Fishing Victoria Forum

Kimtown wrote: Yeah they were always the top echelon of reels to my knowledge then went the way of jarvis, shimano etc and sold out their very base level models to China

But their higher models are still manufactured in the US to my knowledge.

I think the only Penn reels made in the states now are the PENN US Senator US113N - US Senator US113 and the US Senator US113W

http://www.pennfishing.com/PENN-news-pe ... r-4-0.html

the rest are made in China

I use mainly Penn gear with the slammers being the backbone of my spinning reels - being a kayak fisho my gear has to hold up well to abuse and the penn gear seams to do it well for a well priced reel - many of my mates also use them in all sizes 260s for PPB snapper or WP whiting up to 560s for our off shore work - earlier this year a mate pulled a 19 kg tuna on a 460 slammer
I also use penn OHs in 501 and or 500 jigmasters on most of my trips into Westernport

I use Penn slammers in various sizes and can vouch for their toughness. They're pretty easy to service yourself too so you won't break the bank by treating it like ****. Dinga usually has a good deal on them

im a shimano boy so 4000 baitrunner or if your pockets are bigger stradic fk

Cant comment on the 4000+ sizes but i have 3 penn conflicts, 1 quantum smoke and 2 shimano stradics FJ. All in the 2500 size. I would say that the standout real out of those is the quantum.
It was the cheapest of the lot (120ish) and has held up the best (2 maybe 3 years old). The conflicts were about 150-160 and the stradic closer to 180-200. The stradic was the smoothest at the start but looks and feels the roughest now. They have all had the same wear and tear and treated the same. The conflicts have remained the same in terms of smoothness but were never up there with the quantum.
The black on the conflicts and the smoke is heaps nicer than the white on the stradic which yellowed and chipped fairly easily.
Ratchet is loudest on the quantum, then conflict, then stradic.
Handle is best equal on the stradic and quantum, then conflict.

Hope that helps.

I have 4 brands of reels in my collection, ABU, Penn, Shimano, & Okuma, I can recommend the first 3, they are all good if you look after them, e.g. wash in fresh water after each trip, oil/grease line rollers, level-winds, gears etc. annually. The Shimano & Penns have the smoothest drags straight from the box, the ABU,s need to have the washers replaced e.g. with carbontex, then they are great. I would not buy another Okuma.

I ended up getting 4x 4500 penn battle ii's on 4x 6-10kg 7'2" abu veritas 1 piece rod

Fully loaded with 15lbs braid, $1000.


Thanks for all the advice as usual guys

:thumbsup: nice combos.....

bowl wrote::thumbsup: nice combos.....

Thanks mate pretty happy

I'll see they handle the gumbos Sunday and hopefully a nice snapper