I have several penns that have lasted many good years so far!
i have 2 that i have had for years 11- 4300 and 10 for the 4400.
now i tried the penn bait casters, no good. it went on 1 trip in the gulf. we were catching kings and spanish, it came apart. it was determined that a bearing siezed and caused the spool to buckle. so i started taking my calcutta 250, with a 7' star nickelite it is the ticket.
I use Penn 525 mags in the surf, I think they are your best bet at the price. My favorite surf shark reel is the Daiwa 900, but the old Penn 12/0 Senator is hard to beat. I also have a couple Avets that I magged and they are casting machines.
I have shamano, penn, quatem, and okuma. Don't buy the bottom line of anything. Maintain them and you will get a lot of years out of them.
