penn senator 6/0

[lawyer66]

im getting a 6/0 reel i want 2 know what he best uses for them are
to be honest im quite dissapointed .

[miamiangler1]

I use my red Penn 6/0 for almost all of my deep dropping ... works very well since it is 30years old just had new drag washers put in .. has caught almost most fish in the ocean

[Tunachaser]

I have an old pair of 6/0's that were my Grandfather's. I caught tons of tuna & mako's on them growing up and even used them for Swords for a while when I first started. These reels have stood the test of time for sure.

[Disco Lady]

Those reels where the workhorse of the charter boat fleet in pier 5 when I was a young man.

[The BEAST]

I still use 4 of them on a daily basis. 1 on my bent butt Stubbie rod for planer fishing. 1 on the kite rod with a Dreel. 2 on standup rods for dropping livies on the wrecks.

I think they are RPG proof!

[miamiangler1]

The old penn senitors ... are still the best reels around ... have used them for 30years .. never failed me yet ... the ones that are dark red or burgandy color ...

[The BEAST]

I have 2 of the 113's that have the dark red or maroon side plates. I used to have them rigged on the T-Top for teaser reels.

[Boboe]

113's are 4/0's, 114's are 6/0's. I find a 6/0 to be overkill for snapper fishing, unless you're catching big daddy snappers.

I just used my 6/0 to kill some amberjacks off of Galveston 2 weeks ago. They went 44", 46", and 48" fork. The 6/0 handled them well. I've caught yellowfin tuna with 6/0's, but would much rather have Tiagra 50W's for that job. I've highspeed trolled for wahoos with 6/0 Wide spools many times. They hold a load of line--plenty enough to handle that first wahoo run. 6/0's have got plenty of ass for whooping big groupers off of the bottom. Just be sure that you and your rod can handle the amount of drag that a 6/0 in BeatDownDrag Mode (tm) can apply.

[Jesslyn]

Great no frills reel

[The BEAST]

They seem to work fairly well. I load them with 80# PP on 60-100 stand up rods. Definitely a solid, work horse, reel for a little over $100.



Hang on tight... Hammered down, you will break your rod or bust your knuckles on the gunnels before the reel will give out. Notice the broken rod above my shiny bald head.

[Disco Lady]

COÑO!!!!!!! now thats a Donkey! thank god for donkeys when there ain't shit biting.

[Disco Lady]

COÑO!!!!!!! now thats a Donkey! thank god for donkeys when there ain't shit biting.

[Boboe]

Is that a hollow rod, Capt. Jim? I've never had a solid glass rod break, unless somebody's an idiot and tries to hold the rod straight up when the fish is straight down with a ton of drag.

The rod on my 6/0 is a dadgum broomstick. If you can hold it up high enough to break it with BeatDownDrag (tm) on the 6/0, you're a gorillamonkey!

...please don't tell me that your clients were fighting it out of the rod holder... When they whine, tell them that you keep some tampons down in the bathroom for the ladies, but if they want to get one they're more than welcome.

[The BEAST]

Boboe,

That was a 6' Penn Tuna Stick. Yes, they are hollow and no, the angler wasn't fighting it with "Rodney" (rod holder). Notice the shoulder harness and butt belt? YES, he tried to get 12 o'clock with the damn rod and yes the fish was directly under the boat as most Donkey fights are! I have lost 4 of these rods now to anglers trying to fight a below boat fish to 12 o'clock... 2 on Swordfish and 2 on Reef Donkeys.

The AJ's that are on the wrecks right now are tackle busters for sure. I hammer the drags to where I can barely pull line off the reel taking a double wrap with both hands at the reel. The fish have no trouble pulling us swiftly into the wreck, 5 or 10 minutes into the fight.

[Boboe]

Originally Posted by The BEAST

Boboe,

That was a 6' Penn Tuna Stick. Yes, they are hollow and no, the angler wasn't fighting it with "Rodney" (rod holder). Notice the shoulder harness and butt belt? YES, he tried to get 12 o'clock with the damn rod and yes the fish was directly under the boat as most Donkey fights are! I have lost 4 of these rods now to anglers trying to fight a below boat fish to 12 o'clock

The AJ's that are on the wrecks right now are tackle busters for sure. I hammer the drags to where I can barely pull line off the reel taking a double wrap with both hands at the reel. The fish have no trouble pulling us swiftly into the wreck, 5 or 10 minutes into the fight.

So...why not get some solid glass rods built for this kind of thing? A custom solid glass rod with Aftco guides costs <$200. At least they do when you're not in Mee-yah-mee.

Also...just drive off the wreck. That's what we do when targetting big jacks on the rigs. Imagine the wreck you're fishing coming all the way to the surface and that's fishing rigs. To fix the problem, just drag his ass away from it. You don't have to floor it, just ease off away from it and you'll bag him no problem. We drive off immediately once the fish is hooked when fishing big big baits for big big jacks. By big big baits, I mean 3# blackfins, hard tails, or porgies, and by big jacks, I mean that we're targetting those that would go 70# or more. If you can get him away from the wreck, his ass is yours.

[The BEAST]

Well I'll be... why didn't I think of that in the past 20 or 30 years?!? Duh! This isn't my first rodeo, brother!

