electric reel advice

[tedg]

With the wife and I both in our 60's we are thinking about getting electric reels for deep water halibut fishing.  Reeling in 2-3 lb weight 300-600 ft is tuff for bait checks.  Do you have any experience with these?
Thank you
Ted

[alantani]

i've never bolted one on before, but it does not look hard.  the trick is to go through the reel first.  the electric motor is very unforgiving.  if the drags stick, the powerful electric motor will shred the gears quickly.  here's a page from the electrmate website.  http://www.elec-tra-mate.com/ordersports.html#312HS  which reel were you looking at?  i presume you were looking at 80# spectra?  a 4/0-sized penn 113h would probably work just fine.  alan

[alantani]

i found a comparison chart. 

http://www.fishwinch.com/FishWinch.html

[tedg]

Thanks Alan. I have a few of the 113h penns I could use, but I was actually thinking about the daiwa 750 or tb1000.  I think the motors would be sized not to just strip out the reel gears.  I just don't know about how long the motors would hold up.
Ted