12/0 or 14/0 ?and also where to find spare parts

I fish areas very similar to the bridges in the keys. Some are short piers in rivers and other are beaches full of channel markers. I have no room to let a shark run I need big gear and and stout tackle. I have already ruined one spool on the ol classic 14/0. warpped it pretty bad. Anyone know where to find upgraded spools? I use 130 to the brim with a clissic 7'2" finwick with bigfoot rollers. Most my baits are dropped within 120 yards of the beach/pier some as close as 25 yards.

When it comes to the yards they dont do me much good in the long run I need to stop these fish fast. Lemons which is what we tend to catch are beached and released within 10 mins unless foolhooked. We hooked plenty bigger fish that we could not stop before getting us hung up on the channel markers. And changing locations is not an option, any ideas??

is your classic 14/0 a black anodized aluminium spool or chrome?I have never heard of a chrome spool being warped or bent?

Chrome spool

Hey Nick if you have to stop your big sharks in short distance because of the channel markers you might want to use 250 lb braid on top or maybe 200 lb mono .Hammer down your drag when you feel it's a big fish that's heading for the markers then HOLD ON FOR DEAR LIFE.The really big sharks don't happen every trip so you may catch 10 fish on overmatched gear but when you hook that record breaker you know you wanna be prepared with the right stuff to stop em.Good Luck.

i want a 16/0 for beach fishing but on bridges ill take my 10/0 or my 12/0 any day i have never fished with any thing bigger than a 12/0 but please remember it has 1500 yards of 200lb pp on it for briges i think any penn senator reel is good
never know whats on the other end of the line could be mr monstor fish or little bitty baby

i think you dont really need any thing bigger then a 14/0 any where. a 9/0 or a 12/0 is perfect for on a boat because you can chase down your fish. but a 14/0 is good for a beach or bridge

These guys are well stocked for all your big penn reel parts .Call them and confirm the parts you need are in stock before you send out your money.Good Luck.

http://store.scottsbt.com/category1.asp ... earCache=1

i was gonna order a few things from them and the shipping was way high. one thing i wanted was 50 cents and they could put it in a envelope to send it but it was like 9 bucks for shipping

Hi Guys:

I'll stick with my 16/0s. I had my 12/0 stripped down at South Padre Island right after Ceila hit Corpus Christi back in 1970. I guess it was my fault. I had two 16/0 already baited up and fishing and I took my 12/0 rig and put a 156 lb Fresh caught tarpon on it minus the fins and tail. I had two 20/0 hooks in the bait. I put the bait out in the 2nd gut and within a half hour the bait took off. It was as if I had tied the line to a submarine. It headed for Cuba and now, many years later, it is still going! The reel was full of 130 Dacron. He never slowed down at all. For that reason I'll never do that again, and I'll never fish with a rig smaller than a 16/0 off the beach. you all will change your minds the day you get your 12/0s and 14/0 stripped. I know that a lot of you are laughing now, but it happened once and he is still out there.

Best and tight lines,

Norman Bateman

Hey Norman Did you say 156 lb tarpon or 15 lb?That's a BIG bait.Only a MONSTER Tiger could eat such a big bait in one shot like that.

Hi Guys:
I'll stick with my 16/0s. I had my 12/0 stripped down at South Padre Island right after Ceila hit Corpus Christi back in 1970. I guess it was my fault. I had two 16/0 already baited up and fishing and I took my 12/0 rig and put a 156 lb Fresh caught tarpon on it minus the fins and tail. I had two 20/0 hooks in the bait. I put the bait out in the 2nd gut and within a half hour the bait took off. It was as if I had tied the line to a submarine. It headed for Cuba and now, many years later, it is still going! The reel was full of 130 Dacron. He never slowed down at all. For that reason I'll never do that again, and I'll never fish with a rig smaller than a 16/0 off the beach. you all will change your minds the day you get your 12/0s and 14/0 stripped. I know that a lot of you are laughing now, but it happened once and he is still out there.

