Let’s be honest here - if you go down the Penn Slammer IV route for UK and Irish bass fishing, they are already way more than enough spinning reel for the fish we catch from a strength/drag point of view, indeed you have most likely made your choice because of what the reels can do for you as regards standing up to saltwater hassles and so on. I also love the Shimano Stradic and Vanford spinning reels that I have fished with, but if money were no object I’d be very tempted by some of the Shimano Stellas instead. But in reality do I need more spinning reel than a Stradic or a Vanford or a Slammer for what I do with lure fishing for bass?

You know the answer to that from an emotionless point of view, but it’s not the way the world works. Penn make the Slammer series of spinning reels which I happen to really like for a number of different reasons, and I also know that turning a reel handle again and again when you’re out fishing and the wind is pumping or the sea is bouncing is somewhat different to turning the same handle here at home. Spinning reels are tools, and we go for what we can based on different buying decisions - price, weight, style of fishing, desire, need, want etc. So here we are with this range of (around double the Slammer price) new Penn Authority spinning reels, and because of my work I have the 3500 and 2500 versions here and they have both been used a fair bit now since later in August when I got them………………

The Penn Authority 3500 reel weighs exactly the same as the (same size) Penn Slammer IV 3500 - 411g when loaded up with braid - and the Penn Authority 2500 weighs a few grams more than the (same size) Penn Slammer IV 2500 - 340g v 326g when loaded up with braid. For those of you who worry about distance when not loading your spinning reels right up (I don’t), I have got this Authority 3500 loaded up to the last marker line on the spool and it’s given me zero hassles. I loaded the smaller Authority 2500 up to the same level and eventually I got a tiny wind knot which I couldn’t undo, so I took about 20 yards of braid off and it’s been perfect ever since. That includes blasting various lures into strong headwinds at times and plenty of fishing with soft plastics and surface lures etc. It still seems to be a bit of pot luck with Penn reels in that I had to play around with the supplied spacers to get what I would call a level line-lay on the reels, and the 2500 took more messing around with than the 3500 to get sorted. I wish this wasn’t the case because I never have to do this with Shimano reels, but for some reason it’s a quirk of the Penn spinning reels and I bet you I could pick up another Authority 3500 or 2500 and the line-lay would be perfect out of the box. I can live with it because I have a foolproof method of loading and unloading spinning reels, plus I want what these reels can do for me, but I’d prefer not to be seeing this. The braid does look to be going on really well when you get that flat line-level I might add.

Here are some specs to keep you going:

IPX8 Sealed Body and Spool Design
Full Metal Body, Sideplate, and Rotor
CNC Gear Technology with Stainless Steel Main and Pinion (Fully Supported pinion tail and spool shaft)
Sealed Slammer drag system with Dura-Drag
Carbon drag washers
12+1 Stainless steel bearing system
Leveline Slow Oscillation System
2500 retrieve speed: 5.7:1 (High Speed version is 7.0:1)
3500 retrieve speed: 5.7:1
2500 max drag 20lbs/9.1kg
3500 max drag 30lbs/13.6kg

I don’t know how you measure smoothness on a spinning reel, but out of the box this Penn Authority 3500 was as smooth as any Shimano reel I have fished with, and the smaller Authority 2500 felt like about halfway between a Slammer and a Shimano (decidedly unscientific I might add!). As with the Slammer IV 2500, it is noticeable how this Authority 2500 is getting smoother and smoother the more I fish with it, whereas the larger Authority 3500 remains as incredibly smooth as it was when I first turned the handle (is this something to do with larger gears in the 3500?). A Slammer is not what you would call a “buttery-smooth” spinning reel anyway, although they tend to get smoother over time as you fish with them more and more - but wow do you notice the difference when you start turning the handle on these Authority reels, and the 3500 especially (while taking note of what I said about fishing in the real world and not at home). It also feels like it takes a bit less than a Slammer to get the spool moving when you first turn the handles on these reels if that makes sense. This 3500 size Authority comes with two different handles - one is essentially the same as the gold coloured ones on the Slammer reels albeit a different colour, and one is a hypalon handle. I quickly changed over to it (very easily done). The 2500 size Authority only comes with the hypalon handle. I love these hypalon handles so much I would pay good money to be able to have one on any spinning reel I ever fish with. To me these hypalon handles are perfect, plain and simple, and I could quite happily turn them all day long.

I started off with my beloved 20lb Sufix 131 braid on both reels because I know and trust it completely, but I wanted to try this newish Berkley Sick X8 braid in the 24lb breaking strain so I loaded both the Authority reels up with it after a while. I don’t need to learn anything more about Sufix 131 because I have fished with it so much, but so far this Sick X8 braid is rather lovely to fish with and I obviously like the fact that it’s considerably cheaper than the Sufix stuff.

