Penn Spinfisher VI Spinning Fishing Reel

I waited 30+ years for Penn to offer a small, lightweight, bail less reel. Was it worth the wait?? Yes and No! First the good: Great looks, good price, excellent drag, and perhaps the best line lay of any reel I have ever owned. The reel is very smooth making it a pleasure to use. Penn has outstanding customer service and parts are readily available at reasonable prices. The build quality is very, good for the price, and should last for decades of heavy use.. My issue with the reel is that it may be over engineered and too smooth... if the handle is between 11 and 3 o’clock during casting the rotor turns and the line catches the roller. Penn’s recommended fix was to pack the reel with grease. This recommendation did solve the problem, but exposed another issue. The seal for the side plate is a very thin,fragile gasket. It tore when I removed the side plate to add the grease. The gaskets are available and inexpensive so I purchased several for future use. The reels 6.2 gearing a little high for fighting large fish in the surf. I do recommend this reel. In my opinion it is a good option for most fishermen. Penn’s line lay and drag are better than my Van Staal. Penn’s excellent customer service is also a huge Plus

Great real, reals smooth, took a little time to get used to not having a bail. This will be my go to real, will be purchasing other sizes in the future.

Great reels. I own spinfisher 5 6500 and the spinfisher 6 in both 3500 and 4400 bailess. Using them a couple times a week here in the Tampa Bay Area easily horses in the snook, trout and reds all day. Just a quick freshwater rinse after every day out and I have yet to have an issue. The BLS model takes some getting used to having to swipe the line back into the reel but smooth casts across all the models I have

The first one I bought was jacked up. I bought at Cudjo Key so I returned it then had to wait for the Penn Rep to approve a replacement. I should have bought on Amazon, would have been easier to return. I’ve had the second for a year and its been great. Only problem is when you are turning the drag down, it only goes down so far, and its still pretty stiff, and its really easy to turn the knob too far trying to lower the drag. In fact my adult son was using this and got a Mahi bite and when he tried to set the hook, the HT100 cap came off and the spool went into 800ft of water and we barely were able to get it back. We lost at least 50 yards of line before the reel snagged and we were able to pull it in. The good news is the replacement part shipped was under $12. I replaced all the line (to make it easier to cast), so that was another $30, although I supposed I could have spliced it. So I am curious if other users have a problem getting to a minimum drag with this. We have a 7500 and an 8500 and I can lower that drag on those and tell where we are at, pretty easily. Open to any recommendations. I feel like the reel overall is pretty durable and works well. Its a little heavy to crank but most of what we do is off shore so I’m not sure that matters too much.

Lo mejor de lo mejor

El eje central del cartel llegó roto y despuntado, no sirve para nada, pedí la versión bailless y aunque en apariencia se veía bien, estaba dañado por completo, tenía planeado llevarlo para mi viaje a amazonas y Orinoquia pero tuve que comprar otro. Pésimo. No comprar.

Purchased a 4500 bail less for Bays and ocean. Well made used it for fluke and stripers. Bucktailing along with hard plastics such as Daiwa SP Minnows. Plenty of drag, needs to be rinsed off at the end of day.

Reel arrived fast in great condition smooth operation smooth drag can’t wait to land a fish with it.

Tengan cuidado al seleccionar este carrete ya que este modelo (BLS) NO TRAE EL PICK UP Y GUIA DE HILO (ARCO DE METAL) en la descripción no lo mencionan y es muy confuso. Espero lo pueda cambiar por el spinfisher 6500 normal.

10 de 10

Excelente carrete algo pesado pero muy resistente