An alternative to the Penn 850

Posted: Tue Jul 06, 2010 7:43 pm

I was planning to buy a Penn Surfcaster 850 until I read a few reviews - all of which were not favourable.

Can anyone suggest an alternative fixed spool for around £50 or less

Posted: Tue Jul 06, 2010 8:48 pm

Okuma EZ-65 if you can get one.
Cheers
keith big grin

Posted: Wed Jul 07, 2010 7:12 am

Have a look at the Diawa's, I have found the BF5500's to be most reliable and smooth over the last three years but you may have to search around to find them. I also agree with rabbi2 that the better Okuma's are worth having.

Posted: Wed Jul 07, 2010 3:08 pm

What about the Mitchell Avosurf 700 @ £49.99 ?

Having problems finding the Okuma mentioned above.

Posted: Wed Jul 07, 2010 4:09 pm

http://www.nimpopo.com/acatalog/Shakespeare_Salt_Surf_Reels.html#a114

Don't know if this is of any interest to you...............maybe ???

JOLI

Posted: Wed Jul 07, 2010 5:07 pm

To put it in a nutshell anything is preferable yo the Penn850 lol big grin

Cheers
keith big grin

Posted: Wed Jul 07, 2010 6:14 pm

I like the look of the Shakespeare - I feel my reaching for a credit card.

As for the 850 - I am amazed at the number of bad reports I have found for this reel. I thought Penn were a good make - what on earth did they do that made it so bad - or was it a case of buying in cheap and nasty and badging it as a Penn?

Posted: Wed Jul 07, 2010 6:23 pm

Not sure but my mate had one and within about 15 months, the drag adjuster screw was completely knackered resulting in the spool top parting company with the spool never to work again. In other words a major quality problem. Incidently, whatever you decide to go for, make sure the spool skirt is fairly deep. Some are very narrow these days (a design fault IMO) which means that the line can get trapped underneath the spool - not a pleasant experience especially in the dark when you can't always see exactly what is happening.

Posted: Wed Jul 07, 2010 6:43 pm

The 850 had a weak bale arm return spring, the gearing was plastic as well as the probs eccles had, all in all a shody piece of gear. perhaps they knew Shakespeare were taking them over and it was aimed at the cheaper end of the market.
Cheers
keith

Posted: Wed Jul 07, 2010 8:02 pm

Didn't know Shakespeare had bought out Penn.
The only thing holding me back from the Shakespear reel is that it looks like it has a shallow skirt - I would prefer a deep skirt.

Posted: Wed Jul 07, 2010 9:18 pm

Penn, ABU, Shakespear and Mitchell are all owned by Pure Fishing and it has definately seen a downturn in quality in most of the makes in most people's opinions ... and a general move to Chinese products just badged under the various brand names ... some are worse than others. I also know that much of the budget stuff from these brands doesn't seem to have any spares backup whatsoever.

Although most okumas come from China aswell you'll find that generally they seem to have better warranty cover and Daiwa have a very good spares service generally (direct from the company) so are a good bet. If you can afford the cash though a higher end Daiwa or shimano are a better bet all round ... you get what you pay for.

Posted: Thu Jul 08, 2010 5:50 am

You didn't read the man's post RW he doesn't want to pay for a high price reel and he doesn't need to IMO. The oldest of my Diawa BF5500's is now three years old and goes out virtually every week. It also has a hard plastic coated spool so no problems with corrosion - someone suggested that said coating soon starts to get a bit rough. Well, I haven't seen it yet - still as smooth as a baby's bum.

Posted: Thu Jul 08, 2010 8:49 am

i had a vey similar issue, and went for an okuma distance surf rather than the penn, (for a penn rod incidentally). i cant fault it afte many hrs of abuse its had no problems at all, and it looks good too

graham

Posted: Thu Jul 08, 2010 1:29 pm

eccles wrote:

You didn't read the man's post RW he doesn't want to pay for a high price reel and he doesn't need to IMO.

I did read it actually eccles ... hence the bulk of my post was about the price range he specified ... the comment (one sentence) about the higher end models was additional ... just because his initial plan was to buy mid range doesn't mean he shouldn't be given information for him to consider ... namely there are other options that may give better value for money depending on what he wants from his tackle.

Your mid range Daiwa is likely to only have a garanteed spares supply for 5 years if Daiwa are to be believed. As the BFs have apparently been out of production for a little while now by all accounts (hence they are a struggle to find) that will mean that the clock is ticking on the life of its spares backup ... so better for him to buy a more up to date model from the range anyway.

While your entitled to your opinion eccles (even if I do think its a very blinkered one) don't presume to criticise me for pointing out that your opinion isn't the only option to consider!

eccles wrote:

It also has a hard plastic coated spool so no problems with corrosion - someone suggested that said coating soon starts to get a bit rough.

I suggested to you on another thread that the spool lip would get rough at some point if you had a plastic coated spool (reasonably common on some cheap and mid-range models) in the same way that carbon and plastic spools undoubtably get a roughened surface where friction occurs at the lip.

I've yet to have a BF come my way so I can't say for sure what the coating is but if it hasn't roughened up in 3 years of use it may not be plastic coated at all as you think and is perhaps just anodised aluminium ... a very different thing altogether! If it is plastic then I reckon your either very lucky or aren't looking closely enough because in 40 years I've not seen a plastic or carbon spool which hasn't gone rough on the lip over time.

Posted: Thu Jul 08, 2010 2:07 pm

Anything by Daiwa !

End of !

Dave