Oct 16, 2019
One of my favorite reels… Bought my first in 95', then several more over the next year. Shimano Curado CU201 are light, cast light weight with easy and enough drag with an upgrade to stop steelhead. Wonderful reels to fish.
seen from United States
seen from United States
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seen from United States
seen from Malaysia
seen from Malaysia
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seen from China
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seen from United States
seen from United States
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seen from China
seen from United States
seen from Malaysia
One of my favorite reels… Bought my first in 95', then several more over the next year. Shimano Curado CU201 are light, cast light weight with easy and enough drag with an upgrade to stop steelhead. Wonderful reels to fish.
After two seasons
Anti reverse pawls are worn but not failinggreased screws all came out perfectlyanti rust bearing a little rusty
drags were all in good shape
Anti reverse bearing and the ARBB were a little messy.
All in all I would say that the regiment of CorrosionX marine grease, TSI 321 oil on bearings and Cal’s drag grease all performed as expected. Reels were used only in the saltwater trolling for salmon.…
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Running a little rough...
Running a little rough…
What seems to be the problem with the reel? “Running a little rough.” Now it could be many things and different things on different reels. This one was fairly easy to determine.
Sand and fishing reels are never good partners. This was ultra fine sand like from a glacial river system. Gear and pinion covered. Drags destroyed, spool bearings were rough.
The good news was that they all…
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Highly mobile, designed for modern armored ground warfare, the M1 is well armed and heavily armored. Notable features include the use of a powerful multifuel turbine engine, the adoption of sophisticated composite armor, and separate ammunition storage in a blow-out compartment for crew safety. Weighing nearly 68 short tons (almost 62 metric tons), it is one of the heaviest main battle tanks in service.
Like the venerable A1M1, we are building out a Penn 113 4/0 Senator with similar “Tank ” characteristics:
Aluminum one piece frame from Tiburon
Aluminum Side plates from Cortez Conversions Silver and Black
7+1 Custom Drags with inserts Motive Fabrications
Stainless Steel double dog bridge from Pro Challenger
Stainless Steel Gear Sleeve from Smoothdrag.com
Stainless Steel Handle and Star drag from Motive Fabrications
Knob Kohler Alantani.com
Stainless Steel Gear set and Pinion from Pro Challenger
This combination will take the venerable stock Penn Senator 113H into another class of reel. This reel with upgrades has been tested to over 45lbs of drag.
Stainless Steel mechanics encased with aluminum frame and side plates these will be the strongest, smoothest drag 4/0 ever produced. Wash them after every use and use them for several lifetimes. Hand them down with pride to the next generation of anglers chasing sea monsters!
Motive Fabrications
Motive Fabrications
Motive Fabrications 2.5″ Newell Style
Cortez Conversions side plates, light, strong and super high quality finish. I chose silver fr the first two as they don’t show wear as easy as the colors. However, I could not pass up a pair of black side plates to put on a jumbo tank I plan to build for fishing Ulua in Hawaii this fall.
Alan Tani power knob
Gear and drag upgrade
Gear upgrade with insert
Look at the transmission in this thing! Not only is it big its way strong! SS heat treated gears and pinion. I am putting in the stock bridge until the SS double dog bridge becomes available. SS single dog will just have to do for now.
Just got notice of shipping from Cortez Conversions on the side plates. Custom aluminum in silver and black. The black plates will go with purple frame and spool from Tiburon, a Hawaiian Wide. (Honeycreeper). The other two will be an all silver T4N narrow kit (Silver Petrel), and the other a normal width silver 4/0 (Silver tern). More on those builds later.
The first one to be built is the standard width 4/0 Silver Tern. I located a black Newell spool for a standard width 4/o online.
My next posts will be the individual builds on a step by step basis. More to come!
Penn 4/0 M1A1 Tank Fishing Reel Highly mobile, designed for modern armored ground warfare, the M1 is well armed and heavily armored. Notable features include the use of a powerful multifuel turbine engine, the adoption of sophisticated composite armor, and separate ammunition storage in a blow-out compartment for crew safety.
