Penn 850ssm +braid

[Andrew Poulos]

Hi all,

Has anyone used a new penn850 with braid for casting poppers ? I tried a cheap brand (tuna terror) of braid to test out but was getting a few fair knots. Im not if it was the rod at the time or the braid. But Im thinking of transferring my 15kg platil braid of an overhead to it, but only if suits....

Any feedback much appreciated....

cheers

[Sachin Chaudhry]

Andrew, I have used the 850ssm with braid.
I run 80lb power pro on mine (a bit of overkill as the drag cannot provide anything much more that 12kg max and in fact my old 8500 ss locked up tighter than the new 850ssm)
Moving on to how it handle braid....no problems.
The reel also lays line very nice and flat and the infinite anti reverse is very good.
The reel overall is very smooth but some of the metals are not as strong. Watch out for the handle breaking (happened to me twice while hooked up and its not much fun having to spin the rotor to wind line when a decent GT is on the other end)
Also watch out for how much torque you put on the bail arm screw if you ever pull it out. The metal is vey soft and the threads on the screw WILL strip if you are not careful but parts are cheap and easily available on ebay.
Drag performance on a 23kg GT was pretty smooth although like I said you won't get much max drag out of it and maybe should consider carbontex washers if they are as good as they are supposed to be.
Recommended but an aftermarket handle should definitely be sourced or made if possible.

[Andrew Poulos]

I was using 80lb pioneer tuna terror at the time, but cant say was too impressed so reverted back to mono. But I had a spin session the other week with the mono and the lures felt so distant in reaction so , hence wanting to go back to braid on this reel as well. I have spare 24kg and 15 kg braid so was tossing up which would be better - the tuf line or platil. I dont push this reel that hard so I shouldnt (touch wood ) have issues with the reel......Thanks for your feedback, I might spool up again and give it a go . It might work better with the rod it has been matched up to now compared to before.

cheers

[Andrew Poulos]

Update- tried the 850 with the platil 15kg braid and it worked fine....quite happy,one or 2 knots but that was around the bimini which a bit long.

[Hon-Su Chin]

otherwise under spool abit more.....wind knots is due to loose wraps of lines on your spool when you retrieve everytime. The Penn has a relatively thick and angled spool lip  which cause loose wraps of line come off easier. Some of Daiwa and Shimano's spools have fairly thin and sharp spool lips so it less likely for the loose lines to "fall off" so to speak.