P533 4.6F One of kind

[Mac53]

I figured this was one of those things that just takes practice.  Your comment about the importance of using the action of the rod to help reach out and touch someone makes great sense.  When I have some time, I'll take both reels to the football field when no ones there and try some casting.  If you don't hear from me again you'll know I killed myself while trying to sling 8 or 10 oz leads! LOL

Mac

[Tunacious]

Can anyone provide any basic details on the variables of throwing a bait from a Newell reel?  Do I need thumb protection of any sort.  Can I just fling it underhanded, sidearmed etc?

This one question can have major impact on finding the pool winner so it is real important to me.  What do you guys say?

I can only answer that question from a west coast perspective. Live bait fishing using primarily sardines and anchovy's (with little or no lead) either on the anchor or drifting while fishing for pelagics is the main type of fishing I do. For drift fishing after a jig stop or finding a meter mark, I mainly underhand cast the dine or chovy. If on the anchor at a high spot or at an island, I overhand cast for the most part. These are general rules and can change by the minute.   If possible, I underhand cast as much as possible since it does less harm to the bait.

As far as needing thumb protection, I use aluminum spools and mono...no protection needed. I do recall using flex tape while overhand casting with a graphite spool. Now, if I was using a jig stick for throwing the iron (surface or yoyo), I'd have some flex tape on my thumb. The yoyo irons generally weigh 4-7 ounces, surface iron jigs and dines less; the chovy's even less. Letting the rod wing the bait out while having an "intelligent" thumb is the way to go IMHO. Because I can quickly go from throwing bait to throwing iron, I always have that flex tape on my thumb...ymmv.

If practicing at a park, I used to use a clothes pin to simulate chovy's and maybe a plastic bait (sans hook) to simulate a dine. Make sure your line is wet before casting...bring a water spray bottle. Just my .02.

[Newell Nut]

Best to go to a public dock that is about 10-12 feet above the water which is similar to a big party boat. Rig up something similar to what you will cast while fishing and practice the underhand cast. It takes a while to get the feel of the rod kick or recoil which flings the weight out and gets the spool spinning. Cast too hard and you get a lot of overspin and a mess on the spool. Patience is needed.

[Mac53]

Lots of good advice!  Concerning the lead weight used in the Tortugas, as it is everywhere, current is the main force driving how much weight is needed.  Depending on that speed you might need anywhere from 4 to 10 ounces or more to hold bottom.  Once you start to get past 8 ounces the casting for distance is pretty much done. Anything past 10 makes any bottom fishing very tough.  

Mac

[Mac53]

I am planing on fishing a seldom, if ever fished, area of the Gulf of Mexico called Pully Ridge.  The Captain has discovered shoal waters with abundant marine life in 200-400 feet.  Long drifts over productive bottom and deep jigging will offer great opportunities for anglers to play with all species of fire truck Groupers, Mutton Snapper and Tuna.  We have been requested to spool up with 50 lb braid and a 30 foot top shot of 50 lb mono.  

Which of the two reels in this thread would you use?  I was almost ready to go with the 338 but the stopping power of double dogs and the strength of the 533 gears has me re-thinking.  What say you?

[Newell Nut]

That 338 will surprise you. The 533 would be first choice on the bottom but anything suspended in the water I would be using the 338.

[Mac53]

Thanks Dwight, you confirmed my thought.

Mac

[Mac53]

I loaded up the narrowed 533 with 50 lb Cortland braid and I couldn't believe that it took 400 yards with a 30 foot 50 lb. mono Tippett.  The non-narrowed 533 took 550 yards of the same braid and Tippett.  We'll be fishing in 200 to 500 feet so my concerns about capacity are history.  More to come!

Mac

[Newell Nut]

These reels on Jon's rods are absolutely killer combos. Looking forward to some great pics of the trip.

[theyuckyone]

Just curious what were the steps you did to modify the Torium handle to get it to fit the Newell sleeve?

[Newell Nut]

Two choices. When they have them in stock you buy it modified from uluajunkies.com

You can also buy the torium 50 handle and it can be modified with a couple of small files(1 round and 1 flat mini). If you buy the torium 30 handle then you need a good dremel to work on it. Not difficult but need to take your time so as not to get it sloppy. Needs to be a snug fit over the gear sleeve.

It cuts easy since it is a chrome plated brass but it is very sturdy and the offset feels nice.

[thinkwahoo]

Just a comment re - Tib conversion kit, 1. They used the dimensions for the skinny kit from one of the sample reels I took to them, 2. They elected to make the skinny (1 5/8") kit then for some unexplained reason elected to make a standard width kit instead of the 2" sample. Beats the hell out of me, but that was their business decision. 3. They made the spools twice as heavy (or more) than Newell spools, and when asked Rich Duncun only said he was concerned about spool failure. 4. Why they elected to to go to a 10/32 clamp screw instead of the standard 8/32 that Newell had used in all the reels (minor change, but irritating nonetheless)

I'll make a comment on the ss bridge sleeve that has been made available.  Many years ago Carl decided to one up Penn by producing his reels with a 4 drag system over the then standard 3 drag that many Penn reels used.  Problem with heat showed up caused by the ss main gear spinning around the ss bridge sleeve to the point smoke would come out by the jack handle. By the end of the P series production they had already converted over to the 3 stack drag with an alloy bridge sleeve that didn't generate all that friction.  He even installed a bronze ring in the main gears to dissipate the heat near the end of the 4 drag models.

[Newell Nut]

Very good points and almost a carbon copy of the history lesson that I got from Gregg Chow a few years ago. Big long running tuna may be a problem for smoking a drag but for my fishing I rarely get more than a few feet run off since I use heavy drag pressure for reef fish. Sticking with Tom's precision cut SS sleeves for my reels.

As far as Rich goes, well he does strange things at times that lack logic in my opinion. Sure would have been nice if all the full circular Newell frames had eliminated the inner SS ring.

[Dr. Jekyll - AKA MeL B]

"a gun to a gunfight" getting smoked...  

i'm 99.99% the sleeve is not SS. i'd rather have SS sleeve when i get smoked, if i get smoked.

[steelfish]

awesome reel Dwight,

do you know if a stock 540 can be converted to a 533 width?