Question for PENN historians

[broadway]

Touché Mike... That makes sense. I knew the lil guys were for sustenance fishing but wasn't sure if that carried through to the big dogs.
Thanks
Dom

[Shark Hunter]

One of my 77's was a little rough. I thought the gears were stripped. All that was wrong was that the side plate screws were loose. You talk about simple. Just a Main gear attached to the Handle and a pinion on the spool. No anti-reverse, no drag. It does have a clicker, but that's it. I will take a picture next time.

[Penn Chronology]

One of my 77's was a little rough. I thought the gears were stripped. All that was wrong was that the side plate screws were loose. You talk about simple. Just a Main gear attached to the Handle and a pinion on the spool. No anti-reverse, no drag. It does have a clicker, but that's it. I will take a picture next time.

That's what Penn was about when it was founded. A fishing tool that caught fish and was so simple it could be sold Retail for $3.00. A wholesaler only had to pay $1.25 per reel.

In my opinion, the Model F is the first Penn reel. It was the essence of the Penn "Make it Simple, Make it Work" concept. The Model F became the Sea Hawk and the Model 77 Sea Hawk was taken down to the extreme basis of a small winch.

Here was the 1932 introduction of the Model F Illustrated Parts Schematic:


When a reel is taken down,it is even more simple than the schematic because not everything comes apart:


It was simple and brilliant.

               The little Model 77 Sea Hawk is attempt by Penn Reels to sort of use the historically significant Sea Hawk model name to sell another very simple reel. After its initial introduction in 1933, the Sea Hawk continued as a regular Penn model until WW II. After the war, the Sea Hawk model name was discontinued until 1958 when this little Model 77 Sea Hawk was introduced. The only real resemblance the Model 77 Sea Hawk had to the original models was its name. The Model 77 was probably the simplest reel ever made by Penn and surprisingly it was also a good seller.
               Another interesting coincidence was that the 1958, Sea Hawk, Model 77 List Price was $3.00. The List Price of the 1933 Sea Hawk, Model 40 was also $3.00.    

[Penn Chronology]

Touché Mike... That makes sense. I knew the lil guys were for sustenance fishing but wasn't sure if that carried through to the big dogs.
Thanks
Dom

Actually, big game sport fishing was not at all about the meat. In today's world everyone is always talking about the money value of the meat. In the 1930's, the price of Tuna was $200 a ton. It cost a lot more than what they were worth to catch them between the gear and boats needed to get to them. Big Game fishing, in those days, was always about the challenge.
             

[broadway]

I gotcha... I was saying that I realize the small Penn reels were used for "food" fishing, just wasn't sure if that was the case for the larger reels as well. Thanks for clearing that up.
$200 a ton?? ... Darn! it's $200+ for 4 people to have sushi around here (not including Sake) 
Looking at that parts price list made me wonder if local B+T's sold the parts or did they have to wait order by mail and wait for the Pony Express to gallop on through?
Thanks
Dom

[Penn Chronology]

Darn! it's $200+ for 4 people to have sushi around here (not including Sake)

I think Sushi is delicious if it is cooked properly.....................

[txangler81]

with the 209s I have one of the brown ones and two of the red ones I also have a brown one that looks like the red ones. Any thoughts on that.

[Penn Chronology]

The 209 colors started out as black in the early 1950's, the mid 1950's the model was teal green. After that the brown shades took over the product and how many variations of brown and red and all that's in between I do not know. There is such a massively long production on this model that knowing all the color variations would be a study in itself, but it is a really good question for the board members to answer. I bet that if different board members started posting pictures of different 209's, we could wind up with a large amount of variations.

I will start it out with the first generation build style of the reel. Here is the first color the 209 was available in:

When the 209 was introduced, you could have it in any color you wanted it in as long as the color was Black but that changed really quick in 1955 when this Teal Green 209 was introduced:

But by 1957, Penn was changing colors again bringing in this maroon color:


Now into the 1960's, the shades of maroon, brown and red did vary. Maybe someone can help me here with some other shades of Maroon

[txangler81]

Here are my 209 reels.

The whole lot

old style brown one

brown but newer style

red newer style 1

red newer style 2

Dustin

[Penn Chronology]

Looks like we have about three different shades of brown. I do not have anything different than what we have already pictured, maybe someone else has a different shade 209.