I found one of these Penn ultralight spinning reels in a box with 6 spare spools & what appears to be another complete reel, all in pieces. Also, extra spare parts. A bunch of bail wires, bail springs, crank handles, screws etc.........
These were my fishing reels from the early 80s, though I did have a Swedish-made C4 that I later sold. Do these reels have any value, other than as fishing tools?




At the lime I was impressed at the durable, quality construction of the Penns & also that they were easy to strip down. Only one ball bearing, yet they were built like a watch. There was a local tackle store where you could buy spare parts, screws bail wires & bail springs.

Using Williams silver spinners with the tripple-gang hook replaced by a store bought fly. Sometimes I used tiny Italian spinners with the tripple hooks removed. Always 4lb Trilene with a micro ball-bearing swivel.
The store-bought flies were Turrall's from Sri Lanka or Kenya, tied most likely by 10yr. old girls. As a school teacher, this did not agree with me. I had to learn how to tie these damn flies.

So this is how, through the back door, I stumbled onto fly fishing & fell down a rabbit hole. I first learned to tie these flies for my ultra light spinners. Then I had a local guy build me a spin/fly rod out of an 8' 5WT HMG blank. I received a Pflueger reel from my wife. Soon casting lessons followed, then joining fly fishing organizations, fly-tying clubs, demos at sport shows, etc...

I was well hooked & down a deeper rabbit hole. My first love is still fly tying.
But, I haven't used a spinning rod since the mid 80s, or a casting rod since the mid 60s.

My present trout club is strictly fly except for the very young or the very old. So, it seems that I will at some point start spinning for trout & pan fish again. Are there sources today for 6-7'fiberglass spinning sticks (I don't mean Fleabay)?

eagle claw still makes glass spin rods, and they're decent.
Also Bass Pro has their Micro Lite Glass spin rods, I had one briefly until #1 son lost it overboard a canoe.. liked it, and for $20 pretty much unbeatable..

not much for higher end glass in spin rods though, it hasn't taken off again the way glass fly rods have.
My next plan is to build a spin rod on a 7' 3 or 4wt fly rod blank, but have so many other projects backed up it could be a while..

Your best bet is going to be matching the reel with vintage glass or cane UL or L rod. It will take some looking to find the right rod - most vintage glass spinning rods will be ML.
Otherwise, look at some of the threads below about rods built by Trout Smiths - Shane - contact him to see what he has to offer. I think you'll find his prices realistic and workmanship exceptional.

Most glass and glass-blend today is used for toughness in big fish rods, offshore, inshore, bass and walleye

Most modern L and UL rods are going to be built for braid and 2-6-lb fluoro using micro-guides.
The Japanese offer surprising performance in cutting edge Light Game and Trout rods.
Grey Ghost recently picked up a 5'3" new model Yamaga Blanks rod
For ten years, my daughter's Penn 4200SS was matched with an inexpensive 7'9" Takamiya UL Rockfish rod, for inshore UL, and it's still a remarkable rod
(before that, the reel split time between a Falcon FS-UL-15, and inshore Falcon ML Open Hook Special - good graphite rods)

If Japanese UL interests you, might look at UL rods made by Major Craft - they have many models in the 5' to 7' range.
The tubular tip rods are more in line with a North American interpretation of UL - the solid tip rods are all Japanese, XUL, and these soft tips will literally double over tip to top spinning guide without breaking (seen my buddy do it on his Major Craft, while landing a big fish, yet).


There's a guy in NY who imports XUL Japanese rods and has a nice blog - he's posted on the forum before
https://www.finesse-fishing.com/finesse ... shing.html

Mudhole has a line of one piece glass rods. I believe they are s-glass with med-fast tapers. Been thinking about building one but my to-do list seems endless.

I would stick with good fluoro or copolymer on the 420SS.

Seaguar Abrazx, or spendy Tatsu - their Senshi nylon is a great choice in light lines - these are all thin, tough, low-stretch monifilament lines.
YoZuri makes a good 6-lb copolymer (spooled in above photo) and inexpensive in bulk spools.
Everything I mentioned has great knot strength, very important in light lines.

You need a ball-bearing line roller with braid to keep the braid and roller from tearing each other up, so I wouldn't recommend it with this reel.
Plus, light-test braid is so thin, you should use it with shallow spools.


I'm with John on the Mudhole S-glass blanks - that makes a lot of sense.

one other copolymer - friends rave about Sufix, but I've been sold on Seaguar so long.

When I was in the Keys and fished a lot for Bonefish, I used the Penn 450SS spooled with 10 lb. Ande pink mono - besides the normal wash down with fresh water, you needed to take apart the reel's drag washers, and lube between each washer with a good silicone lubricant, if not, they would seize up/get sticky hot and bust off a fish. Same for any spinning reel used there on Bones, Permit, etc.
That, and other eras of Penn reels are tanks, with very few service issues. Enjoy your great Penn!

This is super Tom, thank you. I could build my own.
I did have a honey coloured see through glass from Lamiglas back in the 80s.

BTW: Thank you for your detailed instructions for uploading pictures to a post. This digital Dinosaur got it on the first round.
It's a heck of a lot better than some of the image hosting sites I've attempted to use in the past.
Is FFR hosting images for its members now?