A Brief History of UK ABU CT type Beach Reels.
                     
             Many years ago in the 1960,s tournament casters and beach fishermen soon realised that the small 6000 sized Abu reels were capable of outcasting everything else available at that time. However they all came fitted with a level-wind system and a top bar on the reel cage due to there tiny size this left little room for gripping the spool during a powerful cast so anglers being what they are found a way around this by hack sawing the cage removing the top bar and level-wind system and replacing the guide tube with a solid bar screwed in place to give the cage its rigidity back .You can imagine the look of horror on the engineers back in Sweden but they realised the was a special place in the UK market so ABU around 1975 released a special limited amount of factory converted 6500c reels .

I've heard many different stories explaining the term "ct" varying from "cages tournament" to "casting tournament" but I'm pretty certain that with the 6500 reel already having a "c" suffix denoting ball bearings that Abu engineers simply added the "t" to suggest a "tournament" variation. The 1970's 6500 CT had a short production run of just a few years but became a much missed icon Abu did also sell the cages if you simply wanted to build your own CT reel at that time the cage being part number 991. For a few years nothing else was available until the palming side-plated 6500 CAT came out.  I know very little about this reel and have never seen one with the CAT stickers simple CA decals this was around 1980.

Then after a few years Abu started to produce the silver 6500c reels with no official CT version.  These were self converted by many beach fishermen but with a softer less durable alloy cage, they soon distorted and many people started to move away from ABU beach reels .Then  in 1990 ABU released a stunning black 6500 CT factory reel with chrome cage and ribbed black side-plate reminiscent of the 5000c/6000c reels these were superb casting reels and incorporated Abu's ultracast system.These again were a limited edition and soon disappeared from sale , however very soon in 1991 another version the 6500 ct Rocket appeared this was very similar but has cut-outs on the reel foot for UK coaster fittings and had a dimple on the cage just back from the studs were the top bar would have been they also came in a different type of box which had a separate lid that lifted off .

There was another lull from ABU for a few years until around 1994 when they released the 6500 Sports Rocket this was a very similar reel to the previous Rocket but came with the longer large knob power handle that made winding in much easier, however this caused many problems by easily kicking the reel back into gear mid-cast due to a weak spring on the free spool mechanism. ABU soon brought out another model the 6500 sports rocket MK11 that had a much stronger spring but did have a ratchet clicker. The spool used the usual white nylon cog where  the three previous models had used a brass "bullet " to support the left end of the spindle tournament casters preferred the more free running bullet versions.

ABU's next change was to introduce the blue Elite version next around 1995 this was similar to the 6500 Sports Rocket MK 11 but used a different cage that came with wide chromed bars front and rear to give the cage more rigidity very soon after a green version appeared the legendary 6500 C3 CT Mag Elite for the first time ever Abu gave a reel that was pretty much idiot proof and turned many fixed spool men into multiplier users .This reel was fitted with a plastic ring containing  4 or 5 tiny rare earth magnets , and these could give variable control of the spool making casting into a head wind simple something that was a struggle using fibre brake blocks .

The following  years had many other variants from Abu the 6500 c3 CT premium mag which was an orange version of the green mag elite but came with a drilled power handle. The chrome 6500 CT which used fibre blocks to brake it but had solid chromed brass end plates . The black 6500 CT was a black version of the 6500 CL  big game .ABU then released some mag braked chrome version in a very nice gun metal colour giving the best of both worlds with adjustable braking plus end plates that didn't corrode .

At various times ABU also produced two 5500 CT reels the green 5500 C3 CT  Mag Elite and the current gun metal version I've also included the rare 7500 c3 CT and the 7700 CT Morrum .

All of this article is my own knowledge over the years I may have forgotten bits if anyone disagrees or can add to this please do so I'm not an expert .Thanks again to Wayne for having the foresight to build such an important website it would be nice to hear other peoples ideas  and views on these reels there must be many happy memories out there of anglers using these classic reels .

Dave can be contacted here cdps50@hotmail.com

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Anyone who wishes to add more detail here please feel free to place your helpful news which will be acknowledged here. Mny thanks to dave for sharing his knowledge.