What Penn Reel to Pair with Vintage Bamboo Rods?

[Fen]

Hello All, first post here.

Looking for advice on what Penn reels to pair with a couple old bamboo rods from the 1930's.

A little background:  several years ago my wife and I were in a "junk-tique" shop and I noticed an old long narrow wooden box standing up in a corner. As many of you know, when you are a fisherman everything looks like a potential "find".  Sort of like the saying, "when all you have is a hammer, everything looks like a nail"😊.  When I inquired about the box the lady working in the shop had no idea what it contained so we pulled the nails out and found two pristine heavyweight bamboo rods from 1938 still in their protective socks.  She said, " you can have them for fifty bucks".  It sounded like a reasonable price so I purchased them even though I had no immediate use for them. 

Fast forward several years:  My wife and I now live in mid coast Maine and I have this idea to "go retro" and fish with these Ernest Hemingway era rods. I would like to pair them with Penn reels from the same era so I am looking for some advice on the appropriate size and model Penn reels.  I am thinking of early Senator reels which I have discovered came out at about the same time as the rods.

The Rods:  quite heavy weight with an unusual line guide configuration.  There are TWO garnet line guides at about mid length and a rotating tip top. The handle separates from the one piece bamboo portion.  Some pictures:

[Fen]

Yikes!  Somehow I posted images twice on the last post...will need to work on that🫤

Just a couple more images:

[Gfish]

Welcome to the site!
Way cool! Great find for $50. Some serious tackle history there.
Wonder if $250 was close to the purchase/shipping price in 1938 during the depression era? Too ignorant to to give advice on something like this.

[Fen]

Gfish, thanks for the "welcome", it is much appreciated😊

I have a couple 114H Senator reels. I put one on the rod and they certainly did not look too large so I am thinking about an old Senator that was built in the 30's.  I am not sure how difficult they are to find and how expensive they might be but would like to keep rods and reels about the same vintage.

BTW, I will most likely use them on our boat for jigging for cod and halibut as well as other ground fish and maybe a little trolling.

Also, I am not sure about the original purpose of the rod.  I am wondering if it was original intended for fishing from the shore since it is called a "heavy bank rod" on the label on the sock.  I have read that the unusual back-to-back line guides and rotating tip were intended to allow one to fish from both sides of the rod so that the bamboo would not develop a "set".  I wouldn't think this would be necessary for a shore rod but would be a nice feature on a boat rod that was trolled.  Hopefully someone knowledgeable about such things will weigh-in on the discussion.

Thanks again for the "welcome"😊

[Swami805]

Welcome, the rod is reversible, if it took a set on one side you could turn it over and use the other    $250 was a heck of a lot of money in 1938. I'm sure someone here can provide more information, that's $50 well spent, heck of a find you have there. The 114H reels aren't even close to period correct for those rods.

[Alan M]

Re $250, I think that was the value of the contents of the box....72 lbs.

[Keta]

No help on the reels but WOW!!!!

[Gfish]

I bought 2- well used Montague wooden rods of lower build quality, probably about the same vintage. Did a father-son bottom fishing trip. The kid had a Long Beach 60 and I had my L.B. Deluxe 300 yd.(double plate rings like a senator). His had the double guides like yours. That well used reel of mine looked right for the rod. Won't use it again because the gear sleeve is ready to collapse where the handle attaches.
An old Senator is the first thing I thought of for yours. Wondering though, what did Shakespeare make in that era for deep sea fishing?

[Swami805]

From the looks of them maybe a 4/0 senator. 1938 I think was the first year that made a 4/0, it would be difficult to find one and mucho $ too. Maybe just get a regular 4/0 senator with black side plates, not period correct but probably only something a Penn collector would notice, mechanically they are very similar too

[oc1]

Those are beautiful, with interesting provenance too.  You did well.  I think the 114 is much too large for the intended use though.  A Penn or Ocean City in a 200 yard size (under the old system) might be more appropriate.  There is a Penn Seaford with the original period-correct linen line for sale on ebay now.

[JasonGotaProblem]

What about a long beach? Easy to find and roughly unchanged since the right era. I got a few clean oldies.

[Crow]

Welcome! And you made a great buy!

[Maxed Out]

 Wow, $250 in 1938 !!

 There are collectors out there that would pay a kings ransom for these pristene rods.

[oldmanjoe]

  Nice score on that rod .   Both are 1162 ?  Were did you find this information ?
      It is going to be hard to find :Bamboo  boat rod , bank rod and surf rod information . A Lot of those site are gone now .  Hunt around at this site .
      https://antiquerodandreels.com/rodmanufacturers
  Click on library drop down box  for more information

[Fen]

Thank you all for your thoughts on pairing a reel to the old bamboo rods.  I have not yet figured out how to respond to each of you individually so will just respond to all of you in this one post.

Swami805- yes, 114H not even close to period correct for the rod but I may just repair the two that I have and try them for a while until I figure out which reel to pair with the rods.

Gfish- I am not sure what Shakespeare made for the rods.  I tried to find out but was unable to find any information. Whatever it was the reel foot must have been very thin to be able to fit under the hood of the tightening collar.  It looks like with modern rods  there is at least an eighth of on inch clearance to accommodate the reel foot.  On the bamboo rods there is barely half this.  I am not exactly sure how to get around this yet.  Any advice?

JasonGotaProblem- the Long Beach is a really good option.  It looks like there are plenty of them out there and all, with there individual posts, at least look like they are period correct.  They may be a bit small though.

OldmanJoe- yes, both rods are 1162's.  The information is on the label on the protective sock.  The label is in amazingly good shape for being nearly 100 years old! I will include a photo of the label.  Thank you for the link to the antique rod website; unfortunately there were no 1162's.

Bottom Line:  I am not sure what I am going to do so I think I will just repair the two 114H's that I have and watch for some nice, old 113's or 114's that have individual posts so they look period correct.

Thank you all again for your help.  Any suggestions are always appreciated!

Fen