penn vs tiagra 130

[crusty]

if you had to pick between these two reels which would you choose and why ?

maintenance issues on penn 130's ? any comments on the tiagras?

i've used both but have never used them for a long enough period to have had to maintain either reel

[Wideopen]

I know that Chris, aka: Finnseeker will have something to chime in here, as he has used both over the years, and prefers the Tiagra's. I'll let him speak for himself though.

[Finnseeker]

Penn vs Tiagra 130's

Both are excellent reels and both catch fish its also an anglers preference and choice. I used penn 70's 80's and 130's until 1998 after several drag issues with the penn's on large fish I switched
and will not go back. Ken from Kens Custom Rod and Reel in Oceanside could vouch for my reels as he used to repair all of them and I took a penn 130 to him after loosing a big fish, the drag
plate had gotten so hot that it melted the screws and parts of the reel. He said in all his life he had never seen anything like this happen to a reel, he took pictures and kept the parts to show penn.
Similar drag issues are still happening down in Brazil on the large fish and Im talking about really large fish, I introduced them to the tiagra's which now almost all the guys are changing to down in Brazil.
The penn drags seem be inconsistent and will vary on the 130's, self adjust during a fight. I refused to fish with the penn's down in Brazil any longer after some more drag issues 3 years ago and bought
an entire set of tiagra's and trinidads for my friend in Brazil.

The whole of Brazil was penn dominated, one been that they could get service, spares and repairs and the good old boys all used the penn's since they were loyal to the local distributor and service guy.
When I took the tiagra's and trinidad''s down there to him he finally admitted that the tiagra drag system was better than the older penn's and wanted to go fish and test them. We took him out and he was
more than convinced, hence the switch by many.

Ive just purchased 6 more new tiagra's ( the new models ) and 6 more trinidad's from Meltons, have not tested them yet, waiting on the delivery as the rods were been matched up but from what ive seen
the improvements made are obviously going to benefit.

A few months back I fished in Florida with Miss Britt - Ray and all he has were penn's for swordies, yes I got my swordies but they were smaller models and up to 160lbs and the penn's worked great on them,
never tried a penn on a large swordie so I could not pass comment.

Service issues:

Ive had nothing but problems with the penn's 130's getting them serviced, drags replaced, drags burned out and slow where as the tiagra's right on my doorstep, service has been excellent and top class.
The early penn 70's had the worst drags and penn have replaced two reels for me already but I had to pay for shipping and handling each time, eventually they still did not perform and I donated them to friends in Brazil.
Furthermore something to consider is that Shimano are constantly doing R & D spending millions to develop a better product each time. Penn has had its ups and downs and due to these woe's does not seem
to be keeping pace or have the resources to do R & D.

I stress that both reels are good and its an anglers preference, this is my personal experience with the penn's on large fish and im not paid or sponsored by anyone so im not promoting any one
manufacturer over the other. I use the tiagra's now from my experiences in the past and have never been happier.

[Chip]

If I had a " do over " on my boat I'ld probably go with Tiagra's. BUT, my set of Penn 130stw have been flawless for 6 1/2 years. I did have to wet sand/polish the stainless drag washers and use brake cleaner on the drag materials a few times to sort them out initially, (the drags work the best for me dry). Excessive amounts of grease should be removed too from both sides of the reel when the reels are new. Penn really dropped the ball in the 90's but damn I've seen them catch more big fish than any other reel, day after day after day, without fail, PERIOD!!!. A 30 year old penn 130H will probably catch a huge marlin on the Kona coast today! Once the tiagra 130's started getting a few years on them in the Kona fleet they were not without there own issues, mainly burnt bearings and then a whole rash of drive shaft failures (I know of well over a dozen)where the hollow shaft shatters during a battle and the angler is left with a reel with now handle to crank with. Shimano has addressed both problems and you can get the improved bearings and most importantly that redisigned drive shaft so that the handle doesn't fall off in your hand while fighting a million+ dollar 700lb blue in this years Bizbey! Parts are free, about $40.00 bucks labor I think to have em switched.


I'll miss my old comfortable girls!

Chip

[Steve Mras]

Chris, I've had the same experience on the Penn 50Ws. Everyone touts the availability of parts and readily available servicing for the Penns. Frankly, they should, as they constantly servicing. That's fine if you have plenty of time on your hands. It's like my first car, a VW Bug. Very cheap, readily available parts, easy to work on and you were always working on it.

BTW how's that terrible hydrothermal thingamabob draggy thing in the Tiagras }> ?

[dustin]

I've seen example of the drive shaft failure chip speaks of, luckily not on the boat I was on, luckily it's a one time fix. Apart from that the T130s seem from what I've seen to be to the Penn 130s as the TI80Ws to the Penn 80Ws. I especially prefer the tiagra's gear shift, having said that I'd be happy enough to work with Penn 130s, or 80Ws for that matter, just expect to check the drag more often.

I've seen one freak incident where the handle of a penn 130 seemed to get stuck/vibrated in between high and low gear settings while trolling and started going backwards on the bite, very scary and gave me a nasty rap on the knuckles, but prolly just a fluke. I do check constantly the reels are solid in high gear now though.

[Wideopen]

Ohhh, Chris....did you happen to forget to mention....the reason you are having so many drag problems, is you are trolling at 38 knots :+

[Finnseeker]

Aggh Bill, that so those tooothy Mako's cant catch me and chew off the EAL's in Southern Cal :+

[babalu87]

Been using Penn 130's on the East coast for GBFT for 20 years and never had a failure.

Do your yearly maintenance.
Penn works cheap :+

[crusty]

thanks for the responses guys

i thought i bit more of a sh*tfight would break out on this but there you go }> :+ :D