PRO GEAR 545

[STRIPER LOU]

Hi All, a few months ago I passed a mint 545 pro gear cause it had no clicker. Obviously we don't see many of them here on the east coast. A friend of mine purchased it and I serviced it for him. My first impression and I am far from an expert but consider many on this forum to be, this is an amazing reel. So, I was lucky to find one for myself. Slightly larger in size than the jigmaster, smaller than a 3/0 and the guts and drag of a 4/0 just as Brian Young had explained to me. What more could you possibly ask for?
Well, if you added SS double dogs, SS gears and sleeve and a SS drag wheel it would be about perfect to me. I love my jigmasters and use them often but they just don't seem to stand up to my style of fishing. My go to reel has been the penn 113h and for the price this reel has been unbeatable. This board has made me interested in hot rodding reels and I truly appreciate all the info available here and all the expert guidance I have recieved.
My question is how did this guy go out of business?
He basically did 90% of the hot rodding for us. I'm beyond pleased with this reel and I understand its not perfect but to me its pretty darn close.
I be interested in anyone's comments or opinions on this piece of equipment!!!!!
Thanks in advance, ....   Lou
By the way, this reel is pretty darn clean. To make it cherry would only require a new bearing cap. Guess some people have trouble picking out the correct size screw driver. If anybody has one of these please be so kind to contact me.

[Alto Mare]

You're right Lou, those are nice reels. In the past, we didn't do maintenance as we do today and somehow those didn't like the salt very much, this was what I've experienced anyway.
Today, the way we do pre service and routine maintenance, that would not be a problem anymore.
I like them myself.

Sal

[Tunacious]

I don't know the story on why they went out of business but I was sad when they did shut down ...especially as they were local to me.

I've found that I need to use more grease on the internals, more than I would on other reels. I also wipe the reel down with a thin coat of corrosion-x after rinsing with water after each trip. I also take off the right plate to wipe off the inside and ensure that the area below the jack handle is in good shape. In other words, they do require more maintenance to ensure no corrosion. I've enjoyed the reels over the years - 255's, 545's and 454. If you maintain them well, they should serve you well.

[MarkT]

The Albacore Specials were awesome but Avet came along and people started moving to metal leverdrags. Pro Gear came out with the Oceanus leverdrags but had issues with the reel seat popping off and never recovered. If they stuck with the higher end star drags they might still be around.