I am a Penn guy and am having a blast learning all there is to learn about Penn conventional reels and how to properly maintain them. This site has been fantastic. I am moving slowly into working on spinning reels and realize I have a lot to learn. Can some of you more experienced members give me a few pointers on getting started, or how to get started, and what you feel are probably the best all round spinning reels. By best, I mean most reliable, good parts availability, cost of parts and ease of working on. I have seen it written somewhere on this site that the best reels to own are the ones you know how to fix yourself. I have already decided to avoid working on my Shimano Baitrunner right away ;D. Thanks....Don
I don't know what type of fishing you do. Did you check out the tutorial for the Penn 6500SS from BigT? Since you're a Penn guy like myself, that would be a great reel for you. I'm not crazy about the newer models SSM though, but I do like the older SS models, once you get comfortable working on these reels, you will find that it will only take you about 10 minutes to take the reel completely apart and reassemble it. You probably already know that the skirted spinnfishers come in many sizes, from the 420SS to the 950SS or 9500SS to fit your need. I'm sure you will hear different opinions, but to me you will not find a better dependable reel for the money. With proper care they should last you a lifetime. If you do consider these reels, there is some upgrades you can do to bring them up a notch, like replacing the two teflon washers with HT100's, this will give you 3 HT100's in the spool and 1 HT100 under the spool. Hope this helps take care, Sal ;)
shimano charges $1 per part for their spinning reels. hey, don't laugh. it's true! the best advise i could give you is to stay away from shimano baitrunners!
I'm with Alto Mare. The Penn SS spinners are probably the easiest to work on, good parts availability, and less complex than some others. Shimano's are the cadilac's but there's too much going on inside them.
I personally believe spinners are easier to work on than conventionals. Until you start messing with bait runners and the $600 and up reels. That's when it gets tough.
Thanks for the quick responses....
Alan - I love my Shimano Baitrunner, but after reviewing BigT's detailed rebuild post I realized maybe I don't love it as much :'(. Maybe Shimano's $20 service isn't looking so bad ;D.
Sal/Bub - My spinner use is varied, so (being the typical fisherman) I have different spinners for different apps. But your response is what I was hoping for. I am sitting here at a cross-road and at least now I have some direction. How does the Penn SS series compare with their Slammer series. By that I mean, what are the draw-backs or weaknesses of the Slammer; I just had my first bout with a Slammer line roller bearing issue. So many of my buddies swear by them, or Shimano spinners.....Don
Don,
Dom and Dominick will confirm that I like to stir things up, so here goes -
I've got 3 Daiwa Regal XiA Spinners: a 4000 for surf fishing, and 3500 and 2000 for bass fishing. I've only done minor service on each one (haven't had to do any more) and I love every one of them! No issues or complaints at all.
And except for a Newell 220, all of my saltwater conventionals are Penn.
Rob
Quote from: norcal pescador on March 31, 2011, 06:15:44 PM
Don,
Dom and Dominick will confirm that I like to stir things up, so here goes -
I've got 3 Daiwa Regal XiA Spinners: a 4000 for surf fishing, and 3500 and 2000 for bass fishing. I've only done minor service on each one (haven't had to do any more) and I love every one of them! No issues or complaints at all.
And except for a Newell 220, all of my saltwater conventionals are Penn.
Rob
Rob - I appreciate all input from this community. Everyone has their personal favorites and these personal choices are the reels I want to learn more about. From this choice group I will settle on what works best for me and be better equipped to service spinning reels in general. I also hope this exchange will benefit others as well....Don
I have to say I love my old baitrunner too, I keep it in my trunk with an ugly stick, makes a versatile reel for improvisational fishing allowing freelining bait in the river or fishing lures. To be fair, I have never taken the baitrunner mechanism apart, maybe then I would hate it like Alan does ;D
I got the smallest of the new baitrunners too, 4000D, they come with a carbon fiber drag that is the same exact size as that of the Stradic Ci4 4000 except the 2x expensive Ci4 comes with a felt drag. The "new" graphite/resin of the Ci4 is advertised as being 50% stronger than the XT-7 material which the baitrunner is made of and 20% lighter. At the 4000 size, I don't think it makes that much difference. Funny, they rate the Ci4 4000 drag 5 # higher than the baitrunner 4000D, the only difference aside from the felt is that the top metal washer of the CI4 has a slight convexity. I sold my Ci4, kept the baitrunner.
