I bought and rebuilt 2 Lee-Pro reels, one in 2001 and another one in 2004, They were recommended to me by a long time fishing buddy, and since then they have sat, unused. I thought I'd fish them one day but never have. One is a Penn narrow 4/0 the other is essentially a converted Penn 349 called a KC which has a massive mail gear compared to the 4/0.
Dose anyone here know the history of Lee-Pro reels, or wether these reels are considered antique or collectable?
Thanks.
Jerome.
Beautiful reels. That 349 is awesome! They have value!
Andy
Wow! I didn't even know the 349 KC existed, beautiful reel.
Sal
I always heard that the KC was for the guy's wife and was on later reels. The Lee-Pro's were upgrade kits for Penn's, similar to the early Accurate frames and plates
Lee Pro never did make a 349 size reel. They did make sideplates for the Penn 4/0 which used 4/0 guts. They also made the KC which is a narrow or Yellow tail special size reel, the KC is quite a bit different in that it uses a thicker bridge plate, for what reason I don't know, they also use a 4/0 gear sleeve which is not swegged in like the Penn reels, this was a problem point in that the screw which held them in place would come lose & break off, simple fix is to just use red locktite. Peter Lee who was the person who designed this made his own main gear that he made & the pinion gear is a 4/0 pinion, it is a true 4 to 1 ratio, it also uses 349h drag washers, you can put a 5 stack drag in there, the rest of the parts are just Penn parts. Oh he was also super proud of his spools as the where / are the lightest spools around & super strong. Over all the reels where pretty light for a all alloy reel & at the time that they came out he was way ahead of Penn reels. The reason you don't see to many is that his wife was murdered while making a delivery to a sporting goods store in La. It's really sad because after this happened he lost all interest in the fishing business as a whole & quite marking his products. He also did make Penn 500 series sideplates which took penn guts,also the where super light, I have about 4 sets of his 500 series sideplates.
So nice of you to show your pics. Eguinn tell us more about Lee Pro history? Maybe another thread?
Quote from: twotone on June 06, 2016, 04:39:55 AM
So nice of you to show your pics. Eguinn tell us more about Lee Pro history? Maybe another thread?
I can't remember who sent this to me (it might have been Ed), but here is more about Lee Pro:
LEE PRO REELS (as told by his closest friend)
500 size top left --- KC Narrow 4/0 top right
4/0 size side plates lower left --- and KII lower right Hope these come out so you can see them.
I'm not sure how many (Pete) Lee Pro 500 sized side plates were made, 400 to 500 sets, seems to be what I can recall. The first ones weren't polished and had the machine marks on them, they're my favorite, and if yours are pink, they might have been purple to start with and have faded, no problem they are still hard anodized to stop corrosions, but the color might have faded.
As for the 4/0 plates there weren't many (maybe 200) because he started the 4/0 narrow 1 piece frame and left side plate combination, and a right hand side plate sized, like the Newell "Yellowtail Special" (really great reel.) He called it the Lee Pro KC after his wife Kathy Christine. Seems like there were about 400 of them or so. Then he designed the Lee Pro KII which was a full size standard 4/0, width reel but has a larger in diameter spool, and a larger main gear, 4.25 to 1 gear ratio and used a 349 sized drag washer, which is almost the size of a 50 cent coin. A standard 4/0 drag is a little larger than the size of a quarter, and was also the 1 piece frame and left side plate design. He made about 200 of them.
As for Pete and his partner they work for Raytheon and most of the work was contracted out to machine shops, his partners dad had some equipment in his garage and did the gears. He didn't have his own shop as did Accurate or Pro Gear. Pete had a smaller sized reel on the drawing board when Pro Gear came out with the 250 or about the size of a squidder, Pete became very discouraged, he was about 6 months away from completing his.
I did talk to Pete about a month ago, first time in about 2 years, he said the company offered him a retirement plan he couldn't turn down, he's in his early 60's, and plans to move out of the state.
I (Randy) have omitted the rest of this email, which is a grisly story about the wife's murder.
I'd really like to sell or trade this reel, Is any one here interested?
what are you looking for?
Hi Thorhammer:
2 speed reels for Tuna, large bait casters, like a Revo Toro or the like for heavy swimbait fishing.
or some cash so I can buy that kind of gear.
Jerome.
Those are beautiful reels.
I would be interested in buying. Send me a private message in reply to the one I sent you.
Hey Jerome, gotta keep my Ints, and I don't have the large baitcasters. All you Mike, these are some pretty reels. Good home.