Once the hot reel for pacific northwest steelheaders, the Shimano Bantam 201SG is wonderful, light bait caster, ideal for throwing light weight lures and lead. 201 signifies a left hand version of the iconic fish killer. I don’t know about you but I have always held the pole with my right hand and reeled with my left. I guess I got it from growing up with spinning reels in the same orientation. The 201sg does not have the strongest of drags even with upgraded carbon washers. Its casts best with 10lb mono.
Shimano Bantam 201SG Once the hot reel for pacific northwest steelheaders, the Shimano Bantam 201SG is wonderful, light bait caster, ideal for throwing light weight lures and lead.
Surf Blasters
While I was in Florida I became interested in fishing the miles of ocean beaches around Daytona, New Smyrna and Ponce Inlet. It was a new type of fishing for this farm boy fishing small streams and rivers flowing up. The concept of cast and wait was new to me. The concept of casting 4 oz and bait into the wind was new to me too! Needless to say the learning curve was steep.
However, once I…
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I love the narrow spools and easy casting ability of these little dreams. Dual spool bearings with an aluminum spool and you are well on your way to casting 20lb mono with ease! The original specs for this reel which came out in the 60’s was 220 yards of 20b mono. I will be spooling this one with 20b mono. These little reels are not good with braid. The gap between the spool and frame is a known braid eater! 3.3:1 ratio on the gearing:
Reinforced side plates.
Counterbalanced grip handle.
Chrome plated brass exposed metal components.
Stainless steel ball bearings and pinion gear and a high strength bronze alloy main gear.
Easy to operate star drag.
HT-100 multi-disc star drag.
Counterbalanced grip handle.
Dual Eccentric System.
This one came of Ebay for $40.00. When I took it down to inspect the parts I found that the previous owner had used it for some time with a loose handle and had seriously damaged the gear sleeve. The top of the sleeve had been rounded off and actually split. Looking closer at the handle the knob was nearly separated from the handle. So all that slop in the movement destroyed the gear sleeve. Drags were old and dirty. The reel had some pitting and corrosion on the frame and bars. Several of the screws were locked in place. The left hand bearing cup was corroded in place requiring vice grips to remove from side plate. Bearings required multiple soakings in lighter fluid to bring back to life.
First up order the new gear sleeve from Scottsbt.com, some news Smoothdrag carbon matrix drags and SS drag washers. I should note that a SS gear sleeve was available but I don’t see any reason to spend the money as I will not be using this little guy past its original recommended drag settings. Tiburon P16 frame in silver from Vintage Offshore Tackle, Randy Pauly. I will be Magging this little guy with rare earth magnets to prevent backlashing for the occasional fisher person.
The original knob needed to be removed with a little help from my Dremel tool and a grinding stone. Looking for the right knob to replace the original. Maybe a small Eva ball bearing knob would do the trick from Pro Challenger.
The Penn Squidder 146 Reloaded I love the narrow spools and easy casting ability of these little dreams. Dual spool bearings with an aluminum spool and you are well on your way to casting 20lb mono with ease!
This will be a bottom fishing reel with 30lb mono with a fast retrieve. This reel can retrieve nearly 3 feet per crank. Originally used for wire line trolling before the advent of down riggers the Penn 49 is a beast. First off I have to find an aluminum spool as the chromed brass spool weighs a ton and does not handle heavy mono well. Upgrade the gear sleeve to stainless steel and replace the stock drags with carbon matrix. I found a great Accurate off set handle and knob for easy cranking. The search is ongoing for steel gears to round out the upgrades. Stock gears are 3.5:1. I found a guy on Ebay that makes custom Stainless Steel frame posts which will be a great upgrade for strength and corrosion resistance.
Penn 49 Super Mariner garage sale find near mint condition $10.00
Aluminum Spool NOS Ebay $20.oo
Accurate Aluminum Handle and Knob Purple $70.00
Alantani.com Stainless Steel Gear Sleeve $26.00
Smooth drags.com Carbon Matrix Drags $8.00
Stainless Steel Posts Ebay $19.00
Stainless Steel Drag Sleeve from Pro Challenger $7.00
This Penn 49 is narrow. Basically the same inside the frame width as the Penn Squidder 146, but much deeper!
Now the wait for parts and upgrades, more pictures of the finished build later!
Tanked Penn 49 Super Mariner Fishing Reel This will be a bottom fishing reel with 30lb mono with a fast retrieve. This reel can retrieve nearly 3 feet per crank.