does anyone else still use...

[cmoore03]

Other than a few old BB1 Lew's Speed spools, all I have used since the 70's is 2500 and 5500 c's. I have half a dozen Shimano Fightin Rods, also from the 70's, and never thought I could do any better. Funny thing is these rods and reels now sell for about twice what they cost years ago.  CM

[Al Agnew]

How about a REAL round reel on a steel rod 

 

Or an old, fancy Pflueger Summit on a Heddon cane rod:

 

Some more round reels...

 

Top left is a reel called a Lion...old but was probably a pretty cheap reel.  To the right of it is a Langley.  Both were direct drive reels.  Center left is an Ambassadeur 5000 from the early 1960s, and below it a 5000 from probably the late 1960s or early 1970s...you can see they "modernized" the housing a bit.  Center is an Ambassadeur 2500C, a terrific river smallmouth reel that I used for a LONG time.  Bottom center is a  5000D.  It was a partially direct drive reel...it had a free spool button for casting, but when you weren't in free spool mode and were retrieving, you set the drag however you wanted, and as long as you were reeling there was no drag slippage.  But if you took your hand off the reel handle while playing a fish, the drag would slip and the handle would turn backwards as the line went back out.  For reservoir bass fishing with the kind of heavy line (20 pound Trilene) that we used back then, that was fine, because unless the knot or line was weak you could winch a big bass straight in on 20 pound line with no drag slippage, but if by some chance you hooked a real big, hot fish, you could just take your hand off the reel handle and you had an operating drag...or as I did it, you kept the drag set very light and used your thumb to control the slippage of line.  The only problem with it was that it was very slow, only about 3.4/1.  But even after I stopped using them for bass fishing, I still thought it was the best reel ever produced for bait fishing for walleye or catfish, because with the rod propped on a stick waiting for a bite, you set the drag very light, just a bit tighter than the force of the current pulling on the line.  When you got a bite, the fish would easily peel line off the reel and wouldn't feel any resistance, which was very important in the winter walleye fishing I used to do...if a walleye felt any resistance it immediately rejected the big live minnows we used.  You'd suddenly see the reel handle turning backwards and you had time to run down to the rod and pick it up.

The reel at top right is a Garcia Ambassadeur Black Max, which was pretty much a piece of crap, and the bottom right is Shimano's famous entry in the round reel market, the Calcutta.  When the Calcutta 50, the small version, came out, I immediately snapped up a couple, thinking they would be terrific for river smallmouth fishing.  But the things were slow as molasses and just seemed a bit loose and not well put together for the price.  I didn't use them for more than a half of one summer. 

 

[Jerry Rapp]

5000D.  Thanks for a memory.  The only bass I ever got mounted was caught at Bismark Lake with that reel.  7-13, October of 1977, on one of my home made blue curly tail worms.  That reel was used in a lot of memories over the years.

[bagofdonuts]

I've got a c5 that i love. This year i caught crappie (makes a good reel for trolling cranks), bass, redfish, and a four foot shark on the same reel. Drag is smooth as silk and they'll hold a ton of line.

[Fish24/7]

Abu garcia stx round. I've got one for sale here in the  buy sell trade section

 

[Blll]

All my old Ambassadeurs are on a shelf display. Oldest round reel in service is a Sigma from 1989. Still have my crappie rods paired with old Mitchell 308's -the ones from France. Amazing how much better newer reels are but its fun for me to fish with Dad's or Grampa's stuff.