Your Thoughts on Older Spools

[George4741]

Do any of you use plastic spools for fishing on your Penn reels?  I would never use them for any pelagic, but what about bottom fishing for anything smaller than 20 lbs?  If you relieved the stretched mono at the end of each day, would plastic spools be OK?  They seem to be very brittle.  I broke a plastic 99 Silverbeach spool when I dropped it on a concrete floor.

And what about the older 3-piece chromed spools.  Are they prone to spreading if used with mono?

[alantani]

Single piece aluminum is the way to go!

[akfish]

I agree with Alan. The only ones I can recommend are the one piece aluminum spools. All of the others -- save for the one piece cast bronze spools that weigh a ton -- are prone to problems. Fishing is too important to take a chance on a bad spool.

[Alto Mare]

I also agree with Alan and Akfish but don't get rid of that one piece chromed brass spool just yet. You wont find a better spool for heavy trolling, especially with wire line. You don't want to find out what happens to that aluminum spool when using it with wire line.

[Norcal Pescador]

I agree with all of the above. Aluminum is my first choice followed by the (heavy) chrome over brass. I'm very careful about what I fish for with a 3-piece spool and won't even consider plastic (except for goldfish ).
Good point Sal, on the use of wire line.
Rob