Newell

[Scattergun2570]

Did Newell make left handed reels? I'd also like to know what your opinions are about these reels..are they quality,like Penn conventionals? I was at a Fishing Flea Market earlier today,and saw a bunch of them..all right handed..but I can't reel,with the right hand. I understand parts are kind of hard to get..what's the scoop?

[redfish12]

They made a limited run of left handed reels and then there were some that were converted. Both were essentially a right handed reel flipped over with left hand gears, pinion, and dog. I have had a few over the years and I can say they are hard to find but are great reels. I ended up upgrading to a LH Pro Gear (Thanks Randy!) and ditched my last one bc I was tired of the line catching on the jack on the way out. It was definitely manageable but it bugged me!

[Scattergun2570]

They made a limited run of left handed reels and then there were some that were converted. Both were essentially a right handed reel flipped over with left hand gears, pinion, and dog. I have had a few over the years and I can say they are hard to find but are great reels. I ended up upgrading to a LH Pro Gear (Thanks Randy!) and ditched my last one bc I was tired of the line catching on the jack on the way out. It was definitely manageable but it bugged me!

Catching on the jack?

[Swami805]

I think the lefties have an L after the number, I don't think they made many.
Been fishing Newells since forever and never had the line catch on the jack, maybe it's a lefty thing.

[Scattergun2570]

I think the lefties have an L after the number, I don't think they made many.
Been fishing Newells since forever and never had the line catch on the jack, maybe it's a lefty thing.

The jack?

[Swami805]

Free spool lever I think

[Scattergun2570]

They made a limited run of left handed reels and then there were some that were converted. Both were essentially a right handed reel flipped over with left hand gears, pinion, and dog. I have had a few over the years and I can say they are hard to find but are great reels. I ended up upgrading to a LH Pro Gear (Thanks Randy!) and ditched my last one bc I was tired of the line catching on the jack on the way out. It was definitely manageable but it bugged me!

Ok, I am not familiar with what you mean by right handed flipped over,with left hand gears,pinion and dog..whats LH Pro Gear?

[Yogi_fish808]

Newell did offer lefty reels with the designation "L" in the model no. on the head plate, ex L344-5.
https://i.ebayimg.com/images/g/hWAAAOSwDk5T670D/s-l640.jpg

As far as the quality of newells, Carl Newell took concepts from penn and improved on them. He replaced a lot of the brass/bronze parts with stainless steel and added ball bearings. They're still heavily fished in California and Hawaii. Read thru the history of newell reels stickied at the top of this forum section for a basic run down of the different letter series and sizes. As far as parts go, with the help of the awesome people in the AT community a lot of great aftermarket parts are available from Black Pearl, Bryan Young, Cortez Conversions, Tiburon, Motive Fab, etc. Keeping a Newell going is much more feasible than the years following the company shutting down. As long as it's be reasonably well taken care of, generally all you'd need to do is replace the drags and bearings on a used one. Happy hunting for that lefty, a good place to look would also be the Newell Reels facebook group.

Aloha,
Kyle

[Scattergun2570]

Newell did offer lefty reels with the designation "L" in the model no. on the head plate, ex L344-5.
https://i.ebayimg.com/images/g/hWAAAOSwDk5T670D/s-l640.jpg

As far as the quality of newells, Carl Newell took concepts from penn and improved on them. He replaced a lot of the brass/bronze parts with stainless steel and added ball bearings. They're still heavily fished in California and Hawaii. Read thru the history of newell reels stickied at the top of this forum section for a basic run down of the different letter series and sizes. As far as parts go, with the help of the awesome people in the AT community a lot of great aftermarket parts are available from Black Pearl, Bryan Young, Cortez Conversions, Tiburon, Motive Fab, etc. Keeping a Newell going is much more feasible than the years following the company shutting down. As long as it's be reasonably well taken care of, generally all you'd need to do is replace the drags and bearings on a used one. Happy hunting for that lefty, a good place to look would also be the Newell Reels facebook group.

Aloha,
Kyle

Thanks for that info...

[Newell Nut]

The Newell is the toughest and longest lasting reel that I have ever owned. My first one from 1992 is a 540 3.2 and has been on over 500 offshore trips and caught thousands of fish. The only thing that I ever had to do to it was replace drags and bearings once. It is still my go to bottom fishing reel and should be passed to my son one day. You hear a lot of people make the comment about parts being hard to get. If you just wash the salt off really good they just keep on going. Drags and bearings are easily found.

Dwight

[redfish12]

Jack = free spool lever. Guess that's not a universal name for it. The reason the line would catch on the free spool lever is because it was a right handed reel flipped over to be left handed. That meant instead of the free spool lever being closer to the front of the reel (the side facing you when mounted on a rod) it is on the back side. So in the free spool position it stuck up enough on the back side of the reel to catch line from time to time. Definitely manageable and not even noticeable with mono.