A Chinese Built Penn

[michaelc]

 The blue grease on the drag washers was something I questioned a few months ago.  Not a issue at light to medium drag settings but jerky at lockdown. It took a couple of applications of Cals and warming the drag up to get it all out and smooth.  Drag grease or misplaced marine grease it may leave some people who buy this reel(and dont do their own maintenance) with the wrong impression of its drag.     

[Dominick]

Why the throat clearing? ... it's a good deal! 

The throat clearing was for the wifey part.  Sal cannot live it down.  Dominick

[johndtuttle]

The fathom 15 reels are all marked up badly. If your a tackle tart, then I think you need to be aware of how easily the reels can mark up     

These are painted reels on cast aluminum similar to the Daiwa Saltists I believe? It's to be expected if you don't anodize like Shimano does with the Toriums.

[akfish]

I believe the spool on a Torium is anodized but the frame is painted. I know it's done that way on the Tekota reels.

[SoCalAngler]

Sorry guys I stopped looking at this thread after a couple of weeks with no response. I'll add a few thoughts and comments.

The grease on the drags is factory installed.
The drags may get jerky at the upper end of the settings but who in the world is going to fish these reels close to that with the 6:1 gearing they have? I wouldn't even fish this reel with 40 lb topshots unless Penn makes a change. (See below)
All cast aluminum reel parts are painted, only machined aluminum can be anodized no matter who makes the reel.
Last but not least Penn NEEDS to come out with a versa drag system for these reels or come out with a gearing around 4.8:1 to make these really sweet reels. The drag pressure the reel puts out is way too much for the 6:1 gears IMO and something around a 5, 4.9 or 4.8 to 1 would make a much better reel for bigger fish or heavier drag settings.

[Kyle K]

Aren't the bodies and rotors on the Daiwa BG series hard anodized?  They've been saying that for years, and the ones I looked at seem to be anodized.

[SoCalAngler]

I don't own any spinning reels but from their pics on Daiwa's site its hard for me to tell but their info does say " hard anodized". Are you sure the reel is not machined aluminum? I do own a Saltist BG 20H and it seems painted how else would you get a flat black frame?. Someone correct if I'm wrong but I have always thought cast aluminum could not be anodized. I only fish conventional reels so those are all I look at and every cast aluminum reel I have seen looks painted no matter who makes it.

[Kyle K]

The BG series doesn't look machined and I can't imagine them doing it on a $100 reel, even if it's a carryover line, like the Sealine conventionals, that have been in production for around 30 years now and still sell for close to what they did when introduced. The Sealines are advertised as hard anodized and paraffined. I remember the older BG's used to have a paraffin wax coating also, but current production does not. It doesn't look or feel like paint, but who knows?

[Bunnlevel Sharker]

Beach Casters in the east do not deal with hard fighting fish

Being an east coast fisherman myself, i digress considering biters, carhoods, and big drum