PERFORMANCE
Today’s 6500CT-type multipliers from Abu, Daiwa, Akios and others are modernised versions of my chopped Ambassadeur. One-piece spools, machined frames, quicker gears and cast controllers certainly help, but, like the multipliers of old, they still demand a fair level of skill to extract anything approaching decent performance. Not customising. Not tuning. Skill.
It’s hard to get that message across, perhaps because technology has taken over so many aspects of life. People often come for a casting lesson because their reel needs sorting out. They bought an expensive multiplier. It wouldn’t cast properly so they had it tuned and customised, but it still blows up every cast even with the magnets on full, four big brake blocks fitted, grease in the bearings and the end caps screwed down. What’s wrong with it?
Okay, we’ll leave the reel alone for the moment and concentrate on the casting. More often than not, the best way forward is to ditch their existing method and start again with something simple like the Easy Cast, which most people can get to grips with in half-an-hour. After a couple of dozen casts, it’s all going quite well and every cast is 100 per cent trouble free.
Soon comes a comment along the lines of “the reel feels tight and it’s dragging on the lead.” So, we loosen the end caps, take out a couple of brake blocks and back off the magnets. Now the cast is flowing quite freely, distances are respectable and yet there isn’t a backlash in sight. The reel remains docile, even with one small block and the magnet controller set somewhere in the middle.
This new-found freedom has nothing to do with customising and tuning. it’s because the casting technique is smooth and progressive rather than the previous mighty, uncontrolled swipe.