Does any one fish?

M

maddog2020

Joined
May 25, 1999
Messages
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Does any one do any light saltwater fishing? I was looking to upgrade a spinning for 12-17 lb line and was wondering who made a nice reel with a decent drag? I am currently using the Penn 650 SS and 750 SS.

I played around with some of the Fin-nor Ahab reels and they seems pretty nice, but they were $ of course. ;) Any one used them?

You guys use monofilament, or that fancy synthetic braided stuff?? I like the discontinued Tri-Max, but have always used XL and XT line. Yeah, I could be living in the 'past', but sometime its nice to have some spring to the line. ;)

Any feed back is appreciated. :)
 
Well i don't know much about fishing yet but i've been doing my homework now that i'm hooked (bad pun i know). Several people from different forums and personal websites have listed the Shimano Sahara as an excellent reel. I believe it would be the equivelent of a CRKT knife - a well made piece for the price. Anyway after a week of research I finally decided to buy one. I went to the store and handle some of the other similarly priced reels. After eyeing each one and I gave 'em a good spin of the handle. The Sahara just kept going. I ended up getting a Sahara 2000 which handles 6,8 and 10 lb test. They do make bigger ones. So far its done admirably. Now as for rods... well i'm still using one thats older than most college students.

www.shimano.com
 
If you're using Penn I don't know why you'd want to "upgrade." They make some of the most solid dependable equipment available. I've handled the Fin Nor Ahabs. Beautiful reels, but ZERO factory support. If you have a problem, the reel has to go to Miami, I think, to the distributor. There is no "Fin Nor" here the way Penn is right there in Philadelphia. Need parts for a twenty year old Penn? No problem, you could have them the next day. Like to send your reels in for factory service at the end of the season? Same deal, with Penn its easily done. For me this is the kind of thing that inspires confidence in a product. I know guys who like Shimano, but again I don't really see the point. If you wanted to look at Van Staal, maybe...

As far as line, I'm an Ande monofilament man myself. I use the tournament variety. There's no telling when that world record may come my way. (The power of positive thinking is the mark of the true fisherman.) :)
 
Don't get me wrong, I love my ol' green Penn spinning reels and the newer black/gold skirted ones. The only things I have ever replaced on them are the bail springs, and the click spring for the drag.

Hell, my Fenwick rods are all over 20 yrs old. Only time I had to repair one was when my father slammed the trunk it! I mailed it back and they send me a new rod. The company has since changed hands a couple of times so I don't know if they would still cover my old rods.

My father likes Shimano reels and he has had problems getting parts for all of them. They changed their reels so much and often that none of the stuff is compatable. :( He has a few laying around that are DOA.

I fish for largemouth bass most of the time, but I fish for trout when I am out of state. Spinning rods mainly from shore. I have flyfishing stuff, but I never got into it that much. What kind of fish you folks try to catch?
 
I tend to use an "ordinary" Ambassadeur 6000, either the red or the black one (as the matter of fact, the red one casts longer!!). My favo line is the Fireline by Berkley, 0,15 mm of dimension (I also use a shock tip made of 0,25 mm monofilament, about 3 meters long). The strength is about 15 lbs. Yellow.
My rod is a Daiwa Samurai 11 f. up to 75 grams. With this equipment you will easily cast a 20 g lure 90 yards.
 
What Tortoise said.I don't think you can beat Penn quality in a spinning reel.I own what you have plus an 850 SS for light/medium salt water use.I also have your taste in lines,Every so often I will try a 250 yard spool of this or that,but I always go back to Trilene (usually XL ) for bulk 3000 yard spools.
 
I tried searching all over and no luck so far :(
I can't locate a Penn 550 SS spinning reel any where. They were haven't been made for about 3 yrs now. Newer 5500 SS is a graphite body, I like the older style metal ones!

Can any one help me out?! :confused:
 
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