Penn FTH25N

[Ellis Feibush]

Has anyone out there tried out the new Penn FTH24N? It looks to be about the same size as the old Jigmaster  with the narrow spool, not sure though. It also has a high speed gear ratio and apparently you can change the strength of the drag by changing the keyed and HT-100 washers. All this seems pretty good, but nothing beats real fishing use.  Read some information about it on Charkbait. Any responses greatly appreciated. Thank you.

[redsetta]

G'day Ellis,
There's been a few posts about the Fathom range, but not the 25 in particular.
The Fathom in general: http://alantani.com/index.php?topic=2545.0
The 40 : http://alantani.com/index.php?topic=2794.0
The new lever drag : http://alantani.com/index.php?topic=2536.0
And a couple of reviews (the second of which is quite thorough): http://www.bdoutdoors.com/story/penn-fathom-star-drag/
http://www.ultimateangling.co.za/index.php?topic=6394.0
Hope that's of some assistance.
All the best, Justin

[Ellis Feibush]

Thanks Justin for those links. Ultimateangling's review was very revealing and most helpful. Not sure which size to buy, 25 or 15. For the type of fishing we do here on the East coast, either would work well, but the wise choice I guess would be the size that could be used for multiple varieties of fishing. I like either size when loaded with braided line. Would you believe, a large number of boats here on the East coast do not allow braided line. They even go so far to write it in large, large letters on their websites. NO BRAIDED LINE. Seems like it's gonna be a long time before we catch up with the higher tech fishing methods on the West Coast. The Fathom series appears to be available here also.
Penn seems to be finally competing with the likes of Avet, (though we seem to be having a number of problems with these reels lately) Daiwa, and one of the new guys on the block, Canyon reels. These Canyon reels are surprisingly good. They don't really break. I abused and otherwise beat the crap out of one of their smaller reels last season. The reel seemingly came back for more punishment saying "is that all you got"? The reel looks the same as an Avet but it's a different kind of animal, very dependable.
I found nothing to fault in the Fathom review. That a/r system is a little overkill, but mind you, that's okay. Can't see the a/r system failing any too soon, although I prefer the dog/spring type; more positive and less prone to wearing out. I feel a little less secure with large a/r bearings are; you just never know when some of the oil in them is going to leak down into the drag stack. Doesn't happen often, but I've had it happen. Not hard to remedy. All in all the Fathom reels are very impressive.
Thanks again Justin for all the info.

[redsetta]

No worries Ellis - glad it was of some use.
Re: the 15 vs 25, I s'pose it comes down to target species and technique.
The 15 has a considerably smaller spool - holding 270 yards of 50#, as opposed to 450 yards on the 25.
Naturally, the retrieve rate is also different - 28in per wind on the 15 and 40in on the 25.
All the best, Justin

[Ellis Feibush]

Thanks gain Justin for that information.

efeibush