Abu Garcia Ambassadeur C3 Baitcast Round Fishing Reel

Love this reel! Easy to cast, great drag! No backlashes!

Excellent reel. Works well, very smooth retrieve. Drag quality works very well. I use this reel for muskie fishing.

My first Abu Garcia reel is about 30 years old. I was delighted to find out that they have not changed the design one bit. This new reel is every bit as smooth as my first one. They both will probably outlast me.

The various round Ambassadeurs I have from the 50's to now.They are all working. Because parts are available to repair a broken reel.This reel is just the newest example of the 6500C3. It's a very smooth reel.It uses the new six pin brake. Don't know if that's better than the old two brake system but it's much easier to adjust braking.To me gearing seems to be quieter too.These are still the made in Sweden models and seem just as good as the older ones..They can easily be serviced. You can upgrade the bearings to six on these by installing some available parts. You can easily upgrade the bearings ABEC rating as well. Just good reels that have been around a very long time.Pure Fishing has bought up most of the iconic brands in fishing and moved a lot of production to China. Get one while they are still Swedes.The Chinese S models are different reels all together. Being round the only similarity to the Swedish reels. Parts don’t inter-change.

Looks like a nice reel but it arrived late and it had - no protective box , etc . Amazon just shipped in flimsy box the reel comes in. This should have been shipped in a secure package / box. This is not a cheap reel. Not wise to ship this way. Had to send it back as it arrived late. Very hesitant to order similar items if this is the way things are going to be shipped without good packaging.

Great reel and strong enough to cast and handle 65# braided line. I love these reels and have five of them.

As always, Performance was great. Smooth and flawless casting, Great gear ratio and line capacity.Only use made in Sweden Ambassador reels for this reason. Will last a lifetime if taken care of and easy to service.Price was a big plus.If you’re serious about good fishing gear invest in these and never look back.

The newer model seems to have more plastic which is less appealing to the eye admittedly, but does not seem to impair reel function. I've been using the C3 and C4 models for decades now and I am now a loyalist to the brand even with Abu being bought out by Pure Fishing now. Use them enough and you will have to replace parts, but that is to be expected and thankfully the parts remain available to this brand. I have tried imitators hoping to save some money, but unlike many clones made of guns the competition can not seem to make a comparable working reel to the C3 or C4. These reels work great for long line trolling as well as casting artificial baits you are not trying to speed fish with. I'd not consider this a great choice for a buzz bait, doing search with a fast moving spinner, or crank bait due to the speed of the gear ratio. I've wasted lots of money on many bait casters and thrown them in trash as I continue to use and I have now purchased another of the C3 and C4 series.