Product Review – Penn US Senator
Building on the history of the company’s venerable Senator line, Penn’s new US Senators incorporate a host of upgrades to make the trio of reels the strongest, smoothest Senators the company has ever produced.
Long available as aftermarket parts for anglers building “hot-rod” reels, the US Senators feature a machined, one-piece aluminum frame that keeps all the reel’s internal parts in perfect alignment under some serious stress, perfect for winching hard-fighting bottom dwellers like grouper and amberjack to the surface at high drag settings.
Some of those internal parts include a massive stainless-steel main gear and heat-treated pinion that is built to stand up to any tasks up to and including commercial use.
The giant main gear also contains a proprietary lubed or “wet” HT-100 Versa Drag system, a stack of drag washers that maintains smooth and even pressure with minimal startup inertia up to the reels’ maximum drag settings of 27 lbs.
The new Senators also stand light-years ahead of much of their competition in the casting department, as their Live Spindle design allows the spool to spin independently of the spindle and pinion gear, reducing friction on the spool to virtually zero.
The spools themselves feature the company’s Line Capacity Rings, letting anglers know when they’ve got 2/3 and 1/3 of the reel’s full capacity left on the reel. The capacity rings not only give anglers a better idea how much line is left when fighting a hard-running fish, they can also provide valuable gauges for anglers spooling a reel with the combination of braided and monofilament lines so popular in many modern fisheries.
A total of six shielded stainless-steel ball bearings keep the US Senator’s internal parts spinning smoothly and corrosion-free.
Reversible harness lugs atop the reels’ one-piece frames allow anglers who do stand-up battle with big-game fish to attach harnesses to their outfits, but they can easily be flipped out of the way for those who don’t, making for a cleaner look and getting them out of the way for more active casting, jigging, or bottom fishing.
All three reels in the US Senator series have 4.3:1 gear ratios, a perfect balance of speed and muscle between the slow retrieves of older Senators and the blazing fast but noticeably less-powerful retrieves of many modern conventional reels.
The US113N, US113, and US113W are the three models in the line, and they hold from 320 to 580 yards of 40 lb. monofilament. As the name suggests, all three are 100% made in the USA, and anglers can check out the new US Senators at their local Penn dealers or visit www.pennfishing.com to learn more.
