The Chronological History of Penn Reels, 1932-1957

[Maxed Out]

Hello Superhook, our adventure continues in what seems like a very Penn friendly place.

Greetings Penn Heads, it is good to be here.

Mike Cacioppo

Welcome to alantani Mr. Cacioppa, With your knowledge of factory correct penns, and Sals knowledge of turning some of them into tanks, and all the other great knowledgeable members.........I'd say this has to be the best reel website on the planet, or I guess it was already there, so now it's best in the universe !!!

Looking forward to your input Michael....and I'm certain many other members are as well.

Hey Michael, is it true there was a long beach quick take apart reel made If so, Do you have a picture

MD

[Superhook]

Thank you all for a warm welcome.

Tightlines666 , I have to assume the spool is factory plastic . Never seen a metal one or a chrome plated version from the Penn factory. I have seen aftermarket black anodized aluminium spools. The reel and box pictured sold on ebay and i only discovered it TOO LATE , it had already been sold and yes i was dirty on missing out on a chance to bid.

Hello Mike, fancy bumping into you here. Welcome to a great crowd.

Broadway ,Regarding the 49 wide spool/49A there is a good write up on its coming about in the November 2013 ORCA Reel News magazine written by Mlke Cacioppo.

[Penn Chronology]

Thank you all for the warm welcome.

Funny you mentioned the Sealine site. I have many friends on that site. That's where the history of how and why the 49A exists in the first place. The South African sport fisherman are a super hardy breed fishing for Tuna and Sharks right off the Jetties back in the 1950's.

The first 49A was actually a home made set of three reels that was noticed by a Penn Agent. One of the reels was sent to Penn as a curiosity but Penn took it serious enough to question why it was needed in the first place. When Penn decided there was a good market for this reel, they simply had to make a spool for it. Since the reel is specifically designed to catch Tuna, the spool had to be made stronger that plain Bakelite, so these spools are fiberglass reinforced Bakelite. They were actually a composite type material. Penn did not want to go to a wide metal spool because a lightweight spool was desired for casting and fast retrieve of the artificial baits.

Yes, there is a Long Beach take apart. Two are known to exist, I believe they are prototypes for the Penn Coronado.







Looking at one is a study in confusion. If you are familiar with the 1933 Long Beach, then you know it is a three cross bar reel. The 1933 Long Beach is used to create this prototype, so the cross bar holes had to be plugged on the tail plate and used as a mounting ring fastener on the head plate. The holes were added to the side plates in order to convert a three post reel to a four post reel.
                I believe Penn created this Hybrid Long Beach / Coronado to provide a few West Coast salesmen with examples to show their heavy West Coast commercial buyers. I do not believe this reel was ever made for the public.

[Penn Chronology]

Hello Superhook aka Ray. I think we are about five years late finding this site. 

[Penn Chronology]

Oh, by the way, I know you guys are hanging around here somewhere.

Hello to Rob Janssen and Gadabout.

[broadway]

Ray,
   I'm looking forward to the write up, but I hope I didn't miss it... November 2013 or did you mean 2014? Glad to have you aboard!
Mike,
   That Long Beach is nice shape on the outside, but will need the Alan Tani treatment on the inside before you can fish with it for some L.I. sound porgy
I was reading the topic on Sealine about South Africa's gods of fishing, and one thing that was amazing to me was the old school fishermen climbed down cliffs with their gear to fish off ledges that were so small they could only cast lefty in some situations.  They were fishing for tuna with these 49A's locked down with spanner wrenches and just used brute force.  Now, that's serious stuff... they'd be laughing at me while I got yoked off the ledge and go from fisherman to waterskier.
Thanks
Dom

[theswimmer]

Welcome Mike and Ray!

[HOLEINTHEWATER]

I JUST TOOK A PART TWO PENN'S I GOT FROM A FRIEND. ONE WAS A PENN MONOFIL NO 25. THE BACK PLATE WAS BROKEN. THIS REEL HAS A METAL SPOOL IN IT.  THE OTHER ONE IS A NO 155.   BOTH ARE IN ROUGH CONDITION. I HAVEN'T DECIDED IF I WANT TO DO ANYTHING WITH THEM.

[Shark Hunter]

I'm sure somebody here could use them. Don't use them as target practice!

[Penn Chronology]

That Long Beach is nice shape on the outside, but will need the Alan Tani treatment on the inside before you can fish with it for some L.I. sound porgy

I know it looks dirty on the inside. That's my fault. When I restore a reel of that importance, I take before and after photos. The outside shots are from the group of after photos and the shot of the internals is from the before photo group.

Here are some of the internals during the clean up and finally assembled:




This is over 80 years old and all the parts are original with original finishes. When I do a reel like this, my criteria is to simply clean it and get it operating as it should. Maintaining its original parts, even if they do not look perfect, if very important to me.

[Superhook]

Hello Broadway,

Mike's South African story was in last years November 2013 ORCA Reel News Magazine.

Fantastic find Mike, If you'd never seen the first of the Coronado reels with the screws into the headplate ring you'd never know it was one of the Penn factory prototypes of the Coronado.

[broadway]

Thanks Ray, I'll have to check it out.
Mike, nice job on the cleaning... I figured you didn't put that in your collection with green on the clicker ring and such
Dom

[Maxed Out]

Does anyone know when the medium size senators ( 9/0, 10/0, 12/0) switched from a bushing to ball bearing for the spool on the head plate

I know the 14/0 and 16/0 had bearings way before the others, just wasn't sure what approximate year that bushing went away on the other senators.

[Penn Chronology]

Does anyone know when the medium size senators ( 9/0, 10/0, 12/0) switched from a bushing to ball bearing for the spool on the head plate Huh?

I know the 14/0 and 16/0 had bearings way before the others, just wasn't sure what approximate year that bushing went away on the other senators.

This is always an interesting question. The 14 & 16/O's were always built with the spool running in Ball Bearings. That goes back to the late 1930's. The 10 & 12/O changed over to Ball Bearings in 1955 with the introduction of the heavy one piece Bronze spool.
                The 9/O is the odd ball of the group. The bronze spool was used on the 9/O from 1957 but Penn left the sleeve bearings in place on the 9/O for many years. It was not until 1970 that Penn decided to run the bronze one piece spool of the 9/O in Ball Bearings. So when looking to replace a bronze one piece spool in a 9/O, you have to watch what spool you use. The shaft on the head plate side of a post 1970 Senator 9/O is much longer than a earlier model even thought both models use the one piece bronze spool.
               
                The rule applies to the 10 & 12/O but in a different way. If you want to upgrade a 10 or 12/O reel with a Bronze spool and that reel was built with sleeve bearings and a three piece spool, the upgrade will not work. A bronze one piece spool will not fit in any 12/O older than 1955 because of the earlier sleeve bearings. Ball bearings call for a longer head plate spool shaft.

[TomT]

Wow!!  Just when I thought I might know a little, it appears I know VERY little.  This guys knowledge of Penns is amazing!!
TomT