140 Squidder

[Mattman NZ]

Hi everyone - I bought this reel of one of our local auction sites and when taking it out from its home to give it the once over inspection I found theres no embossing - picture on the tail plate end of the reel. I've never seen one like this before .
Matt...


And a close up of the tail plate .

[Bryan Young]

Very nice.  Not all Penns had designs on the sideplates.

[Alto Mare]

Matt, everything checks in as a penn side plate. I'm betting someone sanded it down to make it unique

[George4741]

I have a Jigmaster without any embossing on the tailplate.  There's no evidence of sanding.  So, I wouldn't be surprised if there are at least a few unmarked tailplates on Jigmasters and Squidders.

[Mattman NZ]

Thanks guys I've had a closer look and there are definitely no sanding marks on the plate - and its just not smooth enough so think its came out of the mold just like it is. I managed to get a good pic of the plate on an angel to the light. 

All good another Penn reel that's different in my growing collection.
Matt...

[Alto Mare]

Matt, I have a few of the Jigmaster's plates as George is showing, yours is the first I've seen. Let's see what the pros have to say.

Sal

[Maxed Out]

          I've seen thousands and serviced dozens of squidders from early 40's to modern day and this is the first blank tailplate that I've seen. My thought process is when a new replacement mold was made, a few test samples were made prior to spending $$$ on adding the etchings. I have a blank early 40's long beach, and I've seen a blank mid 40's long beach 66.

          .......so to answer your question, I'd say you have a very cool non-typical squidder with a blank tail plate.

[foakes]

I am thinking Max may be right --

One thing to remember, as Michael, Sal and others will attest to -- penn was a frugal company in many ways.

No waste --

So if there were prototype parts laying around, or parts from the builds a year or two previous -- they got used.

Penn came in as an alternative, lower priced, quality reel for the majority of anglers.

In those days, the company was not into serial numbers -- or minor distinctions between model runs or years.

If it was in the bins, or on the benches -- it got put together, boxed up, and shipped out to retailers.

Just as long as the parts worked -- and the beauty of Penn, was that the same parts would work for decades.

Personally, I've got to admire that logic -- waste not -- use what you have in your house.

Best,

Fred

[Mattman NZ]

Thanks Max & foakes I've never seen one like this either especially in the Squidder series line of reels . I bought the reel to use in our river for  catching Kahawai and off the mole or rocks for snapper and gurnard - I've yet to find an alloy spool for to use so I loaded one of my older - rougher looking plastic spools and backed it with 50lb braid about 80 meters - 20 lb main line with 30lb leader. I've taken the blank tail plate off and replaced it with one of my spares .
And thanks again everyone
Matt...