Penn 220GTO

[CEShawn]

Just finished up a night of reel repairs.  So glad I found this website to start my interest in repairing my own reels.  I did my Internationals before but these smaller reels never thought to much about, usually just gave to a guy.  Well time and time again the prices go up, service goes down and left waiting.  I work oversea's in the winter, fish in the summer.  So I dont always get to play with things.  We have had a cold spring in the NE so far so figure this is time well spent and rewarding.

The mainstay of our chartering for bottom fish is chasing black sea bass and scup (porgy).  The Penn 220GTO is the backbone reel that we use in the spring for it.  I did remove the line guide as it usually corrodes and locks up the reel.  With that one exception the reels have been great.

Last spring I tried to repair one on the boat and it just got out of hand.  Spring fishing was over, put the reels away and put this one back in a bag.  So I decided to fix one and see if I could figure the other one out, sure enough I did.  So back up to four of these ready to go for May fishing.  I like this reel, seems really easy to repair.  So far the only ending failure I did have was the spring for the free spool, eccentric spring I think it is, broke.  I did have one drag that had to be freed up, not sure how that happens on sea bass and scup but its fishing!

[TechTeach]

You're an animal.

[CEShawn]

Just picked up 2 Penn Jigmasters, a 330GTO, 975 and something else to do for a guy...

[Tile]

The 230 GTO can do excellent with the upgraded stand screws. The frame rings on these reels are made from stainless steel and respond well to polishing. On my 220 GTO I removed the micro fine scratches with a polishing kit from the outer frame rings and they look better than factory   .