hi, been into fishing my whole life but always used fixed spool.
my grandad recently gave me his old beach gear and i wanna switch to the multiplier.

took the larger abu ambasadeur 7000 out for a play and to grab some early mackerell but had a totall nightmare. reel kept overrunning and ending up in a massive birdsnest.

untangled it a few times till i got well fucked off and went home. anyway it has put me off a bit but a couple of people have told me some pointers on why it was such a pain to cast propperly.
anyways looking at the 2 reels im thinking the abu mag 3 looks smaller, lighter and generally better for the beach.

i know there is ALOT of peeps on here who like a bit of fishing so thought i would ask whats the best/easiest to use for a totall beginner?

The Mag3 is better suited for casting with mate , although you can cast with the 7000
the 7000 is better suited to roughground or light boat use and uses centrifugal brakes

you have more control over the spool with the mag3 as you'll have the spool play tension and the magnets
less birdnests

nice 1 for the comprehensive reply tb.
will get out there and give it another bash soon!
hopefully less birdsnests.. cheers will bang some 25lb line on the 7000 and stick it on my boat rod whilst concentrating on learning to cast with the mag3.

cheers

The Mag 3 also has a disengaging level wind if i remember which is good
whereas the 7000 still has to work against the worm on the levelwind
which will slow it down and loose a bit of distance on the cast

unless you got loads of experience with a multiplier then i'd stick with the fixed spool for float fishing, i only used it for the bottom.
when you cast with a multiplier keep your thumb, lightly, on the spool and watch were your lead lands then put some pressure on the spool to stop the spin, then let more line out until you feel the lead hit the bottom.
takes a lot of practice to get right .

also a good idea to cut the fingertip of a marigold glove and stretch over the thumb of the hand you hold the spool with
helps stop spool slip when you cast and thumb burn when slowing the spool down as Leroy mentions

yes i just checked and the level wind does disengage when you press the button in, does that mean just before i cast i should reel in till the levelwind is roughly in the middle rather than at one end or the other or dont it make any difference?

also cheers for the reply leroy but i probly wont be doing much float fishing with this set up. this rod and reel will be mostly used for a quick hour in the sun feathering for mackerel or the odd night session but either way i will be using a 4oz weight minimum but i can see that trying to cast a flimsy little float and small weight with this reel would cause me probs.

i do like float fishing and spinning from rocky outcrops but have a much lighter rod + nice small fixed spool for this.
while we on the subject any1 else like a bit of ''plugging'' had a few bass on them, my fav is a black and silver rapala J13 B also a dexters wedge will often catch round my way.
failing that live prawn on float is another winner. whats a good bait/spinner/plug for the bass in your local regions?

it makes no difference where the level wind is mate when you cast
but i do engage it (by pushing the level wind where the line is ,then turn the handle) when taking up the tension/reeling in
to create a level spool

and also opt for the rapala's-in blue/ silver

yeah i reckon them rapalas are good, they really mimic a sandeel well.

off to bed now
good luck if any1 gets some fishing in