What I have been doing
 

Hey Guys, as many of you who have fished with me know, I like the old tear dropped shape Penn 340 reels. When I mated on "Patent Pending", that's all we used on Captain Johns charter boat. These reels are workhorses. They perform very well even with large umbrellas and heavy weights.
I have a few of them in my personal spread (boat rods) and I have been looking to increase the number of them in my planer board spread as well. I have been using mostly Penn 330 reels for my planer board lines, but I still had two Penn 309's and two Penn 320's that I wanted to replace.
Ralph (Reel Smith) had two reels he was willing to sell to me. One was a 340 and one was a 345 (just a 340 with wider spool). I also picked up two used (but excellent condition) 340's off EBay:D

Come on SPRING:)
5th

Pretty reels!!

Just bought twenty new combos!

Thats right 20!!

Penn 330's on 6' Tsunami Tuff Tip Rods from Jerry Norton of Holy Mackerel Tackle in Chesapeake Beach.

Building planer boards tomorrow.

Sounds like some sweet combo's. That new boat is going to be all decked out:D
5th

Your going to need a bigger garage.

It's funny you say that Bruce - I was just out there trying to figure out where to put more rod holders! Seriously!

These rods aren't going to live the same pampered life my rods do. I have decided I'm screwing six of these to the ceiling and piling rods in them!

Marty, I am a big fan of those teardrop 340's as well - I wish they still made them.

The story I got was that they quit making the 330's but because of backlash they made another production run. It seems very few dealers are carrying them so when Jerry said he had 40+, I jumped on it. Bought the 20 to use and 4 more as spares. A lot of people bash them but we abuse the **** out of them with essentially no maintenance and we have only had one fail in the 6 years I have been doing this and Shawn said it was one he had bought when he first started out in the early 90's.

I believe the Penn Squall Levelwinds are the replacement for the 330's but the have a 4.9:1 ratio and they are pricey at about $140.

New rods, trek planer boards, what's next? I feel like I'm watching the combines for fishing!

Can't wait to see the new boat, new rods and new planer boards in action!

Thanks..

Now to completely hijack Marty's thread....

Spent the day building new planer boards. Not sure whose original design it is but we got it from a friend who got it from Drew Payne of "The Worm".

12" X 3/4" Trex. 4 feet long, 36" wide with 1/2" stainless steel all-thread. Each board is staggered 2".

Not as heavy as I expected. Marty had told me you couldn't paint the Trex but the pair we borrowed had been painted last spring and they had held up "okay". I intend to scuff them up with a Scotch-Brite pad, wipe them down with thinner and paint them with OSHA orange enamel this week.

I am going to leave 1/2" all around the edges unpainted. I figure if you were to bang the boat with them, it would be with an edge and this way it won't leave a orange paint streak as evidence of your sin.

I'll post more pics once they are painted and assembled.

If paint won't stick, I am going to have them vinyl wrapped in digital blue camo....

Went and checked on my baby again today. (50* indoor storage) Picked a good year to have her inside:D

Dropped two more 340 penn's off at Clydes Tackle shop for cleaning and maintenance. My buddy Lou gave me two big spools of 50# fluorescent yellow mono for Christmas; which will go on my four new reels.

Captain John still had a couple small Okuma ABF 30's (livelinning reels) that I like on my jigging rod. (Yeah, I know it's sad that I can't bring myself to buy strictly jigging gear):roll eyes: I really like the jigging rod I bought at Bill Judges open house last year, so I will get another one this Saturday:) The Okuma was a perfect match (balance) with this rod and with 17# braid, it was very good to me last year (in fact, I caught my Diamond Jim fish with this).

I need to pick up some 6 and 9 inch shads from Rob (fishnut) to complete my spread and I should be ready for spring. I took a ride over the Key Bridge and over a few creeks in Essex; didn't see much open water:mad:

Avg. temp. should be mid to upper 40's and here we sit below freezing most of the week. Bummer

I'll see a few of you this Saturday.
5th

Got them painted. I hit them with 80 grit, wiped them down and painted them bright orange. With this damn weather I was burning through the propane heating the garage painting them so I decided to move them into the diningroom room to dry.