Another old fishing reel.

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Cope

Cope

Fusing with fire
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San Jose, Ca.
This was probably the first thing to trigger my obsession with vintage fishing gear.

The funny thing is, as much as I love it. I never looked super close at it.

Turns out it is brass or something so..

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Gonna clean her up a bit. Im not sure if I will bother putting her on the buffing wheel or not.
 
Very nice only problem is now the fish will smell you a mile away. I have an old fly cast too. Had a metal rod but I think one of the in laws lifted it.
 
I highly doubt that reel will ever be put back into service by me. Altho, a nice cane rod and gentile stream on a beautiful day.....



Now this one on the other hand. This one I use. This is a old Penn senator special H.

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No level wind and high speed retrieve. This thing can cast further than me. I have it paired with a nice 13' medium heavy surf casting rod. I use it surf fishing and catfish / Carp fishing.

It is a joy to use and i get a lot of folks asking about it. Its just so "retro" to most folks.

:)
 
I picked up another old Penn reel.


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This one is just a standard "senator" but its cool because its a blue water reel.

This belonged to my buddy's dad. He lived in Florida and used it to catch sharks off the beach. I have seen pics of the guy and he was not a big guy. He was strapped into this rod and reel with hundreds of pounds of pissed off shark on the other end and the only thing keeping you out of the water is your bare feet and your muscles.

That is some straight up man **** right their, I can't wait to try it!

The reel is a 14/0 and came paired too a hand made one peice 7 foot rod with all roller eyes. It is a tank!


I plan to clean it ,polish and lube it up then take it out to the cement ship with some big hooks and try and catch a "sting ray" ....

I dont think you can legally fish for great whites in Ca? but maybe I get one by mistake?


The bummer is Im gonna strip off all the old backing to clean the spool and I bet thats 3 hundred bucks in braid to fill her back up.


I think I may be able to date this one due to the engraving on the side plate. I think Penn only did that for a few years but I will ha e to do some research on that.
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Id bet the rod, reel and line all told is 30 pounds. It is HEAVY, im pretty sure im no match for this set up but How big a stuff is even in the water in santa cruze any way?

:)
 
Some of the old Penn reels can be dated by the serial number, usually found inside &/or of the housing. I have a friend who has a wall covered with Peen reels, some of the dating back to the 50's.
 
I moved around some of my display reels and I think this will be the main display for now.

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The big 14/0 is just how I receved it. It is great shape. I will still be fully cleaning it and servicing it. This way it will be ready for the next 50 60 years.

:)
 
Demonracer said:
Some of the old Penn reels can be dated by the serial number, usually found inside &/or of the housing. I have a friend who has a wall covered with Peen reels, some of the dating back to the 50's.
Click to expand...

Thanks I will take a look at that.

I have small collection of old reels.

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The red one I still use on a regular basis.
Both my surf casting set ups use Penn reels.

The twin to the red senator is this new Penn squall.

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The old Red one will out cast the new one by a mile but it will also birds nest like a mother where as the new reel is much more forgiving.

Ive been very happy with all my stuff from Penn and still made in the USA.
 
The parts are in need of oil in a major way.
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All in all its middle of the road on condition. It has scratches and dents that you would expect from a 50 or 60 year old reel that saw heavy use.

Beacuse its a Penn and made in USA when we made good stuff, its very well made inside. It has a full TWO, sealed roller bearings

The drag washers are 1/16 solid brass and asbestos or some such fiber.
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The main gears are perfectly machined billet stainless.

They are just such a great and simple work of functional art inside. I love it.
 
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The scale of this reel is absurd.
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Im torn on if I want to pull the old line off the spool and clean it. (Normaly I do.)

This is nice new (ish) braid, the reel looks taken care of. The gamble is how much line spooled off?

Did they rinse the spool with fresh water after use?

That salt water sits in the spool and it all goes bad.


I kinda want to fish this reel and I know if I unspool it,... I will never spend the money to re spool it.
 
Those are beautiful. Gone are the days of craftsmanship and pride in design. Back then, they had a way combining aesthetics with functionality, whereas now they only seem to care about mass production and the bottom line. I collect antique hand planes, and you can see the same attention to detail in old woodworking tools.
 
Well its not quite done yet!

Here is the "drag stack" this is what allows you to tire out hundreds of pounds of fish.

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I did not take before pics as I stayed up way to late working on it...

This reel has slowed down some BIG fish. (I could tell by the burn marks on the brass washers. The way this works is the stack alternates in a few ways.

The first is a friction (asbestos) washer then a brass plate.
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I forget how many in this stack. So its friction, brass, friction, brass. The first brass washer is keyed into the "drive" post, the next brass washer keys into the main gear, that alternates all the way to the end.
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At the end we have a chrome floating cap/washer, a brass wave washer and then the big "StarDrag" handle. Altho on this reel it looks me lile a ships wheel to me.

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Here is the drag stack and main gear in place, when you screw down the "star" it physically compresses the drag stack against the main gear.

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And now the last this is wipe off the finger prints and go fishing.

Im gonna gamble on this one leave the line on the spool, just because I know if I strip off the line I will never spend the cash to re line this baby. I do want to fish this reel at least once so the old line is staying for now.

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Soda can for scale.
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Have a good night.
:thumbsup:
 
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