Penn cleans house

[Nebe]

for what its worth, i have a slammer and absolutely love it.

[JohnR]

Originally Posted by Eben

for what its worth, i have a slammer and absolutely love it.

And that's why your go to reels are a VS and some tuned Old 704/6 reels, right? I have debated a Slammer time and again but the C/B ratio just don't seem right. I dropped that coin (and then some) on something else... a used VS. Imagine, needing to pay 3 times the value of Penns' premeire surf reel on a USED REEL because the Penn does not do what I want it to do where I want to do it .

[ProfessorM]

The only Penn's I buy now are the old models. I probably own 20 to 30 Penn reels, 80 % are boat stuff. Nothing newer than 1990. I buy them off the auction sites and fix or repair them myself. I feel all the new stuff just doesn't measure up to the old stuff. I feel way more comfortable with a 20 year old Penn than a brand new one. What I do have I love. What I like about the Penn stuff is the simplicity of the design and the ease of repair. My opinion is Penn has gotten lazy, collected the $ and put nothing back into the company, living off the once prestigious Penn name. Times are changing and you are being left in the dust. Paul

[Mike P]

I started cutting my surfcasting teeth just as Daiwa and Shimano started making inroads in the American market.

IMO, the only reason Penn was able to retain a market share in the face of comparable, and even superior, products from the Japanese was the loyalty consumers paid to "the Great AMERICAN Reel Company". Once you move spinning reel production to China, Penn is going to get lost in a sea of cheap-assed "entry-level" junk offered by a gazillion other companies--Tica, Okuma, Marado, you name it.

It's a pretty telling fact that the two Penn reels most favored by hard core surfcasters are a spinning reel designed in the early 1960s and a conventional designed in the 1930s. If I put a Captiva thru the paces I've put the green 704 on my shelf, it wouldn't have lasted for 30 weeks, let alone 30 years. Same with an International 975 as opposed to the 60 year old Squidder I still use.

Your main selling points for over 20 years, in the face of increased import competition, was simplicity of design, interchangeability of parts between similar models, parts availability, continuity of product, and above all else, products engineered and manufactured in the US of A. IMO that last point was the only thing that's kept Penn in business.

[FormerUser]

I wonder what the future holds for the Z series.Discontinuation or overseas production?Either way we lose.

I guess its Shimano from here on out.

[PNG]

Seems to me Penn management has the same arrogance of the Big 3 Auto Manufacture’s of the 70's versus the Japanese auto's and look what happened to them.

I hope you (Penn) will listen to what is being said here because it's been falling on deaf ears for so long.

I "was" dyed in the wool Penn (spin) but sold every one I had opting for Shimano, that was hard to do. Convince me & others to come back but for now I am sticking with a much greater performing product.

Throw this at management - I bet MikeCC has sold 75 Shimano to a lonely 1 Penn (both spin) and, AND if Shimano changes the spool on their boat reel to be wire friendly watch out your 112/113/114's are in trouble. He is one small shop in one small town, add'm up.

Penn =

[snake slinger]

how maeny surf caught fish were on a 704?penn needs to step up to the plate