penn reel ?

[susqeyaker]

i just stumbled onto a penn 4400ss spinning reel and was wondering if anyone has used or knows anything about them . thinking of using it with braid for casting to stripers. its the only reel ive seen thats made in the usa.

[jet]

i still use a 550ssg, my guess is 6 years old or so. never had a problem with it so far. i would have no problem using an older 4400ss!

[bgriff]

I still have a 4400ss that I purchased back in the mid 90's. It was one of the first reels I bought when I started fishing in the Va. Beach area. It was my primary reel for a while, and I used it for everything from Lg. mouth and pickerel to speckled trout and puppy drum. This was about the time when braided line first came out and the few time I tried it on the 4400ss all it did was frustrate the heck out of me. I would keep getting loops, which would end up as knots and would have to be cut out causing me to lose a lot of braid, which was pretty expensive. Maybe it was the braid or maybe I just didn't have it spooled tight enough, but I switched back to using mono exclusively on it. When I moved back to MD I used it to catch many striper in the 22-28" range casting 1oz bucktails under the Kent Narrows Bridge on 12lb mono. Braids like Spiderwire and Fireline were a lot stiffer back then, but you might have better luck with something more flexible like Suffix 832. I do most of my fishing now with Abu Garcia Ambassadeur's, but I'm going to dig out my 4400ss and have it serviced, it's been sitting in a box gathering dust for the last 6 years or so, so I can use it this year.

[J.A. Veil]

I had a Penn SS reel of that size or similar in the 1990s. The Penn reels of that vintage were made in the USA. It worked okay, but was not nearly as smooth as the Shimano reels I purchased later. I had a chronic problem with the handle rotating backwards a few degrees (sub-optimal anti-reverse). The reel was built with heavy, sturdy parts (when I took off the side plate for cleaning and re-lubing, I was amazed at the large gears). Once I got used to the feel of the Shimano reels, however, I sold the Penn reel. To make an analogy -- the Penn reel was strong and a bit rough (heavy pickup truck) whereas the Shimano was smooth and lighter (sport coupe).

[DOGFISH]

True, also alot of offshore guys use them. The Penn SS is built like a truck, all metal and solid. The new 4500 through 6500 are the same way, although a bit smoother. I don't know where the new ones are made. I too have gone the way of Shimano, since about the early to mid 80s.

[bignose]

If it helps, we use Penn 4400's as our live line reels on the Charter Boat.
As Dogfish has posted, they are sturdy, the term tank comes to mind. They are a tad on the heavy side, but they can hold up to the abuse that our clients can dish out.
John's analogy is pretty much spot on.
I use Shimano's for my fishing, but the customers get the Penns.
Secret: always rinse them off after fishing in the Bay. Keeps the corrosion monster from messing up the spools and chrome.
Braid works well, but either put some silicone tape/electrical tape/ or some mono as an underlayment before putting on the braid to give the braid some gription so it won't spin on the spool..

[Redfish12]

4400 are solid! I have an old USA made one with the red dot on the drag knob and the older dog style anti-reverse. Great reel for striper fishing but definitely rougher feeling than the newer reels, but it will hold up to the abuse of kayak fishing.