Penn Fathom 40 ld

[Rivverrat]

Any one with experience with this reel? Single or 2 speed.

I am hearing conflicting things regarding the drag. How much drag will they produce before any binding in the handle is felt?
     

                                                     THANKS, Jeff

[Big Tim]

Jeff, I have the fathom 25N 2 speed in my hand and at full drag where I can get to sunset I felt only a slight resistance in the cranking of the reel. I have tested it at 25# drag and when I return to free spool it spins like a top.
Now I just ordered a 40N and I am only going to guess the same performance ... I have fished my 25N only a few times and the largest fish was 18# lingcod and that wont tell us much. I will put both reels to a much better test in June. For the price, they seem to be a good reel.

Tim

[SoCalAngler]

Max 23 at strike, 28 at full and 40 at sunset.

[Rivverrat]

Tim let me know how the 40 works for you. The thing that I'm wondering about is why the wider gap between full & sunset on the 40 vs the 25 & 30?  Some are telling me they are getting 30 lbs. of drag with  their 40's
with little resistance felt in the handle. This info. is not coming from those I know.

I'm just kicking around the different reels for tug of war type fishing I do on occasion here in the river. I'm looking at the Fathom 40 ld, 113n, Andros 16, these 3 are at the top of my list with the Avet HX raptor & Accurate BX 500 or 600 if I found a deal on them.

Something  worth mentioning, all these reels I listed have far more line capacity than I will ever need. So I could take a reel like the US made 113n fill it with a 150-200  yards of heavy spectra, 50 yard top shot 100lb. mono & after a short cast would be fishing the reel at or below 1/2 it's capacity. Effectively gaining more drag. I cant see a Flathead pulling that kind of drag far. However a biologist here tells me a Flathead can pull twice its weight. A couple feet of line & I have lost the battle.   

[SoCalAngler]

Why not check with Penn for the drag numbers and not "others"?

http://www.pennfishing.com/PENN%C2%AE-Fathom%C2%AE-Lever-Drag/1347897,default,pd.html#start=2

[Rivverrat]

SoCal, Ive done that. I can quote Penns stats pretty readily.
But what they dont tell us is how they feel or what they do at this or that setting while in hand using them. If I could find everything I desire to know from the stats I wouldnt be here. The same as Avet not stating in their reel stats that if you use their reels within a pound or two of max strike you will be replacing bearings sooner than later. Same as most other stuff push to the limits. However Avet does state in their literature its best not to fish their reels at max strike all the time.   

Some reels do better than others used in the upper spectrum. This is stuff only hands on use can reveal. Plus these reels have not been out for a long time. 4/0 size reels  are completely rare, oddity around these parts.