I have to disagree with that...


the NEWEST 888 I have is about 12 years old, the other I bought in the early 90's and the oldest I have no idea how old it actually is, its the old brown cased model and I've had it forever, I couldnt even begin to sayhow many shotshave beenmade withit and it shoots just as good today as it did the first time I used it


zebco 808's and 888's are pretty indestructible, you almost have to smash one beyond its ability to function to get it to stop working



I've been bowfishing since the mid 80's, I remember when the AMS reels came out and I've owned andused several,they're alright if thats what your into and want to constantly fight with them, but IMO theres a reasonwhy they're simple to take apart and easy to fix...

I, like alot of people,dont care for them... they require three hands to operate, more often than not you get all the line flinging out of the bottlein a big balled up knot, and, on top of turning the crank,the lines retreivel is based on it being squeezed between two rollers by squeezing a seperate lever, which requires more effort on thelever to keep the line from slipping than I care to put into itand, in general, usually works about as good as it seems it would...

I wish I had a dollar for every time I stood knee deep in water with suckers swimming all around me wondering way the line on my retreiver reel wasnt coming out, or going back in, or dealing with the ever contant headache of having to untie a big assed knot in the line while everyone else was shooting and having fun...

no thanks...

I like the idea of just pushing one button, knowing that everything with the shot is going to play out without any big "whats it going to do this time" drama and then being able to easily retreive it with one cranking lever and one hand, all ready for the next shot with no problems...

I actually gave an AMS reel away not that long ago for nothing...



but, everyones different and likes different things I guess, AMS reels have been out for quite a while now and they definitely have a following... in my personal opinionthey're not all bad, and they have their place, that place just isnt in my world...