A Chinese Built Penn

[SoCalAngler]

I picked up a Fathom 25N and thought I would leave a little report on what I found after opening it up to do a prefishing service.



I did not tear down the reel fully and I think you can see why. After removing the side plates this is what I found.



After checking out the drag stack it seemed that the HT 100 drags had a bit too much grease on them for my liking.



A quick wipe down of the excess grease on the stack and all seems fine.



I was curious about the silent dual dog system which works in conjunction with a anti reverse bearing. Here is a picture of it in it's open state.



Here it is engaged




The design of the dogs seem to be a bit like Daiwa reels in that the dogs will only come into play if there is a failure in the ARB.

I did not include pictures of the clicker side of the reel but it was greased just like the handle side of the reel right from the factory. The only part of the reel that did not have grease on it that I did grease was sides of the spool which are inside the side plates. The reel came with very good freespool but I did oil up all of the bearings and that increased the reels freespool a bit.

[Rare]

Looks very beefy! Nice! How much lb of drag can she hammer out?

[SoCalAngler]

I have not spooled up the reel yet to test the drag but Penn says it gets 25 lbs, we'll see.

[Keta]

I took mine part way apart but did not see the need to go any further than you.  I have mine spooled with 60lb spectra and it casts good.  The factory drag numbers are a bit over optimistic.

[alantani]

nice looking reel!

[SoCalAngler]

I took mine part way apart but did not see the need to go any further than you.  I have mine spooled with 60lb spectra and it casts good.  The factory drag numbers are a bit over optimistic.

I buttoned down the drag all the way to "stupid tight", did not dare to turn the star any further and I got 28 lbs of drag. 25 lbs may be a fishable drag pressure but I would not fish this reel anywhere close to that. This reel will be used to fish the surface iron with 25-30 lb long topshots. I spooled the reel with 340 yards of 50 lb Izorline spectra and got around 80 yards of 25 lb Izorline XXX on top.

[Keta]

Mine is set up for 25/30.

[Tile]

For extra safety I would recommend adding a pair of springs to the antireverse dogs in conjunction with the factory ones and make it a "clicking" reel. The Ambassadeur style springs keep the pawls aligned with the ratchet and the secondary ones keep them engaged at all time.
I like the Fathom series due to their no-nonsense design and construction.

[Irish Jigger]

Thank's for the report SoCalAngler. Looks a well engineered belt and braces reel. Could start fishing it without a pre check after reading your report.

[Alto Mare]

Nice reel! Is the body metal or graphite?

[Tile]

The frame and sideplates on the Fathom series is cast aluminium. Penn did their homework well with Fathom series of reels.

[makana59]

the fathom is graphite.  So what I liked about it was the lightness as compared to the torium but still had the strength of a single frame system.  Plus one of the higher drag power of all the same reels in it class.

[akfish]

Nope. The Fathom series reels are all metal...

[Alto Mare]

the fathom is graphite.  So what I liked about it was the lightness as compared to the torium but still had the strength of a single frame system.  Plus one of the higher drag power of all the same reels in it class.

I'm not so sure about that .

Nope. The Fathom series reels are all metal...

Hmm! I'm going to have to check them out, sounds good.
Thanks Bill!
Btw, do you own one?

[Irish Jigger]

Nope. The Fathom series reels are all metal...

I'm beginning to get interested, could be my first Chinese reel.