# Penn Squidder



## PandaBearJeff (Aug 19, 2013)

Hey guys, 

I have had this penn squidder for a while now, and last year i tried to learn conventional. But i gave up and just went back to spinning, since my summer was coming to an end. 

But its getting warm again

Here it is. 

























First of all, i need to change the spool. This one still has the metal chrome spool, i looked on ebay, craigslist, pennparts, etc. I cannot find a spool anywhere. I found 2 online, seller doesn't know what kind of metal it could be. A bunch of plastics, and my local reel repair guy has plastic as well. 

After digging through the interweb. People have been saying get aluminum, and that plastic is bad. 

Do any of you guys have experience with the plastic spool? 

Please give me your opinion and experiences with Penn spools. 

seriously, i found 2 on ebay. 2. for the entire united states of america. 2 spools. Same person. if you got extras and willing to sell, please give me a shot at it.


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## BaitWaster (Jan 8, 2004)

If you can find an aluminum spool, do it! Plastic will wotk but can implode with mono under pressure. Learned to fish conventional with a Squidder with the brass spool back in the late 70's and went through miles of Ande line. Lot of mass in the spool to spool up and then, if not ultra smooth with power in your casting stoke, you have a mess.

Did a Newell conversion with spacers and aluminum spool and a world of difference. Still not the best reel to learn to cast conventional with all the options available now. Found a used Newell spool for $30 on the Internet. 

After the Squidder went to Daiwa SL30sh & SL20sh's and mo', mo' better especially fishing at night. Way better drag, louder clicker, 6:1 retrieve and spool spindles with sets of blocks to control spool speed. Not overly expensive, new ~$120 and prolly find a used one for < $75. Much, much better to learn to fish a convention with. Or an ABU but for the price, castabilility and durability hard to go wrong with the Slooshes. Still surf tournament fish with 20+ year old Sl20sh's on 11'9" BA's.


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## ez2cdave (Oct 13, 2008)

*http://www.ebay.com/itm/Vintage-PENN-Parts-Squidder-140-ALUMINUM-SPOOL-Fishing-Reel-PART-Spool-/161670136124?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item25a44a813c*


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## PandaBearJeff (Aug 19, 2013)

BaitWaster said:


> If you can find an aluminum spool, do it! Plastic will wotk but can implode with mono under pressure. Learned to fish conventional with a Squidder with the brass spool back in the late 70's and went through miles of Ande line. Lot of mass in the spool to spool up and then, if not ultra smooth with power in your casting stoke, you have a mess.
> 
> Did a Newell conversion with spacers and aluminum spool and a world of difference. Still not the best reel to learn to cast conventional with all the options available now. Found a used Newell spool for $30 on the Internet.
> 
> After the Squidder went to Daiwa SL30sh & SL20sh's and mo', mo' better especially fishing at night. Way better drag, louder clicker, 6:1 retrieve and spool spindles with sets of blocks to control spool speed. Not overly expensive, new ~$120 and prolly find a used one for < $75. Much, much better to learn to fish a convention with. Or an ABU but for the price, castabilility and durability hard to go wrong with the Slooshes. Still surf tournament fish with 20+ year old Sl20sh's on 11'9" BA's.


Thanks for the advice, yea i kept reading about plastic spools causing problems. 

I decided to go cheap in learning conventional. no reason to spend big bucks on something i might not even do. Plus im a beginner. Although the whole accuframe or newell upgrades sounds nice, i still like the original width and look. And those kits cost alot. like you said. might as well just get a slosh.


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## PandaBearJeff (Aug 19, 2013)

ez2cdave said:


> *http://www.ebay.com/itm/Vintage-PENN-Parts-Squidder-140-ALUMINUM-SPOOL-Fishing-Reel-PART-Spool-/161670136124?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item25a44a813c*


thanks ez2cdave. I bought it.


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## George Gravier (Oct 28, 1999)

BaitWaster said:


> If you can find an aluminum spool, do it! Plastic will wotk but can implode with mono under pressure. Learned to fish conventional with a Squidder with the brass spool back in the late 70's and went through miles of Ande line. Lot of mass in the spool to spool up and then, if not ultra smooth with power in your casting stoke, you have a mess.
> 
> Did a Newell conversion with spacers and aluminum spool and a world of difference. Still not the best reel to learn to cast conventional with all the options available now. Found a used Newell spool for $30 on the Internet.
> 
> After the Squidder went to Daiwa SL30sh & SL20sh's and mo', mo' better especially fishing at night. Way better drag, louder clicker, 6:1 retrieve and spool spindles with sets of blocks to control spool speed. Not overly expensive, new ~$120 and prolly find a used one for < $75. Much, much better to learn to fish a convention with. Or an ABU but for the price, castabilility and durability hard to go wrong with the Slooshes. Still surf tournament fish with 20+ year old Sl20sh's on 11'9" BA's.


Comon now BW the clicker on the old squidder is pretty loud!!! But good advice, I learned on a squidder also and went thru lots of 25# test Ande myself on sandbridge pier ha ha.


