Reel Repair by Alan Tani

i only have the 5/0 grip.  you would have to do some drilling.  https://alantani.com/index.php/topic,12785.0.html

really looking forward to this!!!!!

Living in Virginia Beach, we get a pretty good White Marlin bite in July/Aug/Sept. This is circle hook fishing at it's finest...trolling ballyhoos and dropping back to hungry lit up marlins.

Lots of folks use the Shimano Talica 20BFC's due to their crazy good free spool and their ability to have 3 pounds of drag at strike.

One of the biggest gripes I hear is that when the reel is in free spool, and you begin to ease the lever up to increase drag and set the circle hook....there is a hard "ramp/speed bump" to over come before the drag kicks in. A search online shows people have ground down this "speed bump" to provide for a smoother transition when engaging the drag.

I've routinely serviced Shimano Torsa 30's for a travelling tournament team and these reels did NOT have a "speed bump" while engaging the lever drag.

I finally got 8 of the BFC's in for service and decided to order up 2 Cams to play with.

Here is the "speed bump" on the cam. (just to the left of the blue pointer)

My Plan is to take small file and smooth that bump down on the sides (0 and 180) to see what it does.

Stay tuned.

I added the 1+5 drags in my Penn 2/0 to get more drag and have a new reel to see if it can handle these "Pigs". I am not going to upgrade to a 1+7 drags system because I don't see the main gears can handle it. I don't expect to go after anything bigger than a 10 pound blackfish with it. The first few seconds matters as these pigs must be pull from their hole. No mods were made that I can't undo and I can make it original again.   Yesterday, on my testing, I got about 17 pounds max drag and I would use the heck out of it. Well, the 2.5:1 gears mean it has torque!

I put 24-49 handles on a few of mine that I use at a local pier. Gives a little more power

Quote from: thorhammer on March 16, 2026, 01:14:14 AMIf you want larger handles and I ever get back to my shop, I'll send you some gratis by way of Maxed Out, who sent to me.

Thanks, John! If you do have a larger handle that you don't need I would be very grateful, and happy to pay for the shipping.

Quote from: thorhammer on March 16, 2026, 02:09:53 AM(and you may have a steel main from the Beachmaster)

Thanks for that comment, John. I'd been focusing so heavily on the left sideplate issues that I forgot about all the goodies I can poach from the right sideplate of the donor 155 reel. I'll take a look and move over anything that looks better than what was in the original 180.

That's a lot of fun and successful fishing reflected in those photos, bja105! I've been intrigued by the 350 and may try one after I get done with the 180s I'm currently working on. Those are nice carp! Is that Pflueger Alpine a knuckle buster? I've been thinking of trying one of those as well, maybe a Penn 78, for some old school carp fishing.

Penn 350


Penn 704Z


Airex Saltwater Mastereel


Pflueger Alpine

There is a second red/rose colored reel in the back.  Maybe an Ocean City.  The curious reel is the silver thing to the left of the 6/0.

Quote from: alantani on January 28, 2026, 05:58:04 PMthis is from brendan duesterhaus!!!

https://www.mexpermits.com/

This one work much better.