While I been fishing for over 40 years it seems as though I don't have the knowledge that others on here have BUT I do know that the Penn 9500SS that I bought back in the late 80's has NEVER let me down and I've in the past never done anything other then rinse it off, wipe it down and use the heck out of it. I say get on ebay or your local rag and hunt up one of the made in USA older Penn SS series spinners and you will not regret it.
On another note:
I have now started to service my Penn SS & Internationals ever since finding this site so a HUGE THANKS to Alan & others who have enlightened me & simplified for me the satisfaction of servicing my own reels.
I'm interested in your take on Shimano Baitrunners. Can you expand on your advice to stay away?
Quote from: alantani on March 31, 2011, 07:38:05 AM
shimano charges $1 per part for their spinning reels. hey, don't laugh. it's true! the best advise i could give you is to stay away from shimano baitrunners!
they are a nightmare to service. great reels, otherwise. i'm a tinkerer. if i can't crack something open and get it back together, i want no part of it. that's why i avoid the more expensive spinners.
I understand that. That's why I love Mitchell 300s. I can have one apart, cleaned, lubed and back together in an hour. And they are built like brick outhouses. ;D
Quote from: alantani on July 23, 2011, 04:31:12 PM
they are a nightmare to service. great reels, otherwise. i'm a tinkerer. if i can't crack something open and get it back together, i want no part of it. that's why i avoid the more expensive spinners.
Don: go here. http://alantani.com/index.php?topic=995.0 This is the perfect tutorial to take a Baitrunner apart and get it back together again. I did one and it was my first maintenance on a spinner. Got it apart and together with no problems thanks to the tutorial. Dominick
hey, dom can be our new official spinner guy! ;D
Shimano and I got divorced ;D ;D. I'm seeing Penn-ie now. Dominick
I give you guys a lot of credit, the baitrunner is one reel that I wouldn't want to mess with " fishing supposed to be fun ;D".
Dominick, I didn't know you had it in you. Very nice bud ;)
I'll pass on this one, I'm sticking with my Penn ss Spinners :-\
Personally, I love the Baitrunner 6500. Great design, super reliable and plenty strong.
Once you get used to 'em, they're easy to strip and rebuild, too.
They're really popular in NZ.
I jig with my Penn 8500SS, strayline big baits and heft poppers with the Shimano, and am gradually modifying my 9500SS as per the old Japanese tuna/GT slayers (ie double dogs, stainless everything etc. Parts are hard to find, though).
Stellas, on the other hand, can be a long, tedious rebuild... ;)
I'm glad you do like them redsetta, everybody is entitled to their opinion, it's only fair. You're right about the part of getting used to them, that's the case with any reel, once you take them apart a couple of times, it's easy going from there. You mentioned the Penn 8500ss " now we're on the same page " if you jig with it and don't need that much line, you could use the Penn 7500ss, it's the exact same reel with the exception of the rotor and spool, making it a little lighter. I'm curious to find out on how you gradually modify the 9500ss, the few things that I'll do to mine are : a bailess kit with a line roller, not a bearing, replace all drags with HT100's and install an additional needed anti reverse dog. All bearing on this reel get fully packed with grease ( no oil ). I do also replace the drags for under the spool with the new rear drag conversion kit ( part #6-950MSP ) for when the glued HT100 needs replacement. I don't see what else you could do to this reel to make it better :-\ .
we have a couple of guys that used a couple of different brands of "bait runners" and did very well on our trips. they had the advantage of being able to cast their bait consistently. getting a bait away from the boat is how you get bit. alan
I hear you Alan, although my reels are not as sophisticated as the baitrunner, I could still feed the line and controll the drag manually. I wonder if the fish knows which reel to go to :-\
You're spot on, Sal.
The 9500SS came to me as a throw-away and was missing most internals, housing cover, tension knob etc (13 parts in total).
I've been collecting the parts up over time as it's a reel I want, but don't necessarily 'need'.
I hooked a solid fish (maybe 60-80kg) on my Baitrunner some months back and the graphite frame was twisting under the strain (until the Spectra broke), which prompted me to start on the SS...
Hey Justin, let me know if you're not able to get what you need for that 9500ss. I did post a tutorial on that reel, just in case you need it for reference. I just noticed how much you've contributed to this site and I just wanted you to know that I, and I'm sure everyone else here, appreciate all your hard work. Take care and keep up your great work, Sal
Thanks Sal, much appreciated.
Just trying to earn my keep! ;D ;D