Penn Liveliner

[Goodenough]

Anyone have an opinion on the Penn Liveliner. I use a Penn 975 almost exclusively but I need a good spinning reel and the Fin-Nor I have sucks.

Thanks in advance,
Jack

[riptide]

Love mine, I have 2 - 560L's and 2 more on the way. Landed bass to 50+ pounds without so much as a hickup. All the big bass I got this year on eels came on the 560L's

[Tball]

I have 2 and like them. I fish from a boat and the live liner is great when trolling

[MANATEE]

I ditto the coments of riptide. Spend the extra and get the 560LS it can certainly handle the larger fish. Have used mine for 2 yrs.and couldnt be happier.

[PatHanrahan]

I have a 5600L, which worked great until I dunked it surf fishing. It gunked up pretty quick from fine sand. I've dismanteled and cleaned it; but you may see my post about how to re-assemble. I also have a Shimano 3500 Baitrunner, and two Okuma baitrunners, an EB 50 and EB 65. The drag mechanism on the EB 65 seixed up after the first couple of months. I've rebuilt it, and am not very impressed. The shimano just keeps on worknig. It's now four years old, and last month, I finally had to replace the bearings. the parts wer $7.00, and it was a snap to break down, clean and re-assemble. From no on, it's Shimano's for me, Penn's reputation not withstanding.

[ducatiboy]

I have a 5600 Live liner, it worked great for 2 years. Penn has Discontinued that reel, probably from a bad design. A couple weeks ago I got onto something big in the canal, and it seized. I've replaced about $50 in new parts on it, it works, but is not as smooth as it was. I'm going to write to Penn and see if they will replace it with a 560L ???? I think the 560 will stand up better.

[SageBoy]

I tried out the Cabelas Salt Striker baitrunner and for the money it's a nice reel. Take a look. You can probably buy 3 for the price of 1 Penn.

[z-drive]

definately a good reel, one of probably two options for livelining reels. they have nice antireverse for a penn, and are overall very smooth. shimano reels are quickly becomming my favorite though.

[e-sea-e]

no offense to penn, but go buy yourself a couple of shimano 4500B Baitrunners (Aprox $129.00 each) or a thunnis 6000 (aprox. $229.00 each) I have used both for many many years with out any problems, caught bass on the 4500's to 40 lbs using big macs, pogies, etc.. same with the thunnis, but it has also landed tuna to 30 lbs. Power pro works excellent on both.

AND the best of all, each year you send them back shimmaon from a "tune up" and you either get the reel back nice and tuned and lubed free of charge or (most likely ) a brand new replacement reel.

Just my .02

[e-sea-e]

I have a 5600L, which worked great until I dunked it surf fishing. It gunked up pretty quick from fine sand. I've dismanteled and cleaned it; but you may see my post about how to re-assemble. I also have a Shimano 3500 Baitrunner, and two Okuma baitrunners, an EB 50 and EB 65. The drag mechanism on the EB 65 seixed up after the first couple of months. I've rebuilt it, and am not very impressed. The shimano just keeps on worknig. It's now four years old, and last month, I finally had to replace the bearings. the parts wer $7.00, and it was a snap to break down, clean and re-assemble. From no on, it's Shimano's for me, Penn's reputation not withstanding.


next time send it shimano, they'll fix or replace it free of charge.

[JR13]

E-

gotta couple of shimanos that could use a re-fresh. Whats the address/procedure? Thanks.

[albacized]

Just 2 thing to consider. Do you plan on using the baitrunner feature often? If not, check out the Penn Slammer 560, which is the same reel without the baitrunner feature and is about $10 less.

Secondly, Penn moved their production to China and some folks have exhibited some concern over the quality may be over their. So you may want to check that issue out as well before you buy.

But with that said, prior to this move, I have found the Slammers to be a solid, well functioning reel and would assume the same for the Liveliner series since they are the same exact reels except for the baitrunner feature.

[adseller]

I had 2 slammers (non live line) ant the paint peeled on both, got a live liner and it has been great, silky smooth