Best and tight lines,Norman Bateman

14/0 spooled chances are 16/0 will get spooled, if I have the money I'd go Everol 18/0.Now there's a monster reel!
Pantyhosesharker

*

New to the forum, most of my contributions to SFSC will likelly be in this section.
That's because this is my field of expertise, maintaining and repairing fishing reels.

Keep in mind that Penn Fishing Tackle is not the same company that you have rellied on for years, it has changed hands at least THREE times in the last decade and it might happen again, my point?

New ownership does not have to "honor" old standing values such as "The good thing about Penn is: how easy it is to get replacementyt parts" That is a thing of the past.

IF I WAS IN YOUR SHOES AND I OWNED ONE OR MORE OF THE VENERABLE LARGE SENATORS I WOULD PURCHASE AT LEAST ONE OF THE FOLLOWING PARTS. (In order of priority)

- Bridge with sleeve
- A set of HT-100's drag washers
- An extra dog & spring (about $3 total)
- A set of main and pinion (Penn will likelly not make this part again for the 117-118 and stock is running out even at Scott's parts)

Bearings, handles and other parts should be ok for some time.
Also the 116L is still in production (I would NOT hold my breath) But the 117-118 Senator production is dead and so will replacement parts. At least get your self 1 or 2 bridges with the sleeve.

New to the forum, most of my contributions to SFSC will likelly be in this section.
That's because this is my field of expertise, maintaining and repairing fishing reels.

Keep in mind that Penn Fishing Tackle is not the same company that you have rellied on for years, it has changed hands at least THREE times in the last decade and it might happen again, my point?

New ownership does not have to "honor" old standing values such as "The good thing about Penn is: how easy it is to get replacementyt parts" That is a thing of the past.

IF I WAS IN YOUR SHOES AND I OWNED ONE OR MORE OF THE VENERABLE LARGE SENATORS I WOULD PURCHASE AT LEAST ONE OF THE FOLLOWING PARTS. (In order of priority)

- Bridge with sleeve (although Electra Mate makes it for the 116 reel in SS but not for the 117-118)
- A set of HT-100's drag washers
- An extra dog & spring (about $3 total)
- A set of main and pinion (Penn will likelly not make this part again for the 117-118 and stock is running out even at Scott's parts)

Bearings, handles and other parts should be ok for some time.
Also the 116L is still in production (I would NOT hold my breath) But the 117-118 Senator production is dead and so will replacement parts. At least get your self 1 or 2 bridges with the sleeve.

thanks for the tip!!!

i got a friend that works for penn his name is larry if you ship your reels to him he will rebuild the inside of your reels and make them look brand new
also if you need any part of a reel let me know i can get them here from bill greenway he has every penn part in stock just shout me gas money ill go get your parts and ship them at cost
and scott at scotts bait and tackle is a jerk i order parks from him and he refunded my money and told me me to find another place to buy my parts

The actual Penn factory is probaly not the best place to order parts, I have been rebuilding Penn reels since I was 14 and started out with the two most widely used reels back in the day the Squidder and the 4/0 Special friendly named the red 4/0 and I'm 51, and a few reels later.

I have purchased parts from Penn, Scott's, Dave's parts, from Junior's (it burned down in a fire from it's South Beach location) and from Geeno at Harry's. IMO the worse place to purchase parts is from Penn, slow shipping and lots of back order items or no longer in producion, the best place with the largest stock is Scott's, they bought a lot of stock of parts no lonegr available from Penn.
As far as having some one else service your reels, you would probably do a more detailed job than some one else 'cause it's your own reel.
If you need or would like to learn more about reels, you might want to take a look at Alan Tani's website/forum at http://alantani.com/ I instal a number of his Kolekar handles in costumers reels, he also makes some nice gear sleeves for Jigmaster/Squiders.

Next week I will be doing a break down and build up of the new Accurate Extreme Boss BX2-500 and a 600 in Mean Green special color, Ed at Baja Fish Gear sent me a 500 and 600 for promotion, I'll post the build up in another forum, I do not know if it would be okay to post it in this forum, I do not want to derail from shark fishing.

Good fishing, Art.