Surfmaster 150 - Getting it Ready to Fish

[jurelometer]

I also discovered that the stock sleeves are very inexpensive. If one of those gets rounded, does it cause damage to other components?

Mark

No.  The flats on the end of the sleeve  get rounded off by the hole in the handle arm.  Just get a new sleeve and you are good to go.

And you won't round off the sleeve if you don't wind against heavy load- so if you are surf fishing with  something like 20 lb mono and keep this in mind, you should be fine.  Those of us that push the reels a bit  past it limits are the ones that run into trouble.

Thanks for all the info, jurelometer! Sounds like a good argument for the pump and
reel technique.

Exactly.

Nice looking reel!

You can get the stock  Penn wrench for less than 2 bucks from Mystic.  They also sell the drag washers.    If you know anyone that has old Penn reels,  they probably have a wrench. All the old Penn star drag reels came with one.

-J

[work2fish]

Work2Fish, I can't add anything useful to wjat the others have said. I a newbie to these reels, too. I have had better luck buying the reels I find that have Aluminum spools, and swapping parts with other reels if they need help. I found an Aluminum spool Jigmaster on Mercari and a Squidder at a flea market. Keep an eye out when you go to the beach. There are a lot more of these reels in saltwater areas. I've done well at flea markets in Florida and Marketplace in North Carolina.

I just think it's funny that I am also in the Pittsburgh area, primarily target carp and cats with vintage reels, and go surf fishing a bunch. Convetionals and levelwinds work best for my style of carp fishing. I put it in freespool, clicker on. When I get a take I put it in gear.
I'm originaly from O'Hara and Aspinwall. Now I live near Punxsutawney and work around Pittsburgh, Kittanning, and Butler. I fish the Allegheny and tributaries mostly, plus some of the lakes.

Good to meet you, bja105! Thanks for the tip about reel hunting in saltwater areas. My son and I primarily target carp, buffalo, and catfish at Lake Arthur, the lakes at North Park north of Pittsburgh, the 3 rivers near Pittsburgh, or the Beaver river near Rochester. We use a few spinning reels (my son's) and lots of Ambassadeurs. I love to hear the sound of the clicker when a carp takes a run with the bait!

We only go on surf fishing trips a couple times each year, but I think I would be surf fishing every day if I retired near a beach.

I had been wanting to try a Penn conventional, so when I saw the pair of Surfmasters on the auction site for a low price I jumped on it and ended up with both of them for $47 total after shipping and tax. I didn't even know about the different spools until I did some research after receiving the reels, looking at them, and realizing that one spool was aluminum and the other was plastic.

I'll PM you in the summer. Maybe we could go fishing sometime.

Mark

[work2fish]

Those of us that push the reels a bit  past it limits are the ones that run into trouble.

I would love to push a reel past its limits, but I can't seem to catch large enough fish 

I guess the only time we did so was when my son caught his first blacktip (3-4 ft) on a Penn Fierce II 4000. That version of the Fierce had felt drags, and they were probably already dry before they encountered the shark's runs. When I took the drag out to change to HT100 the bottom felt washer was very thin and hard, didn't even resemble felt anymore.

Mark

[thorhammer]

Welcome, Mark! The Surfmaster line up has a nice pedigree in fishing history. The 150 is one of my favs, and I built a couple with Newell kits as you just got from our boy Randy (who is a treasure in his own right). The reel is excellent fished in it's limits. If you get bored you can get tail plates cheaply enough (180/100/150/160/200/155) all fit and could be magged for cast control. I put 29S-310 handles from Mystic on my 100 / 150 / 145 / 146 size reels; you will appreciate them.

Your 250 is largely interchangeable with Jigmnaster 500 parts, so many of Tom's goodies (Cortez) will fit that reel. 

John