Penn Authority 2500 with Berkley Sick X8 braid

Let’s address what Penn calls the Max Drag settings. The drags themselves on these reels are as smooth as I would expect, but then you know that I don’t really worry about drags on spinning reels for bass fishing. These Penn Authority reels were designed to tangle with far faster and more powerful fish than our glorious bass will ever be, so as impressive as those Max Drag settings sound, nothing has changed my opinion that 99% of bass anglers give 100% of any bass they ever hook far too much of an easy time with all that mainline they seem to want to donate to a hooked fish. We will never, ever get anywhere close to hitting the Max Drag settings! Maybe Penn USA were thinking of UK and Irish bass anglers when they put the words “More” and “Less” on top of the spools together with helpful arrows showing which direction to turn the drag knobs! Hint - turn towards the More direction a whole lot more than you currently are doing. Oh, and the lightest drag setting is nice and light if that bothers you. The drag settings on these Authority reels can be easily adjusted in small increments if that is any help.

With how much you know I love fishing with the Penn Slammer IV 2500 and 3500 reels, you can probably guess that unless there was something drastically wrong I was most likely going to really like these new Authority reels - and I do. Aside from some lighter estuary fishing with the delightful Savage Gear SGS6 8’3’’ 7-25g lure rod and a lovely little Shimano, I have only really fished with these two Penn Authority reels since they arrived. It’s like Penn have taken everything I like about the Slammers and just made everything a bit better. It’s not twice as good to reflect the price difference, but I seriously doubt whether a Stella is twice as good as a Vanford and so on. I guess Penn could have gone down some lighter reel body road, but if you know much about Penn and the massive US marketplace, you will know what Penn stands for and I guess what their customers want and expect from the gear. Penn were not going to divert away from a “Full Metal Body, Sideplate, and Rotor” on their flagship spinning reels, not with how they are marketing the whole toughness and ruggedness thing with these Authority reels.

I can’t yet tell you much about the increased IPX8 ratings on these Authority reels save for the fact that both reels have been unintentionally splashed and dunked and they continue to turn as smoothly as I described further up the page. I also can’t tell you whether these new reels are going to last as well as I know the Slammers do. I suspect they will, but I need a hell of a lot more fishing time with these things and I will report back in due course. Most of my bass fishing until the end of whatever the season might be this particular season will be with these two reels, so they will keep on getting a hammering. I will continue to do everything the same as I would with any other spinning reel - pack the line roller with grease, wash the reels down with freshwater after use etc.

There is no point in me trying to justify the cost of these new Penn Authority spinning reels when I didn’t pay for the two I have got here. They cost what they cost and they are trickling onto the market. I have to assume that Penn know what they are doing and that they know the potential market for reels like this. As much as a few of them might sell here in the UK and Ireland, I would hazard a guess that our market is not going to end up being a big one for the Authority reels. I guess the problem a company like Penn has is that once you as good as double the price of an already awesome Slammer you are starting to get into some slightly more rarefied territory. The sort of territory where an angler might be thinking Stella and Vanquish and the Daiwa equivalents. As I said, I don’t obsess about lightweight reels and handles which turn forever, but there is no getting away from how good the higher end Shimano and Daiwa spinning reels are. All I can really tell you here is that I bloody love the Penn Authority 2500 and 3500 reels so far (there are bigger versions available as well), and I find it interesting when lots of bass anglers obsess about the lightest possible outfits when in fact a bit of extra weight down the butt end of many lure rods I think can often make them feel better balanced. Whatever that actually is I might add.

Anyway, so there you go. I had better get on with packing a lot of gear up for a guiding trip over to Ireland. I will leave here about 6.30am tomorrow morning, stop for supper with a friend in Tramore, and then hopefully get to Kerry later on in the evening. I will be away from home for just shy of three weeks, and as per usual when it gets hectic with guiding work, I will keep the blog updated as much as I can. I might get to fish for a few hours on the day between the guiding trips, but to be honest I usually end up having to sort out loads of photos and fishing tackle and so on. I get to be around fishing out there which you know I love, but when I get back home I shall be fishing my proverbial socks off and giving these reels a lot more water time. You all take care and I will catch up with you soon……………….

Penn Authority 3500 with Berkley Sick X8 braid

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My thoughts on the new Penn Authority 3500 and 2500 spinning reels after fishing with them for a while (in the UK now, not cheap!), off to Ireland tomorrow

© Henry Gilbey 2023