Looking at reels, would love an opinion!

What’s up legends.
I felt like I dialed in my light gear a lot better this year, but I’m still missing my heavier set up. I’m hoping you guys might be able to give me a little advice.
I have a Piscifum 300 on a Dobyns do a baitcaster (MH)
Penn Spinfisher 4500 on a St Croix Triumph (MH) - love this one!
And really need a heavier set up for dropping a little heavier, weight, etc. and for the occasional boat I get to go on for a deeper water.

I have a near vintage, fiberglass ugly stick tiger (6”6) that I would rate as definitely heavy maybe extra heavy, but I like it. I have a crappy old level wind on it and want to put a better reel on it.

Two reels that I’ve found deals on that look pretty good are a pen fathom II  but it has a manual retrieve, but I love the idea of how adorable that would be for about 180 bucks. But I don’t really have much experience owning and maintaining a manual retrieve but again love the idea of that durability
 And an Okuma Coldwatee 453-d for $140.

Anyone have opinions on either of those? Any other others that you’d be looking at?

THANKS!
Tenthkid

What’s up legends.
I felt like I dialed in my light gear a lot better this year, but I’m still missing my heavier set up. I’m hoping you guys might be able to give me a little advice.
I have a Piscifum 300 on a Dobyns do a baitcaster (MH)
Penn Spinfisher 4500 on a St Croix Triumph (MH) - love this one!
And really need a heavier set up for dropping a little heavier, weight, etc. and for the occasional boat I get to go on for a deeper water.

I have a near vintage, fiberglass ugly stick tiger (6”6) that I would rate as definitely heavy maybe extra heavy, but I like it. I have a crappy old level wind on it and want to put a better reel on it.

Two reels that I’ve found deals on that look pretty good are a pen fathom II  but it has a manual retrieve, but I love the idea of how adorable that would be for about 180 bucks. But I don’t really have much experience owning and maintaining a manual retrieve but again love the idea of that durability
 And an Okuma Coldwatee 453-d for $140.

Anyone have opinions on either of those? Any other others that you’d be looking at?

THANKS!
Tenthkid

Your going to get more opinions if you temp us with pictures and links to the product.

Sounds good:
https://www.westmarine.com/okuma-cold-water-cw-453d-conventional-reel-with-line-counter-19392091.html


https://www.westmarine.com/penn-fathom-ii-lever-drag-25n-conventional-reel-20621934.html

Not
Married to these but have a 20% off at west marine so…

I started with a cold water and an handful of vintage penn reels and the cold water worked  well until it exploded. The vintage penns have been battle tested, taught me how to take apart a reel and maintain it, and how to listen to and trust my gear. That penn looks sweet, but I haven’t fished new penn conventional reels. I love my avets, and have had good luck getting good condition sx’s and sxj’s for between 100 to 200 bucks, and they are strong and reliable and the customer service is amazing.
Aloha,

Isao

Yep I like the Avet SXJ.

I've had one for about four years or more and even dunked it when I went for a swim. Just rinse it, never required maintenance still totally solid with a super smooth drag!

Paired it with a Shimano Travella from the start and it's perfect. At the time they were about $180 at West Marine.

I started with a cold water and an handful of vintage penn reels and the cold water worked  well until it exploded. The vintage penns have been battle tested, taught me how to take apart a reel and maintain it, and how to listen to and trust my gear. That penn looks sweet, but I haven’t fished new penn conventional reels. I love my avets, and have had good luck getting good condition sx’s and sxj’s for between 100 to 200 bucks, and they are strong and reliable and the customer service is amazing.
Aloha,

Isao

I line the idea of a semi vintage that I can service/learn about. Amy models ya fancy?

I love a good squidder 146, but the 145s are great too. The Long Beach is much easier to find in good condition, and is an easier entry to reel maintenance, mainly bc it doesn’t have its dog in such a crazy place that requires teeeny tiny hands to get it to go back in the right spot
I have seen folks use a senator and assume it’s due to it having a little more drag? But drag washers are one of the things I upgrade on mine and I think having to go slow with a little less retrieval power is a good thing too

I started with a cold water and an handful of vintage penn reels and the cold water worked  well until it exploded. The vintage penns have been battle tested, taught me how to take apart a reel and maintain it, and how to listen to and trust my gear. That penn looks sweet, but I haven’t fished new penn conventional reels. I love my avets, and have had good luck getting good condition sx’s and sxj’s for between 100 to 200 bucks, and they are strong and reliable and the customer service is amazing.
Aloha,

Isao

I line the idea of a semi vintage that I can service/learn about. Amy models ya fancy?

I love vintage Penns, especially the narrower ones - they tend to be a little easier to manage when jigging.

As IsaoK mentioned, the Squidders are a great choice, but they are very popular with collectors, and can be hard to find in clean condition.  They tend to command a pretty high price for a used reel too. I'm still looking for my unicorn - a left handed Squidder. There are a few out there...

The Long Beach is a good reel, and easy to find in good shape. I think the 60 is a nice size, and the 65 feels wide to me for jigging, but I like narrower reels. I'm pretty sure these use the same internals as a Del Mar 285 and the 85, just with nicer finishing.

A Jigmaster is my choice for deeper drops and heavier jigs. It has a 4:1 ratio, a robust gear set, nice big drag washers, and is still pretty easy to work on.  I think they still make new ones, and old ones are relatively easy to find in clean condition. Mine is on a 6.5' medium Ugly Stick, with 30lb mono.

For lighter work, I really like the Baymaster 180.  It uses the same internals as a Beachmaster and 209 level wind, but with a narrower spool.  I've converted this one to left hand and added a longer handle. I use it for live baits on a 8' medium light Ugly Stick with 40lb braid. I'm thinking about doing this with another one to load up with lead core line for trout fishing, but I might go with a small Abu for that too.

All of these old open face Penn reels tend to do better with a little thicker line - most were meant to use Dacron or nylon line. You can use braid, but smaller lines can get caught between the spool and frame. Hasn't happened to me yet, but just something to keep in mind. Also, most of them came with a variety of spools - bakelite, chromed brass, chromed steel, or aluminum. Aluminum is probably the best choice, but chromed is good too. I'd probably avoid the plastic spools, especially if you want to use mono - they can break under pressure, and stretchy mono amplifies this.

My two favorite Penns, Jigmaster on left and Baymaster on right.

Awesome. Thanks gents!