No one really has much insight after the fish is released unless they have a tagging or other system to track. I have caught a few fish with torn gills that were obviously not working (a dead white gill is pretty obvious). So it is clear to me that they can survive some level of gill damage.

One thing is for certain...if you didn't release it, it would have been certain death.

I use barbless hooks all of the time. I also switch to single siwash hooks as well. I find better hook sets with the single siwash.

For me the biggest reason is to get fish off the hook as soon as possible and to facilitate releasing them in the water. Anyone who fishes toothy critters should appreciate this, especially for large ones (I hate getting close to the mouth a large muskie and have many cuts and even stitches as a result).

You should know the MN DNR did study the effects of barbless hooks and the results were not what you would expect. It seems that was not a big reduction in mortality. They were not sure why, but noted that penetration of sensitive areas was more common with barbless hooks.

Anyway, I am a fan of water release as much as possible and the barbless single siwash hooks make this easy.

Everyone, have a great day,
Frank

We have had a bottle cap tournament in Canada (Eagle Lake). The lures looked much like yours. We caught perch, northern pike, walleye and one guy even lost a muskie. These will work for sure. Have fun!

See my hint below for guessing value in another post on this thread. If you have Ambassadors, 'new in box', this appears to raise the value on eBay.

Note that the Ambassadeur reels the earn more on sale are the ones with "Made in Sweden" stamped on. them. All the others ("S" models) are made in China and do not have much resale value. They also do not hold up to the rigors of fishing.

Prices for new C3 and C4 reels, which are made in Sweden seem to be hovering around $130 - 200 with a wide range of values for the same models. Hint, you may, at times, find better prices on Amazon.

I don't know of anyplace to get a valuation on a reel. A reel in very good condition will probably sell for more than its original price. I used to make a hobby of tuning Ambassadeur reels and selling on eBay. If you look there for your model you will get an idea of what people are asking for the reels. Most are hopelessly overvalued and you can get an idea of this by watching 'buy it now' priced reels and seeing how long they are out there. You can also get an idea of reels that are really in demand.

As an example, the reel that I originally posted more than a few weeks ago is still out there. It has been there for a very long time.

Reels that appear to have high demand to me are the C5 Magnetic brake models. 4600C5, 5600C5 and 6600C5. These reels are usually snapped up quickly for a price around $200. I have paid special attention to these models as they are my favorites.

I believe you are right.

But that is hardly relevant for a large number of the posts. The location of the poster is meaningless in most posts unless they are speaking about a specific body of water. If the poster asks a question about lake of the woods, the specific location should be Minnesota or Ontario, not, as in my case CT.

Well, I find the opposite happens. Every time I post something general about fishing they put it into Connecticut, even though the topic HAS NOTHING to do with Connecticut and I put the topic into main. For example I put the muskie charts in Main and they moved it to CT even though there are no real musky fisheries in CT.

My last post about the expensive fishing reel on eBay was also moved to CT. It seems the moderators (or whoever moves posts around) has no real knowledge of fishing, fish and fisheries.

It really irritates me!

Can't speak for that lake, but I know that in our Minnesota lakes walleye fishing can be best after dark, especially in clear lakes. I used to troll crank baits in 4' of water and caught really nice fish.

That message was meant for CamT

Tell me your model…and the parts you need. I will see if I can find them for you.

The C4 round reels are still made in Sweden. The Chinese versions are low quality.

Ambassadeur reels can be quite collectable, but I do not think this one qualifies as collectible at all:

https://www.ebay.com/itm/313641127667?hash=item490677cef3:g:qLIAAOSwb~xhGvB2&amdata=enc%3AAQAHAAAAsO7G5f7hlMBgw1FejyPDd0f8CRB14clh6ZIW2i0nGmRlRw6D5Dmd4MW6z8Nj0eS7x%2F6Ff80lT2dFcJa5Aui3t5l4Lpa5CsR1de%2FcJOnnRm3IlpkP1UNl9Gr9byfVZ7H37kijvFGh9IlSh2gm0r1C9slxtnfwUuly0%2FQ%2BtWTwssNxre%2BUGrZQvrAohiJowDON4ccGcYok9tpAZruAozF698b9UN%2BOJp2D4Kcbw5EQiz1N%7Ctkp%3ABk9SR6D04evIYQ

I am a real fan of Ambassadeur reels, but I would not pay more than $40 for this reel and then only if I was looking for hard to find parts.

Frank

OJ, you used the formula for walleye. The formula for pike/muskie is L x L x L / 3500 which would put the estimate at 47.5 pounds. This is the formula most people use but after catching over 300 muskies, I can tell you for certain that this formula underweighs big fish.

A less often used formula that I believe is more accurate is L x G x G / 800 which puts the weight of this fish at 59.8 lbs. In our fishing club, we weighed many muskies in a sling to come up with a more accurate formula and found the second formula to overweigh fish by a small amount, but was far closer than the first formula.

It should be noted that muskies are much heavier than a pike of the same length. They have much thicker bodies.

All formulas aside, this fish is truly a monster taken from an area that produces many of these monsters.

OK, you are talking about the 'jog' feature. I had never heard of the term spot lock jump. The term used by Minn Kota is jog in their manuals. This is why I was confused. I am still skeptical of of an issue with the heading sensor. It is a simple magnetic compass with a blue tooth connection. Blue tooth either works or it doesn't. If blue tooth is not working, you won't be able to see the sensor on your remote on the calibration screen. If this is the case you probably have a sensor issue. Not much else to go wrong unless you have interference. I keep pressing you on the location of the sensor and calibration. Have you checked these things?

Just because Minn Kota says it is a sensor issue does not mean that is a fact. Minn Kota support for myself and my friends has always been very poor with a lot of misinformation. I would still try to check to see if blue tooth is working and the unit is calibrated unless you have already done this. The new unit costs around $132 which, at least to me, is a bit of money. I am just hoping to save you some money. If you do replace the sensor and it fixes the problem I would like to know that.

I would make sure the unit is calibrated...if not it will have problems. Also, as I said earlier, if installed near electromagnetic radiation, you will have problems. An outboard motor, for example, produces a lot of electromagnetic radiation. Mine doesn't blink (as I have said before) and it works perfectly. I know a lot of people who have trolling motors with this feature and not one has had a sensor failure.