General Purpose Level Wind Conventional Fishing Reel

Heavy but great

Got it on rod, but haven’t been fishing yet

excellent product. nothing I disliked about this product.

This review is for the Penn 209LC. I bought a couple of these to troll for Striped Bass, and they work awseome! They cast heavy 2oz plus lures with little problems. Getting up to 110-120 feet casts according to the line counter. Now I have read the reviews, and the people that are complaining about inaccuracies may have their expectations a little high for a line counter. It is just a gauge to stagger multiple rods when trolling, or setting approximate depth with your dipsy diver. It is not supposed to be a laser accurate measuring device calibrated by the thousandth of an inch. My examples are within 3-4 feet accurate at 100 ft of line. Lots of factors can contribute to inaccuracies like a slick wet line, or abrasive braid. That is not the point, the line counter helps you get a quick estimate with instant feedback to help you make adjustments on the fly without having to remember how many color bands of line you counted off on each reel. I bought one of these reels new, and one from Warehouse in newish/used condition. The new one arrived flawless and worked perfect out of the box, All I do is oil it about every 20-30 hours of use, 1 drop under each cap. The Warehouse specimen arrived in a non-servicable state, when adjusting the spool side play to the correct amount, the bail would not let out, and the crank was almost seized up. I disassembled and found a piece of the pinion gear near the slotted part, peeled back and lodged into the slot, I removed the bur, filed, and reassembled; now it works just like the new one. Seeing this condition makes me believe there may be some quality control issues, but anyone familiar with a Penn reel (I have fished them since over 30 years ago) would have no problem resolving small issues like this. Which brings me to my next point, this reel needs to be maintained to continue to deliver trouble free service. It needs oil, it needs the tension set on the spool properly with slight, but minimal side travel. The drag clutches wear and adjustments are needed. The person that purchases this needs to love conventional reels and not mind working on them from time to time. This one is still great because you can get all the parts for it. It is the reel I grew up fishing, and it is the only conventional reel I really want. For reel.

1st problem ever! went up on AMAZON and put in 309 penn reel--bunch came up but no names -and ordered first as that was what i thought was 309--as usual cust support GREAT and he came up on site and agreed as reels came up with no names-minor but annoying as my old 309 lost clicker and taking my son fishing--no fish caught so ok--LIFE STILL GREAT !!

I bought this Penn 9M to put on a new rod I bought to replace an older rod that was stolen. That rod had an older Penn No. 9 on it. I caught some nice salmon on that setup, some in fresh water but mostly in salt water. Even with very little maintenance, that reel held up very well. This reel is brand new, but still almost identical.Penn General Purpose Reels will always be my favorite reels for trolling for salmon. I have a couple of newer reels and several that are 20-30 years old. It can be tough to tell the difference between the older reels and the newer reels because the design really has not changes over the years. And it for a good reason. These reels are simply the best, most durable reel you can buy.If you want a reel that will last forever, buy Penn General Purpose.

Excelente

The quality of Peen reels is not what it used to be, the counter stopped working after 15 minutes of fishing, using the counter is essential for slow trolling in the Great Lakes, I have other reels for backup, but am disappointed this failed out of the box