Reel Repair by Alan Tani

Prepare to have your heart broken on several of your rods, LOL.  I went and saw Alan a couple months ago to get my reels filled for an upcoming trip and he asked me to bring all my rods.  I was not sure why, but I followed orders.

I watched him set up all my rods on his fixture and quickly realized those numbers printed on the rods mean jack ####, in reality.  As an example, I have a Calstar Grafighter 700XH, that shows 40-100 on the rod.  This does seem like a very wide range, but I would expect the max drag rating to at least fall inside the two numbers listed, and preferably, clsoer to the higher number.  It barely hit drag pressure that equates to max of 40lbs. 

Alan's system makes perfect sense to my engineering brain, but I quickly learned that my "full quiver" of LR rods that I thought spanned 20-80 line class, turned out to be 15-45lbs, with a ton of 30-40 lb rods.

Now, I know this does not mean I can't fish those rods heavier (I have plenty of times in the past), but it does reveal an inconcsistency of any standards in the line class rating for rod manufacturers.  I have main-lined the koolaid.  The problem is...you can't drag this setup to tackle stores and confirm what you are buying, so until we get some kind of database going, we are all still guessing when we choose a rod.

Circling back to this topic.  I did take the most common suggestion and I bought a Mak 20 and UC76 Viper.  Alan filled up the Makaira for me, so I am good to go for 100lb.

There seeems to be some talk about these reels having some kind of problem in the original design.  I have seen that one prominent Socal Tackle shop has pulled these from his shelves, until Penn fixes the problem.  I was ready to go pick one up on my way south for my upcoming long range trip, but now I'm pausing until I hear some details about what's going on...

Reel is in beautiful condition and loaded with 60 lb. Mono. Ready for a workout. $325 shipped in the states.

Welcome everyone.   Bill

Welcome.  Bill, SoCal mountains

Quote from: boon on October 26, 2025, 11:55:25 AMYou have several options. Either an Alijos handle, although it's black, or one off of any Cavalla with the -TB suffix. The Makaira handles would fit but they aren't swept and are quite heavy duty and may upset the balance of the reel.

Thanks! So if you were in my situation, which option would you choose?

You have several options. Either an Alijos handle, although it's black, or one off of any Cavalla with the -TB suffix. The Makaira handles would fit but they aren't swept and are quite heavy duty and may upset the balance of the reel.

James, the second sticky ABU Nomenclature, by Bryan Young is helpful with all the different letters.

The bashing wears out. You need to replace the side plate as the bushing does not remove. They are not that expensive from shimano.

Todf