rattling scream, a sound that I’ve heard for three
decades now. Out the back was a nice black
marlin in the 40 to 60 kilo range carving the
ocean to foam. It ate the lumo white Meridian. I
cleared the gear and we settled into the fight but
after about 15 minutes the fish started grey
hounding and threw the lure high into the air.
This really pleased my son who was on the rod
and hates losing fish. Not happy ....
Half an hour later the Penn screamed again
and a nice black probably close to 70 kilos took
off and half spooled the Inter of its 10 kilo mono.
This fish was a really tough one and for the next
hour and a half had us working hard to get close.
As usual, the reel performed faultlessly. During
this fight the Australian team lost three wickets
but piled on a heap of runs. When I eventually
got to grab the leader the fish was still jumping
and he gave me a thrashing when I was getting
the hooks out. I’m stuffed if I know how many
marlin that reel has caught but it is definitely a
century maker.
In this modern age of disposable technology
and new fishing products constantly hitting the
markets, it is fantastic to see a well-made,
superbly engineered reel work hard for over 30
faultless years. I service the reel annually and
have replaced the drag washer on one occasion
but had no other spare parts. This reel gets a lot
of use, mainly lure trolling for mackerel, marlin
and wahoo. Over the years it has had a lot of
firsts. Ben Job, Michael Green, Jacquie Green
and a host of others caught their first marlin on
it before they were 10-years-old. Michael caught
his first striped marlin on this reel when he was
12, a fish in the 90 kilo bracket that took over
two hours to land. I caught a 50 kilo dogtooth
on this reel at Frederick Reef on a jig on 15 kilo
mono. Over three decades of fishing this reel has
caught literally tons and tons of fish f lesh.The reason that this reel has lasted so long
and given great performance relates to its
construction. The inside of a Penn International
is incredibly simple and the gearing and bearings
are all over engineered and strong. There’s
definitely a pride in the manufacturing of this
great reel. Even though it’s so old I feel no need
to replace it. It works as well now as it did 30
years back.
Buying top tackle made of high quality
metal components is a good investment. As far
as game fish trolling goes, the terminals have
undergone a lot of change over the years, but
the outfits used to troll them have largely
remained the same. And when I’m out in my
boat in summer chasing little black marlin the
sweetest sound of all is a screaming Inter 20!fishingworld.com.au | March 2015 | 49ver three decades of fishing, (the Penn International 20)
has caught literally tons and tons of fish flesh.”
O
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