penns!!!!!!!!!

got them to pay for replacement and return shipping...not sure if i will sell it or what..maybe it turns into a spare..not sure

My grandfather just gave me a bunch of his old fishing gear. Pretty cool stuff. Have some great memories of fishing with him down in NC.

Old Penn #180 c. 1950s.


Penn 250 Surfmaster

Penn Sailfisher #130 c.1950's, NM condition.

The stuff included several other reels from early 1900's to fairly new.

South Bend Bait Co. No. 330 Oreno Level-Wind
Diawa 7000C
Fenwick Mach VI Black Hawk
Penn 250 Surfmaster
Penn Sailfisher #130
Penn #180
Garcia Mitchell 403 Saltwater
Ocean City 1800 Levelwind

Wow.

awesome..all those look like collector's items...sweet!

The Penns after a good servicing and re-lubing can still fish, and I might have the Garcia Mitchell and 1-2 of the others properly broken down and completely serviced, keeping all the parts original. They will make for good conversation pieces. The Diawa and Fenwick reels are run of the mill but are ready to go right out to the beach. I could probably come up with about 1/2 dozen surf setups for an outing if people needed to borrow gear.

Took the reels down to Hillyer's where Matt Hillyer went over them and will be returning them to their former glory. The three Penns and the Garcia-Mitchell will be good to go. I didn't want to open them up myself as I was worried about damaging or losing original parts. My grandfather took exceptional care of these reels despite seasons of fishing down in Panama, and the parts are as solid as the senators made today. The old grease and lubricants had simply hardened after 20 years on no use. The "newest" of the reels still ended production early in the 60's. My objective was just to get them fully serviced and keep them as mementos, but Matt said to go ahead and fish them now and then. Pretty cool to think that an NaCl reel made over 60 years ago can still fish as well as one produced today.

PENN is unmatched as far as that old reliability goes...i think a lot of the newest expensive gear needs lots of tlc to withstand that amount of time...seems like since forever penns have been bulletproof...

penn slammer got de-virginized....4 lb catfish with ease.....suprisingly smooth....i picked up a couple ssg models at cabelas to feel the difference...big.....slammers and ssm's seem way more stable