Long Beach 66

[Newell Nut]

I am still the Newell Nut but I have bought a lot of Long Beach 60s and 65s for the party boat that I fish and I have seen a lot of big amberjacks caught with them but I have also bought a couple of 66s and those are some very impressive reels. I just received one in mint condition and cleaned out the old grease and found steel gears and a 5 stack drag. Same OD as the 65 but two extras. Also has two extra body bars and larger diameter. At 25 oz it is not a bad reel to hold all day but it could use a nicer handle.

The reason that I brought it up here is that I do not recall seeing much about them on the forum and they are really nice reels.

[alantani]

put a carbontex drag underneath the main gear and five #6-60 drag washers inside and you should be able to get 12 pounds of drag.  that would be the maximum that i would want to fish that reel.  10 pounds and straight 30 pound test would be my preference. 

[Maxed Out]

Those reels are built beefy with 3 frame posts on each side. The 66, 67, and 68 all have the triple frame post setup

I went to a floating lodge in Canada and they had penn 67 on all their halibut rods, and they get big halibut with them. Not sure if other boats had it rigged the same, but our guide had the line sidewashed around the first post for extra drag was my guess, not sure if that was accomplished, but they did get plenty of 100+ pound halibut at that resort.

[foakes]

The 6 posts do help to minimize frame and stand twist.

If there was a Tib frame and clamp for these reels -- they would be nearly bulletproof.

The 68 is a little more prone to twisting because of the extra width.

Good reels.

Best,

Fred

[Shark Hunter]

I just purchased a 60 NIB yesterday for $27.
Brand new seller on fleabay. Sounded trustworthy. You have to start somewhere.

[Normslanding]

Years ago at Norms Landing in San Pedro The Rockcod rent reels were 66's, and mostly 68's. The regular tackle rent reels were 25's. In the winter I would sit in the office and service/ repair reel after reel. They were to light for the usage. Lately I bought a couple of nice 60's on ebay. After replacing the drags washers with some from Dawn, and adding handles from Alan they are getting a lot of use. They are up to the task. I got them to avoid my Makairas from going swimming. Some of the people that go on my boat have little experience. The 2.5:1 ratio is great for moving Grouper away from bad things. The 60's have 60 lb. PE on them, and the drags are pounded down. The next thing these reels will get is re-spooled with 80. The hard part with 80 is breaking it off the bottom. It is rare when a AJ comes along to heat up the drag so they have turned out to be ideal. So for $25+ less than $50 in new parts they are a barging. Try to find a $75, 2.5:1 reel on the market today, well you might do a little looking. Restored cars are for driving, and restored reels are for catching fish.
Glad to see someone using the over looked 60 series reels.

[Ron Jones]

A 66 is a slow YTS. A lot of us have put the spool and faster gears in a black sided Senator with an aluminum frame and called it the Grouper Special. In all honesty the open top Long Beach is probably a better reel for most people than the stock black sided Senator. If you want to increase the rigidity of the 66 you can get a Newell stand for a 112H Senator for it. The only thing the 66 is missing is an aluminum spool.

If that reel has 5 drag disks I'd put a SS gear sleeve in it.

[Newell Nut]

Do we have SS gear sleeves for the 66?

[alantani]

it's a standard 98-60SS jigmaster gear sleeve, on back order for the last 3 months.......   

[bluefish69]

NN

If you need one I will loan you the one that I have. Just replace it when they appear.

Mike

[handi2]

I should have some if needed. Just let me know.

Keith krawson81@mediacombb.net

[maxpowers]

A 66 is a slow YTS. A lot of us have put the spool and faster gears in a black sided Senator with an aluminum frame and called it the Grouper Special. In all honesty the open top Long Beach is probably a better reel for most people than the stock black sided Senator. If you want to increase the rigidity of the 66 you can get a Newell stand for a 112H Senator for it. The only thing the 66 is missing is an aluminum spool.

If that reel has 5 drag disks I'd put a SS gear sleeve in it.

Ron,  You can do a little dremeling on the gear and get a 5 stack in there.  It doesn't take that long.  The hard part is making the CF of course.

[Ron Jones]

I've put lots of 5 stacks in 66 gears. You use the 60 CF and I've never modified a main gear. I've only done it to steel gears with an SS sleeve, 5 disks is a lot of drag. If you need more, Bryan can give you thin SS washers to make a 7 stack. I have a 111 that will someday get a seven stack and an 85 aluminum spool. That will be a shallow water halibut killer for sure.

Ron

[Newell Nut]

5 CFs stacked perfect in my 66 and it already had 5 factory disc in it so no need to dremel. I am not going to use the reel for anything heavy but it is nice to know that the reel can handle a lot of heavy work. I have all of my Newells for heavy work but still like to tinker with other things. I am just very impressed with this simple reel and the solid feel of it and the fact that it is like new. Just got a pair of 309s from Wisconsin that have not seen salt water and they sure are pretty. Building a rod for a nurse that does not like thumbing line and I already sold her one 309 that she likes that is on another rod that I built for her.

I will pick up one those SS sleeves when they show up just to tinker with this thing a little.

[Shark Hunter]

Got my 60 today. In Perfect condition.