got a call from my old fishing partner who's 73, he gave me his penn 990/mag reel and a 10.5 foot slammer conv rod...we brought this rod/reel early 90's if I'm right...its still got 85 pound spiderwire on it, braid was just hitting the market... first big bluefish almosted pulled my buddy in:laugha: 14 pounds he had his drag tight:laugha: took him a good 4 steps to stop he was in his early 60s:laugha: my question is.....how long did penn make these reels....we used to chunk with squiders. not alot of these reels around. thanks for any info...ed

they made the reels starting in 1982-1983 or somethere abouts

I bought a 980 off the shelf 1990 for $102.00... That was the cheapest I found one ,out in the boonys . I think R T wanted $120.00 ,, $127.00 at the time . Heard they weren't maikng them anymore shortly after. After I fell in love . Up until then I had been using a 140 squidder . Squidder was about $40.00 new compared to 120.00 for a 980.. I suspect that was thier downfall even though the 980 is far superior to the 140 ..retrieve rates faster ,, drag washers are double the size, same as penn senator.. replacement bearings for a 980 were $24.00 each side. I've never had to replace them after years of heavy use . I still have 3) 980's .. I had an unfished 970 I sold on epay for 5 times what I paid for it ..

I wondered why they stoped them(price) last one we picked up came from the bucko's on 2nd st fall river, they said they had it for years no one wanted to buy it because of the price..105 if I remember:D