Top selling reel of all time

[Bunnlevel Sharker]

Erik has a good point abot almost everyone owning abu

[JA_Angler]

Most common reel in Jamaica seems to be the Penn 114h.  It is what I see most often on the boats and in the service shop. It is also very common, from what I have seen and heard, in many other markets where serviceability and spare parts are critical to less wealthy anglers far away from formal service centres. 

[Dr. Jekyll - AKA MeL B]

i think the ambassadeur series of reels but then again i may be wrong. now i wrote series but if it's just one model it has to be a penn. don't know which one though...

[akfish]

I service several hundred Penn 320s a year up here in Alaska. It is, by far, the most popular salmon trolling reel. Now that it's been discontinued I'm anxious to see what takes its place.

[Alto Mare]

That's a lot of reels Bill. When the bearings go bad on those, do you replace just the bearings or toss the complete bridge and plate?

[borchcl]

Some time back, when Alan did his tutorial for the Penn 320 reels, he noted that it was the most sold reel. It's a moving target, but they were low cost and were around for a long time. I see a  lot of them, both for fresh and saltwater use.

[Dynamo]

Maybe the 114h or 115. At least where I am they're everywhere.

[Robert Janssen]

We spent 2 hours searching online for sales figures or numbers of any kind last night and couldn't find squat....

Well, there is some info out there. The hard part is weeding out good info from bad.

Some time back, when Alan did his tutorial for the Penn 320 reels, he noted that it was the most sold reel. It's a moving target, but they were low cost and were around for a long time...

This is becoming an interesting question, after some thought.

Alan might remember who told him that, but i'm almost ready to dismiss that claim outright, especially without further qualification- best selling at that time? best selling in that category?

ABU are quite proud of having established a very expansive market network very early on, with dealers and distributors of their products on essentially every continent. They are quick to point out that in the 1970s, a whopping 70% of all fishing gear sold in the world came from ABU.*

They are also proud of the Ambassadeur's heritage, and themselves purport to have manufactured approximately twenty million Ambassadeurs to date.

Penn has always done well for themselves, primarily in the USA, which is in itself a very large market. But as previously noted, there is a lot of water between the coasts, and even more between the coasts of Europe and Asia, which is Abu territory.  (Shimano is also an enormous global marketing machine which reaches to every corner of the world, but they just haven't been around long enough to make enough reels, i think, as well as steadily revamping product lines.)

It appears through a quick look that the Penn 320 was in production for roughly fourteen years, or a few more years for related models. This is just not enough time to manufacture enough reels, or to catch up with ABUs forty year headstart.

This factoid of the 320 being the most sold reel would also entail that they sold more 320s in roughly fifteen years, than they sold 113s or 114s in seventy years. And that is why i consider that claim to be highly unlikely.

As a comparative note, the Mitchell 300 and Zebco 33 are purported by various sources to have sold in the neighborhood of twenty to thirty million units over their sixty-odd year lifespan. Each.

In closing, I'm sure this question has been asked and answered before, but without that suffice to say that both the Ambassadeurs and the Senators as well as the smaller Penns have been very successful, but it would be difficult to nail down which model exactly. I really cannot think of any other reel as a serious contender.


*a claim which i imagine includes reels, rods, lines and everything else. How much of this came from Svängsta or was in cooperation with other companies is not clear.

.

[Bryan Young]

If you take away all of the suffixes and slight variations, my guess would be a near tie between Abu's 6500 series and Penn's jigmasters (500/501/505/506).

[akfish]

That's a lot of reels Bill. When the bearings go bad on those, do you replace just the bearings or toss the complete bridge and plate?

If the gear sleeve is still tight to the bridge, I pop out the bearing and replace it. And I have quite a few of those bearings from 320 and 330 bridges that have gotten sloppy.

I see that many reels because I service reels for many if not most of the lodges and charter operators in SE Alaska. Reel repair is my full time job, quite an upgrade from my former life as a college professor...

[Alto Mare]

Did you ever Damage any pulling them out? That's one crazy design

I see that many reels because I service reels for many if not most of the lodges and charter operators in SE Alaska. Reel repair is my full time job, quite an upgrade from my former life as a college professor...

I love it!...Good choice Bill.

[borchcl]

That bearing is not that hard to remove, I find a 1/4 drive socket that will fit through the back side and a larger socket that will fit over the boss on the spool side and press the bearing out in a vice or drill press or c-clamp or whatever.

[Newell Nut]

The Newell Nut even has a 113, long beach 60 and an a couple of extremely special one of kind Penn reels.
Seriously though here in Florida the party boats have been loaded with Long beach 60s and 65s for many years. I recently bought 40 nearly new replacements off of ebay for the boat that I fish regularly.

[Tightlines667]

My gut instinct is that the 113/114 and all variations lumped together would win the prize, but that is based on a bit of an egocentric (American) point of view.  I would agree that the ABUs (if similar models and variations are lumped) were by far the most sold reel for well over a decade, and has a far-reaching world-wide market.  I think given the market/distribution and time of production the ABUs might well have been the most.  If we limit the contenders to spinning reels my gut says the Mitchel would 'take the cake' for most units sold.  I have no hard data to substantiate my thoughts.

[floating doc]

For guys my age (baby boomers), I think everyone I knew had at least one Mitchell spinner.

I agree that the case for the Abu is pretty strong when it comes to conventional reels.