Penn 117L 14/0 back in production

[floating doc]

Was I ever surprised to see this!  Assembled in Pennsylvania, too. Any comments?

http://forums.floridasportsman.com/showthread.php?54931-It-s-back-The-117L-is-Coming!&highlight=beach+shark

[Bryan Young]

Yeah, when they discontinued, they quickly saw the existing stock disappear and prices rise on secondary sale sites, so I think it was good business sense to bring back these reels.  Growing up, many of us could not afford those nice gold reels, and cold buy 2 of these for the price of one gold reel.  So we had a nice 16 ft. boat with 6 of them on board.

[floating doc]

WOW, I would like to visit someplace where I could use a 14/0 out of a 16 foot boat!

It seems funny to me that they're still building them without upgrading any of the parts. No one piece frame or aluminum side plates? At least they're not using a chromed brass spool!

How much drag can one of these withstand? It's supposed to be a 130 pound class reel, can you realistically put 40+ pounds of drag on it (for hours)?

[alantani]

this sounds like something out of "the old man and the sea."

[floating doc]

I hope that Alan doesn't mean this sounds like fiction!

Santiago used a hand line

I don't know how I remembered his name; it's been 40 years since I read the book.

[Bryan Young]

Alan, you should see how we jimmy rig everything in Hawaii.  2 - 14/0s hose clamped to the rear cleats of the boat for flat line instead of meat line.  2 - 14/0s on 6' trolling rods on the corner, and 2 - 14/0s on 6 ft trolling rods with 10' outriggers.  And one rod older in the center of the counsel at the front of the boat (Why?  When we got hooked up, clear lines, then move the rod to the front of the boat then turn the boat around, and relax...let the fish pull us.).  Remember, we used to go out without any gps, radios, or anything back in the day, and somehow, we still made it home.

[alantani]

yeah, i could just see getting pulled around like that.   

[floating doc]

Nantucket sleigh ride!

[Makule]

Would you believe 250-300 lb test in those reels, drags as tights as possible, the reels only used as line storage, and the "cranking" was actually hand-lining it in?

[wallacewt]

bryan
i have often thought that the game boats would be a lot better with a walk around (chair up front?) and instead of backing down on game fish the skipper would point the boat at the fish and chase.also there would be no orders coming left right and centre from the anglers.

[Bryan Young]

Agreed Wallace.  Or design the boats like in Scottland where I could not tell which was front or back.  Looked like it could go either way.