in the reel currently. The second part on the right adds a magnetic braking system. This upgrades the reel to be like the modern BFS reels. I went with red parts for two reasons. I think it will look nice on the reel, and everything I wanted was available in red!

The rod build is coming along. I've got the dimensions of the handle and reel seat figured out. Next is figuring out the artistic accents I want to do on the rod. More to come when the reel is all together and the rod is built. I have about 2 weeks before the run off season begins and I will blown off all the rivers for at least 6-8 weeks. I'm going to get as much fishing in as possible during this time. So it may be awhile, I'm not in a major rush.