Any ideas on beefing up a penn 500 jigmaster?
accurate doesnt make anything for them anymore.
does the 5:1 gear mod work ok?

I would just call Chark and buy a beefier, bigger reel.

I personally exploded a jigmaster on a 50 pound Bluefin. Blew the drags right out of the reel. I used my thumbs as the drags and landed the fish. I gave the rod and blown up reel back to the owner of the Searcher, Art Taylor.

I advised him that his rental tackle was substandard at best for long range. He wasn't amused. Neither was I. 3 other customers suffered the same fate.

Buy a Newell, or a bigger Penn. Ya won't go wrong.

Beefing a Penn 500 IMHO is a waste of money as there are so many other reels out there to choose from.

Don't get me wrong as the 500 is a great reel and I like many, many others have caught a lot of fish with them over the years.

It's kinda like the Volkswagen Beetle of fishing reels...No matter what you do to it you still have a VW Bug and it's limitations.

What type of fishing were you planning on doing? We could give you some suggestions.

I appriciate your replys but it still doesnt answer my question. to answer janz I plan to use it on full or 3/4 day. My philosophy is if you got it use it.

dont mind me butting in , is the reel (500) workable, acurate stopped making the plates, not much left to do. best bet call door to door tackle shop starting with charks, and see if any plates / frames left on the shelves. if you caught up with me earlier , i carried about 200 kits (discontinued ) plates and frame, but i have none left ,sorry chark,im not here to sell products. keep the reel under 2 day trips . and becarful if you run into bluefins. i had one 8 years ago , after a losing battle with the bluefin went had it repaired 4 or 5 times at diffrent shops, the reel was never the same.



R.I.P.

I think that there are gear kits (5-1 raito) that you can get as well as bearings to replace the bushings which will make it cast a bit better. Replacing the drag washers is also some help. that would up grade them some, short of replacing the frames and handles of course.

Point is that at the cost of all the upgrade parts you are almost at the expense of a new reel.

I fished a lot of half, threequarter and one day trips over the years out of San Diego and used the 500's and Newells plus Penn 3/0's and 4/0's with great success. One of my other secret weapons was a spinner, I had a CalStar 270 made into a spinning rod and put a Shimano 4500 bait runner on it with 20# for those times that the bait was just two eyeballs and a wiggle, it saved a few trips for me but wasn't my go to rig.

If I was going to do a lot of jig tossing I'd use a 300 series Newell and a Calstar T90J, for bait I like the 270 or the 270H with a 229 Newell.

Thanks, i hear ya on the cost but i just bought one for 44 bucks at turners so i felt in the mood to toy with it, i,m that way , i accurized another one with a frame and handle and i like it.as for the bearing kit i havnt seen that one ? If you know where please give me more info . thanks alot ..........

Accuplates have bearings rather than bushings. Newell make nylon bushings to replace the stock. They may cast better but they're not stronger. For bait, stick with the stock 4:1 gears.

If you really want to mod it I'd just go with a frame and a new handle. The frame stiffens up the reel and holds the sideplates in better alignment. The spool will spin longer/easier and cast better. The Accuplates add weight and just get scratched up. You loose the abilty to easily swaps spools with them too (one of the benefits to a Jigmaster!).

Even if it's totally tricked out with a frame, plates, handle and 5:1 gears it's still not as good a reel as a Saltist and the 500 will cost more.

Great info mark, do you know where i can get the newell bushings from? do they still makem. thanks.....

Hello

I completely agree with the frame and handle recommendation:

Tiburon P20 Reel Frame - Topless Frame: Penn 500 - black
http://www.charkbait.com/cs/csrTiburon.htm

Power handle, Penn part# 24-56. Tiburon, Accurate, and others also make really nice handles, but the Penn one is less than $15.

Cal's grease on the HT-100 drags (HT-100 drags are now standard for new Jigmasters)
http://www.charkbait.com/cs/maintena.htm

And Alan Tani's guide:
http://www.senortuna.com/main/showthread.php?t=15041

I also would stay away from the Accurate side plates, my local tackle store says the maintenance is a corrosion nightmare.

