Who knows the good and bad of these reels? Do the rotating bar work okay or do you still have to thumb the spool to lay the line down even?
I was thinking of getting one for my wife so she does not have to worry with thumbing while fishing her double rig.
i think it does have a somewhat evening system, but probably not as reliable as a level wind, if u want a cheap reel, get a penn 209, REALLY CHEAP and alans got a tutorial on it sooo u dont ever have to worry about it having problems
try to loosen the left bearing cap a touch and the spool might turn a little easier
I also bought one for my wife, thinking the leveline feature would be ideal for her. I can cast it better than any level wind and the rotating bar works well. The downside: many parts are almost non-existent and it uses Penn's smallest drag washers.
The small drag is not a problem. I am planning to install it on a large size sabiki pole for my wife to use for redeyes and black sea bass and then store the hooks easy. The reel and pole will arrive in a few days and will test next Saturday.
I bought a reel that has never been in salt water so it should be in very good condition internally.
Quote from: Newell Nut on July 07, 2013, 11:49:59 AM
The small drag is not a problem. I am planning to install it on a large size sabiki pole for my wife to use for redeyes and black sea bass and then store the hooks easy. The reel and pole will arrive in a few days and will test next Saturday.
I bought a reel that has never been in salt water so it should be in very good condition internally.
this is what i use mine for,And believe it or not I was using a 2 hook bait rig and and snagged a 30# cuda with the 350 and she handled it just fine with new greased ht 100s 8)
3 HT-100s and a brass sleeve can handle 8 pounds of drag without issue. That should be more than enough for all but the biggest cudas and anything else you are liable to get on a sabiki rig. You can find 155 steel gears and a SS gear sleeve is available. This would let you fish more drag but it doesn't sound like you need it. I used to have a Japanese knock off and the twisted bar did in fact work as long as you kept the line tight to the bar. I had one rod with a stripper eye that was a little to tall and it wouldn't work with that reel.
Ron
The way the line goes into the sabiki pole it will keep the line tight on the bar so it should spool good. Looking forward to testing it.
The biggest fish I ever caught was on a Penn Leveline 350. Six foot one inch and 135 Lbs. She had a 34" girth. I let her go to make more Sturgeon.
(http://i266.photobucket.com/albums/ii259/cooldade/77lband135lbSturgeon_zpsb5042919.jpg) (http://s266.photobucket.com/user/cooldade/media/77lband135lbSturgeon_zpsb5042919.jpg.html)
I thought you were taking the dog for a walk ;D. that's a nice fish! Good job for letting her go to give someone else a thrill.
That reel has the 5-155 gear, these are some tiny washers:
https://www.mysticparts.com/PennParts/Parts/6-155SP.aspx (https://www.mysticparts.com/PennParts/Parts/6-155SP.aspx)
Says a lot about that reel. I'm putting together a few smaller reels for friends, with the 5-155 gears... nice reels.
"Edited as per Moderators to correct Scott's Bait & Tackle over to their new store name Mystic Reel Parts / www.mysticparts.com"
Yes tiny drags... Smaller even than the Levelmatic series reels. The 350 preformed great but as you could imagine I didn't press the issue. The fish jumped three times and came to the side of my skiff twice before running out of poop. To big to pull over the side so I pulled her in Marlin style...Over the transom. I use the 350 now for shallow water Rock Cod. I now use 112h reels for Sturgeon.
What ever happened with this?