I love a lovely smooth Shimano spinning reel as much as many other anglers do (I know very little about Daiwa reels these days, but I am sure they are just as nice), but I also love fishing with the less smooth Penn Slammers because of what they do for me and how I think that some lure rods feel a bit better - to me - with a bit more weight down the butt end. The new Penn Authority reels have now come along which basically give you everything that a Slammer does plus a bit more, plus the smoothness of a Shimano - but they are not remotely cheap and they weigh essentially the same as the Slammers which I know bothers some anglers but it doesn’t remotely bother me on many lure rods. Via a lot of fishing time in all manner of conditions, plus the fact I am always messing with gear, I know this about the line levels and line lays on Penn and Shimano spinning reels and I hope it might help some of you out………………

I know that I can fill any of the recent and delightful Shimano Stradic and Vanford reels right up to the edge of that angled “lip” which I am guessing is helping modern braids come off the spool so well, together with outstanding line lays which I can’t recall having to tweak with spacers out of the box. I am also guessing that the more expensive Vanquish and Stella reels can be filled up just the same, and those new Shimano Miravel reels look like they might be a hell of a lot of reel for the price but I haven’t seen them in the flesh yet. I can’t recall the last time I had a wind knot on any Shimano reel I have fished with, and that includes banging some lightish lures into strong winds which of course is THE best way to get the mother of all wind knots.

I know that I can fill the Penn Slammer IV 3500 and 4500 and Penn Authority 3500 reels up to a tiny smidgen below the last marker on the spool and get no issues with wind knots. One Penn reel out of the box might require no messing around with spacers to get a flat line-lay, and then the next Penn reel might require removing or adding spacers (supplied in the box) to get a flat line-lay. I don’t know why this is and it would be easier if it wasn’t the case, but are you aware of how I believe they tend to load reels up with braid over in the US which I am going to assume is by miles the biggest Penn fishing tackle market in the world? Most tackle shops I have been into in the US carry great big bulk spools of braid which are used on automatic line loading machines to fill reels up for customers. The spool is removed from a spinning reel to place on the machine so the issue of spacers and line-lays doesn’t really come into it. I love Penn spinning reels but I am not making excuses for them here by the way! Of course it would be easier if you never had to mess around with spacers. I wonder if it’s markets like ours which buys mainly 150m spools of braid to load at home which gets most affected by some of the line-lays not being flat out of the box? A lot of our fishing is done with thinner braids as well, and my feeling is that different diameter mainlines can lay slightly differently on different reels. As I said, I am telling you what I know in the hope that it might help.

I know that I need to fill the smaller Penn Slammer IV 2500 up to a slightly lower line level than the larger 3500 or 4500 versions if I want to avoid wind knots when casting lures into headwinds especially. I found what I think is the “correct” line level via trial and error, and that trial and error revolved purely around getting the odd wind knot and then dropping the line level to a level which I find to be completely safe as such. If not filling up a spinning reel to the brim bothers you then I would urge you not to perhaps look at a different reel, but before that I would very politely suggest that a percentage of anglers might learn to cast a bit better before they start worrying about a few more yards of braid on a spinning reel affecting how far their lures might fly. Just saying. And as per above, one Penn reel out of the box might require no messing around with spacers to get a flat line-lay, and then the next Penn reel might require removing or adding spacers (supplied in the box) to get a flat line-lay.

I now know that I need to fill the newer Penn Authority 2500 up to a level which I reckon is just between the 3500 version and the Slammer 2500. Again I know this because I had a couple of minor wind knots when I first got the reel and filled it right up to the edge of the marker on the spool to see what happened. If I didn’t do this I would never know, but now I do. The Authority 2500 I have did require a bit of messing around with the spacers to get what I would call a flat line lay, but I took the time to do it and I am now fishing with what I am starting to think might be perfection in a spinning reel. Spinning reels with stainless steel gears tend to get smoother over time (if you have the Van Staal VR50 I am sure you have noticed this), and these Penn Authority reels are doing just that - and they were already very smooth out of the box.

If only it looked like this this morning!

Anyway, so there you go on an utterly vile Monday morning. If you have got to here then I hope you have found a bit of useful info, and if you didn’t get to here then you won’t know I am saying this but I will catch you another time. I have no idea what to make of the England v New Zealand game at the weekend, other than I was ready to start crying at how badly we were playing - and then what happened, happened. Bloody hell! Where the hell are we at though? It remains not remotely easy supporting English rugby.

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This much I know about line levels and line lays on Penn and Shimano spinning reels

© Henry Gilbey 2023