Penn or Shimano Reels

[intruder]

Penn has just announced a new wet drag system for the Internationals. According to the rep that I spoke to at a recent trade show, the new drag can be purchased from PENN for $25.00

I have 10 Internationals that are now being upgraded with the new drag. The drag is the only problem that I have had with the Penn in that we burn them out. This will be a smoother and more durable drag according to the rep.

[Graceland]

Basically a it's a lubed carbon fiber drag like Shimano uses. Penn finally got smart.

[TheBigI]

I have Alutecnos reels and Penns. I Like Alutecnos better than the Penns.

[Title Wave]

Penns. I think it might be a generation thing. I'm in my mid 40's. Growing up Penn seemed to be the reel that everyone wanted. I've never really even thought about buying another brand. I'm sure that the other brands are great, but I'm just set in my ways.

[w.danny]

penns the right one, you can get parts for them.

[Deep C]

I own full sets of penn, shimano and Fin-nor. My every day choice is the Shimano tld set. Unstopable work horses. The penns I carry if I'm working two boats at a tournament. One boat gets the pennset one gets the tlds. I have a set of tiagra for special occasions and the fin-nors are basically retired. Of the sets the tlds have never once failed me in 18 years of usuing them. The penns have been with me for 28 years , been rebuilt a couple times and are fairly reliable but once or twice through the years I've had them screw up during the fight. Two more made it through the fights then screwed up. Had a 130 blow the side plate off after boating a giant. when the pressure came off the mono it tried to go back to its original shape and instead of filling out the spool it went side to side and blew it out. The other was an 80 that that got worked by a grander blue. Burnt bearings and drags etc... Worked through the fight but when it coold down it was unusable...

[mdsportsman]

I have Penn 6/0’s and 12/0’s and my 30’s for inshore fishing and 30TW’s, 30VSW’s and 50VSW’s for offshore. I have Penn 5500S’s and 5500SSG’s mounted on Ugly Sticks that I use for things like bailing dolphins and smaller fish. I use Penn 209’s and Penn 5500S’s and 5500SSG’s when I fish the Chesapeake Bay for stripers and blues. I too, grew up with Penn so I'm kind of partial to Penn plus the authorized Penn Service Center is only 10 minutes from my house. I have been thinking of getting a few Shimano’s but staying away from them because I heard it’s hard to get service on them.

[thetackletrap]

mdsportsman, I've heard alot of good things in Shimano's service. I have a couple of buddies that have returned their reels for service and they were all returned with new parts and more than expected for little money. Mostly just shipping charges. Also for their expensive reels, I've heard of troubles with their Stella spinning reel and Shimano just replaced the reel with no questions asked. The down side to that reel is the older styles were unservicable by the owner. They have locking pins to keep from taking them apart.

I would have to agree with many of the Penn fans that there is alot of places to get parts for them to be fixed, which is a great feature. But I still can't get myself to really fall in love with them. I think the Tiagras and Avets are much smoother and reliable for the long run with out extra service. I haven't had enough time with all these big reels, but almost every boat that I have been on seems to have one or more Penns on them that sound real bad and have sticky drags on them. On the other hand every REAL big fish that I have caught has been on a Penn. So go figure, I guess it boils down to there being more Penns out there than other factories. They will all have their ups and downs, but new out of the box I think there is better then Penn. Just my opinion. Besides I'm biased I sell Avets and not Penns.

[saltwaterbucks]

Tiagaras or Avet if you need lower cost.

[Deep C]

I saw service mentioned here. Penn has always give me excellent service but its like Shimano goes out of their way to impress me. Maybe my name is in their files as I see their guys at a lot of tounaments. If I flat wear a reel down to where it needs service on more than one occasion they have just sent me a new reel. I had some speedmaster spinners years back that kept eating gears. The second time I sent them in they sent me back new bait runners that were over twice the price of the speed masters. No charge...