I told you that the drags are hammered down and these fish are still taking long runs after 10 minutes into the fight. The other day I tried extreme heat with locked down drag and guess what... the hook broke, an Eagle Claw 10/0 circle hook.

Something you seemed to overlook is that the majority of my anglers are tourists that have never caught anything even remotely close to being this strong. Most have caught Walleye, Lake Trout, or maybe the occasional Striper or Bluefish. They can barely keep their knuckles off the gunnel with these Donkeys as it is. This is why we use the shoulder harness and snap it to the rod... it keeps the tackle from going deep six. We have actually had the people themselves come close to going over the side on some of these bruisers.

Right now we are also catching big Permit on the wrecks with 50# Power Pro on heavy, stout, spinning rods. We lose a lot of those fish to the wrecks, too! You can only use so much heat when the terminal end has a 3/0 jig. Yes, we build our own jigs, with XX hooks too.

I'm not bitching about the broken rods. I offer my anglers the best shot at sport fishing... not trying to overmatch the gear to the fish. I'd rather they be under gunned than, example; catching yellowtail on a 50W stand up.

No matter what the case, some days you are the rooster and some days you are a feather duster!

[Disco Lady]

[Harry Klauber]

Originally Posted by The BEAST

Well I'll be... why didn't I think of that in the past 20 or 30 years?!? Duh! This isn't my first rodeo, brother!

I told you that the drags are hammered down and these fish are still taking long runs after 10 minutes into the fight. The other day I tried extreme heat with locked down drag and guess what... the hook broke, an Eagle Claw 10/0 circle hook.

Something you seemed to overlook is that the majority of my anglers are tourists that have never caught anything even remotely close to being this strong. Most have caught Walleye, Lake Trout, or maybe the occasional Striper or Bluefish. They can barely keep their knuckles off the gunnel with these Donkeys as it is. This is why we use the shoulder harness and snap it to the rod... it keeps the tackle from going deep six. We have actually had the people themselves come close to going over the side on some of these bruisers.

Right now we are also catching big Permit on the wrecks with 50# Power Pro on heavy, stout, spinning rods. We lose a lot of those fish to the wrecks, too! You can only use so much heat when the terminal end has a 3/0 jig. Yes, we build our own jigs, with XX hooks too.

I'm not bitching about the broken rods. I offer my anglers the best shot at sport fishing... not trying to overmatch the gear to the fish. I'd rather they be under gunned than, example; catching yellowtail on a 50W stand up.

No matter what the case, some days you are the rooster and some days you are a feather duster!

Jim,
If you care to make a significant upgrade to the drag system of any reel go on the web to smoothdrag.com

They are located in Ca. where the fishermen are into the most expensive reels and then fine tune everything after purchase. A Penn International is "junk" to them unless Cal Sheets "blueprints" it to your specifications for about 50% of the cost of the reel. These guys are "over the edge" and would laugh at the old dependable Penn 6/0 but handing one of your charter clients a $600 reel for reef donkeys would not be a good move especially without strapping him in first. Smoothdrag makes hatched carbontex washers for all reels and they will increase the amount of drag you can get by 25% to as much as 50% for any reel that you convert. We aren't paranoid about drag capability like they are on the long range boats that fish for tuna and we just set our drags by feel where they always use a drag scale. I have converted many of my reels and a typical example was a Daiwa 50 Saltist that out of the box couldn't get over about 16 - 18 pounds of drag and with the 5 new carbontex washers gets over 30 pounds and still is smooth. They are worth trying!

[Boboe]

Beast:
I ran charters out of Destin for 8 year. I understand googans and their inability to catch fish. Sorry that the previous one sounded patronizing, but driving off has pretty much always meant that we bagged the fish, whether it be on a wreck, rig, or cutoff rig. We do the same when commercial rod and reeling for big, sloppy jacks. When the fish tries to get an angle back toward the structure, we just pull away farther.

I've never used those Eagle Claw circles, but if they break, they're probably a very hard steel. A softer material would bend out a bit but not break. I've had this happen on a Mustad 15/0 circle with a ton of drag. I've bent a 13/0 almost straight and lost the fish. Never have I broken a hook in half.

We never used harnasses for bottom fishing, only tuna/marlin/wahoo fishing. We used a belt and had "sombitch posts" all around the boat. They can rest the rod on the post--which in effect acts like your rail is higher in that spot--and let the boat work for them. That's not to say that tons of clients didn't get all crunched up on the rod and overwork themselves until I showed them for the 10th time how to just chill-the-f#*k-out and let their tackle do the fighting.

The original question/suggestion remains: Why not get some solid glass rods made for this job? They won't break unless you have a simian on the working end of the rod.

[The BEAST]

Boboe,

These rods have done me fine for the last 12 years and I don't feel like dishing out $800 or so. I still have one left and will use it until some "googan" breaks it too! THey are lighter weight than the solid glass also. That is important when your customer ahsn't lifted anything heavier than a 3 iron.

I have Penn reels that are over 15 years old and I'm not going to throw those away either, until they explode.

Harry,

I am not complaining! What do I care if 75% of the 12 AJ's make it back to the wreck and cut us off. It is 8 fish I don't have to vent and hope they make it back down without getting sharked.

These drags work fine for me and if I added 2 more pounds the anglers couldn't handle it, trust me when I tell you that.