FishNFanatic’s steps in tuning his Abu Garcia Record, as well as technical finds and discoveries along the way.
(*Note: Status updates on upgrades and modifications on my new reel. If you attempt to do anything you read here, please do so at your own risk and discretion. FishnFantic does not accept any liability in respect the information provided, however will gladly answer any questions you may have.)
So I finally bit the bullet and picked up the Musky reel of my dreams. An Abu Garcia Record, RCN60 High Capacity Reel. Weeks before biting the bullet, I had actually purchased a C4 tempted by the lower price. However if you’re like me, when you want something, you’ll always want it(and probably end up getting it!). So my advice, if you can afford it, get it right the first time. Otherwise you’ll buy something with your eye and mind on something else and end up wasting more money along the way.
Long story short, I ended up selling my C4 at a slight loss. Anyhow, back to the Abu Record!
My first thoughts
Taking the reel out of the crisp box, this thing was a lot heavier than the C3 and C4, weighing it at 13.4oz this baby was 2.6oz short of a pound! After adding on your line it may very well be. It had a nice tank feel with a nice flashy blue tinted chrome finish. The power handle with the newly designed soft touch knob had a nice feel to it. These knobs grip well even when wet!
With a few turns of the reel to test it out, surprisingly I wasn’t too impressed. My thoughts where that perhaps they had overdone it with the components in this reel as it felt like a lot of gearing was going on. Okay maybe this baby needs some working in due to excessive grease/oil. For the few days, I would reel it during and in between my everyday chores. However it wasn’t getting better. To be frank, out of the box I wasn’t very satisfied with this reel, and was actually disappointed at what was supposed to be Abu’s flagship reel. I instantly knew that some investigation and work would be required to build this into a high performance casting reel…
#1 Replacing the stock bearing and bushing in the spool assembly
#2 Removing the infinite anti reverse(IAR) roller bearing from the spool assembly
Possible Future Upgrades
-Upgrading the stock level-wind worm gear with one with bearings
-Replacing the metal level-wind pawl with a ceramic pawl
-Upgrading the outer shaft bearings(3x10x4) to ABEC 7
Hey Josh I own this reel as well, I am also not impressed with its performance. The handle got bent after ripping big Musky Jerks. This reel is not as durable as it looks. And casting for beginners is difficult with this reel. My beginner clients had a much easier time with the Curado 300.
ReplyDeleteTaro
Casting with these reels are a little more difficult. Tension knobs should be adjusted and used. I'm really surprised the handle bent! Did it wrench of the shaft? Maybe it wasn't assembled properly. If a part can be replaced you should definitely contact Abu, they are pretty good with replacing sometimes. No complaints with shimanos.
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