Comments on assembly, disassembly, # of parts, and parts availability

[Shark Hunter]

I don't use any of the older reels. The only Penn reels I use are the Baja or US113HN and occasionally a Penn Spinning reel.

My trolling reels are all Shimano. My multipurpose reels are Avets and Trinidad's.

Really Keith!
That is surprising since you have all the workhorses in your shop. All the way to the 16/0.
I guess I'm just old fashioned. I've never held an Avet, believe it or not. You will have to show me one time before the bearings go out.

[theswimmer]

I like the older stuff mostly because of sentimental reasons. Almost all my gear belonged to someone who taught me how to fish. I have stuff I bought , mostly surfishing because of specific needs. Lots of things were gifts as well but still mostly old school gear cause Dad and Grandpa were practical that way

[Keta]

You will have to show me one time before the bearings go out.

I just finished servicing 25 Avets from the MX to the EX30, all had bad bearings but they were cattle boat reels and severally abused.  The EX clicker was frozen and it wore down the metal, every bearing on the EX 4/0 came out in pieces.    At the same time I had 12 other Avets and about 1/2 needed only a pinion bearing, the others just a cleaning.  If taken care of Avets do not have bearing issues but the pinion bearing is a weak spot.

[SoCalAngler]

I guess it depends on the type of fishing you do. With that said with the use of braided lines and smaller reels being used people are able to land larger fish now a days than on older gear being modified.

Even braid backing the older larger reels many times they did not offer the same stopping/cranking power as the newer reels offer. It does not seem too long ago ( late 80's, 90's and earily 2,000's) on long range boats back up rods/reels were often used on large fish, also skiff rides were pretty common to subdue the larger fish on the LR boats. Now you almost never hear of long range boats using skiffs, for me I can't remember it happening any time lately and the backups are very rarely used for this type of fishing.

A 308 lb YFT is a huge fish and congrats to anyone that can land one but 427 lbs is the IGFA record now. Do you think the YFT just started to get bigger or is it that the gear used now that is able to handle bigger fish?

I don't chase huge tuna anymore but I do like to use smaller reels for all types of the fishing I do. To me newer designed reels seem more up to the task for this. 30 sized two speed reels and even 16's are catching 300 lb fish and not too long ago you would say anyone that caught a fish like that on that type of gear got lucky no matter how good a fisherman he was. With more and more novice fishermen landing fish of this size on smaller reels to me it speaks loudly to the engineering and design of the newer gear.

Think back to 2005 on long range boats off So Cal and smaller boats fishing the Cabo area, a huge number of really large fish were being caught by people that have never seen a fish close to those sizes let alone hooked one. If they would of been fishing a old school 9/0 or a 16/0 do you think they would of had a chance against those fish? I'm sure it was possible but for me I don't think the hook up to landing rates, even with all the upgrades available to people today would of been anything close to what they were then without newer disigns.  

Don't get me wrong I like fishing older gear and I do often but for me when I see huge boils coming up the chum line I grab the newer designed reels first and when it is time to have fun the older models come into action.

[boon]

I can respect the classics for what they are and their simplistic robustness... but if you go back-to-back between something like a Shimano Trinidad and a Squidder... one feels like a tightly engineered precision instrument and the other feels like a rattly brick.

I know the squiddy would keep going after being filled with sand and salt water while the Trinidad would get a bit crunchy but ask me which one I would rather fish with and I'll reach for the Shimano every single time.