I tried the Newell bushings as a kid - and wouldn't again. They get brittle over time.

I did get the stainless bridge from Alan, haven't done the dragwasher under the gear yet.

For more choices, the counterbalance handle is nice, but harder to crank. The largest (easiest to crank) counterbalanced handle is 24-49. I have the power handle on my 505 Jigmaster spooled with 30lb, the counterbalanced handle on my 506 narrow Jigmaster spooled with 20lb. The difference between the 500/501 Jigmasters and the 505/506 is the 4:1 vs. 5:1 gear ratio and bushings vs. bearings on the main spool. I went with a pair of used high speed reels so I didn't have to upgrade the gears to the Newell 5:1 as well. I like the high speed gears, the bearings really aren't that big of a deal.
For me, the upgrades to my reels wasn't so much about cost as fondness for the Jigmaster; especially the narrow reel. Price wise, the narrow Newell S220 or S332 and Newell S229 or S338 is just about the same as and upgraded Jigmaster, and won't eat the line between spool and frame. Same for the Diawa Saltist SST30 and SST40. Upgrading is less money than the Newell P series. The Penn 525 mag is in the same cost range and worth considering, especially given the additional cast control feature (no narrow version).

Wintek

This message has been edited. Last edited by: Wintek,

Good Lord! By the time you have purchased all of the extras, with shipping costs, or the fuel to all of these stores and back at what, $3.59 a gallon? replaced it all, your time and effort, the cost of a $49.00 reel just surpassed a Higher end unit by a hundred dollars. YIKES!

Pigsticker

Well ... only if you're paying me to tinker with my reels! I've got just about $140 invested in each reel. The Daiwa Saltist is $170 minus the $20 CharkBait gift certificate. Sure, faster retrieve, no line eating, more drag (not smoother) - but I like my reels!

Wintek

I've seen the Newell bushings on e-bay fairly often.

Try cleaning out the stock ones, put in some reel-x. Make sure the inside of the pinion doen't have any grease. Polish the spool arbor and spindle with some emery cloth, apply a little reel-x and give 'er a spin. Better?

Dang that's cheap. From the descriptive details of the tricking out, y'all makeit sound sooooo expensive.

I just wish I had the knowledge to do these things. I am a professionalhunter. I have been fishing however, for 40 years. I just use the reels as they are purchased. If I blow them up?
Trash can and break out the wallet for a new one.

My wife and I just bought a new house with a workshop on 4 acres. NOW I can finally realize my dream of a nicew work area where I can tear apart my gear, learn it and upgrade and replace what is not right.

Plus, I am going to get into rod wrapping and clothing design. I want my own line of Hunting clothes. I feel that these Hunting clothes have become waaaaaayyyyyyy to expensive.

I will keep these reel building tips saved. Thanks guys and Ladies.

quote:

Originally posted by dirtynails:
Any ideas on beefing up a penn 500 jigmaster?

Like most everyone else, I've altered a bunch of 'em, and I still keep a few of them in different widths. It's a versatile reel, and you can do quite a bit to hot-rod it, but as previously mentioned, you'll still have a jigmaster when you're done. Even with Accuplates, an added thrust bearing, and AT's stainless bridge sleeve, that reel won't make a lot more than 9#'s of drag. If you purchased a newer model, it already has HT-100 drags, and you won't do better than that.
Don't bother with the nylon bushings. Really, you won't gain a thing. The stock bushings, if kept clean and lightly oiled, will enable your 500/99/501 to spin like a top. Polishing the ends of the spool shaft will help also. The 5:1 gearset is a good idea (IMO), especially if you plan to throw jigs with it.

Get a 5:1 gearset and a Newell conversion or Accurate or Tiburon frame and a handle that suits you and fish the crap out of it. It'll kill a lot of fish for you, just remember to apply the thumb drag on the big ones.