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## BaitWaster (Jan 8, 2004)

Good luck PandaBear and you should find the lighter spool easier to control. 

But, as an aside, for someone wanting to learn to cast a conventional, even on the cheap, a brass-spool Squidder would be at the bottom of my list.


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## Loner (Sep 9, 2009)

BaitWaster said:


> Good luck PandaBear and you should find the lighter spool easier to control.
> 
> But, as an aside, for someone wanting to learn to cast a conventional, even on the cheap, a brass-spool Squidder would be at the bottom of my list.


..well Bro some of is didn't have ANYTHING ELSE TO LEARN ON THAN THAT ONE RIGHT THERE...filled it with 20lb. and pin rigged with it...kings up to 31 on one....when we left that good ole squidder we went to the JIGMASTER...(500)...TO OLD SCHOOL the ONLY thing the new spools did was DECREASE THE LINE CAPACITY....
At THE SAME TIME....folks were trying to cast 600 white mitchells...10.000c were good casting machines but that was BIG MONEY AT THE TIME.....(MY 1ST 10,OOO C WAS A WHOLE 50 DOLLARS)...Some of the fishermen went to spinners....
anyhoo there is a FEELING of accompolishment in learning a SQUIDDER....I HAVE A 94 YR. OLD FRIEND that stills anchors with a squidder.....I still have about 4 of em......I anchor with a penn 200 m. which is nothing but a BALL-BEARING LESS SQUIDDER...


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## BaitWaster (Jan 8, 2004)

I learned to drive a stick shift in a 1965 Plymouth Fury, 3-on-the-column because that's what was available. In this day and age, I wouldn't want to try to teach someone interested in moving from an automatic to manual by starting out in this car. 

For me it was a process of Squidders, Newellized Squidders, ABU 8600s ($35 I think), Newells (sweet & fast but it would bite you), Slooshes, ABUs, Penn Mags, Avets and just picked up an Akios. 

For the OP, you're on the right track with an aluminum spool. Happy casting and hoping you develop the edumocated thumb quickly. 

To others thinking about switching/trying out conventionals, much better options with casting blocks & tunable mags with a steeper learning curve. 

On the other hand, if you can master a Squidder, newer reels are almost like cheating.


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## ez2cdave (Oct 13, 2008)

PandaBearJeff said:


> thanks ez2cdave. I bought it.


Jeff,

Glad to help. Buddy !

Dave


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## HuskyMD (May 19, 2000)

ez2cdave said:


> Jeff,
> 
> Glad to help. Buddy !
> 
> Dave


Maybe I can offer some more help. Maybe not. I have lots of abus, have had 525 mags, a slosh, a saltist, and can cast them all pretty well. I won't say I never get a birds nest, because well, no one's perfect... But, I also own a jigmaster. Well, I can't cast thing to save my life. Burnt the hell out of my thumb trying. I finally ended up trying to mag it. But, I did some reading online and read some old timers saying that the trick with the jigmaster and the squidder is to thumb the side of the spool instead of the line. Maybe some of the folks on this thread can confirm is that is the case?


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## bstarling (Apr 24, 2005)

FWIW, you can mag a brass spool. Takes more magnets, works fine.

Bill


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## DANtheJDMan (Aug 29, 2012)

HuskyMD said:


> Maybe I can offer some more help. Maybe not. I have lots of abus, have had 525 mags, a slosh, a saltist, and can cast them all pretty well. I won't say I never get a birds nest, because well, no one's perfect... But, I also own a jigmaster. Well, I can't cast thing to save my life. Burnt the hell out of my thumb trying. I finally ended up trying to mag it. But, I did some reading online and read some old timers saying that the trick with the jigmaster and the squidder is to thumb the side of the spool instead of the line. Maybe some of the folks on this thread can confirm is that is the case?


I was fishing in Florida 3 weeks ago and got my 656 Shuttle spooled and had to go to the backup 500 Jigmaster. Crap the first cast was impossible to stop that spool as hard as I could push. I always where gloves when I cast even with the Shuttle but dang I had not thrown it sense I got the Akios. I got it out there far enough to hook up a couple more small sharks. I'm going to try the side thing. There should be a lot mor leverage from there.


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## BaitWaster (Jan 8, 2004)

HuskyMD said:


> But, I did some reading online and read some old timers saying that the trick with the jigmaster and the squidder is to thumb the side of the spool instead of the line. Maybe some of the folks on this thread can confirm is that is the case?


BINGO. Side of the spool opposite of your dominate hand, i.e., if a right-handed caster, thumb the top edge of the left side of the spool.


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## ez2cdave (Oct 13, 2008)

BaitWaster said:


> BINGO. Side of the spool opposite of your dominate hand, i.e., if a right-handed caster, thumb the top edge of the left side of the spool.


Agreed ... 100% ... I love my 140L Squidders and have 2 of them on Breakaway 1208's ( 1 factory rod, 1 custom ) I fish them with 17#, 20#, or 25# Mono, depending on the intended usage.


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