penn 990 drags

[Jayden]

What size HT-100 washer fit in the Penn Mag Power 990, and how much drag do they get stock?

[Rancanfish]

If I recall they are 113H drags.

[Bill B]

Just checked mysticparts.com and they show the 990 uses the 114H/115 9/0 drag washers.  Pretty big washers for that size reel.  You can expect 25# from those wash3rs but I wouldn't fish it past 15# 

Bill

[JasonGotaProblem]

Oh man I may keep my 990 after all.

[Porthos]

50lb is two line classes above the factory rated 30lb...so within reason. 15lbs drag from full top-of-spool + 1-2 lbs from rod/guides under load puts it in the 16.66lbs 1/3 rule for a 50lb reel.

450-500 yds of 60 or 65 lb braid main with 50lb top shot.

[Jayden]

how many lbs till the gears strip, is it safe for me to lock the drag down with stock gearing?

[Bill B]

I'm not familiar with these reels, however a lot of the important parts ( i.e. main gear) are unobtanium so I would err on the conservative side.  But if you do decide to push the limits we would like to see at what point you achieve failure. Bill

[thorhammer]

I think you will be able to get enough drag plus your thumbs that it give you a workout holding that 10 ft Heaver upright from pier or sand if you get anything that large. I've seen 80 lb cobia and 100-plus pound sharks caught off NC piers kingfishing much lesser reels. That's a whole different proposition than locked down on a boat vertically winching a grouper out of a hole, which has also been done on much lesser reels. My buddy bill is right, tho, no more spare gears. Honestly about the only way you're gonna go up in reel for that rod is a 4/0. The Ulua guys cast wide 4/0's from the cliffs (Bryan can elaborate), but that's also a big difference from flat sand and no one sets any distance records with a 4/0 either.

[Jayden]

I would go with a 4/0 but they are a pain to cast, my best was over 100 yards, and I was also able to find some SS main gear/pinion gears for the 990 but they are expensive no ss gear sleeve. How much smaller is the 990 compared to the 4/0?

[thorhammer]

Between jiggy and 3/0. Much more castable; it's what they were designed for. It's not dimensionally much different from a standard width jigmaster, but is a heavier duty reel by a stretch, and a tad more capacity.

[Jayden]

Do y'all think I should upgrade the gears and drags ? I will be running straight 30lb mono with a few yards of 100lb braid on top for "pier shot".

[Jayden]

Did the 990 come with a ht100 drag stack?

[Barishi]

I have been using a 980 for a while now for pier fishing. While its not a 990, I think there are a few common design features.

The 970/980 have steel gears stock and I'm sure many 990s do too. However, there are 990s that have the more typical brass main gear and steel pinion. Credit to Second Chance Tackle for the image.

Drags wise I fish 30lb mono on my 980 and use 9lb of drag with no issue. And, when I sent mine for service, the serviceman informed me it came with carbon fibre drags installed.

So basically I doubt you'd need to upgrade anything on the 990 to fish 30lb mono. That is assuming you won't go past 10lb of drag.

[Jayden]

What size handle does this reel take, standard 4/0 handles?

[Barishi]

Anything the Penn 349 takes, which I think includes 4/0 handles.