Student with another Question for the Musky Professors

OK. I am set up with a rod per my other thread on this board. I would have liked to given the business to Pete, but I need to get this new setup on the "down low" with my wife. She already shakes her head with the number of rods I have for walleye, bass and panfish. The less she knows, the easier my fishing addition is for her to tolerate. She might suspect something if on the way up to the Wild Eagle with the wife and kids, I stop at Rollie and Helens and walk out with a 7+ foot stick protruding through my pants legs up through my torso and sticking out my neck as I try to hide the rod underneeth my clothes. Pause, Picure that one; I am laughing while I try to wipe it from my head.

I picked up a Gander Mountain Pro Series Muskie Rod on a 1/2 off in-store promotion. It is 7'2" medium heavy action.

I now have a couple of options on reels. Through the years I have acquired 3 baitcasters that are canidatates to pair with the rod.

1) An old Ambassador 5000C handed down by my grandfather. This was the reel he used when he took his muskie trips over 20 years ago. I have never used it, but kept it in my tacke bag to have a piece of grandpa with me while I was fishing. If this is the best reel for the job, It would be cool to fish with the sme reel that he used to pull in the big ones.

2) Shimano Calata 300 - I know nothing about this reel. I got it with a bulk purchase of fishing gear.

3) Abu Garcia Ambassador Royal Express - It has a 6.1:1 gear ratio and worked great for Pike on my trips to Canada years ago.

Which reel would you pick? and What line brand and weight of line would you fill the spool with?

We will see you on Labor Day weekend,

Todd from Naperville

A 6500C or SC6600 from Abu, either would make a good first reel.

From your list... I'd probably use the old 5000, it has history. If it's in shape, and it probably is, they're excellent reels. Little oil here n there and she's good to go.

Fill it about half way with some backing line, 20 lb dacron or such will do, then I like to use 65 lb Spiderwire Stealth or 65 lb Power Pro.

Either of the Abu reels will probably do fine as long as they are in good shape. As Matt said be sure to put some backing on. I usually use mono and then go to the super-braid line from there. The backing keeps the super-braid from slipping on the spool and also cuts down on the cost a bit. If you don't know how to do that have somebody at a reputable shop spool it for you. I do it for guys at R&H all the time. Most of the super-braid lines will run you between .16 to .18 cents per yard. On a 6000 size reel you'll probably get about 100 yards of super line on after putting about 25 yards of backing on. To attach the two lines I use back to back uni-knots which will never fail. Having the right line and quality leaders is a lot like aircraft maintenance...it's worth the effort.