penn 113h full accurate conversion
this is not a rebuild post, but just a short post to show off a little. a guy sent over a beautiful old 113h with an accurate frame and side plate kit. it's been a while since i put one of these together.
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they're really not hard to do, just a little tedious. still, it's rare for me to find one already put together that doesn't have some small issue, a screw in the wrong place, or something. i wanted this one to be perfect! so the bearings were all lubed, all the screw holes and non-exposed metal surfaces had a light coating of grease, used all stainless hex head screws for the side plate, switched out the brass yoke for a stainless steel one that i had left over, shimmed the gear sleeve, greased the drag washers and installed an oversized pete kolekar handle on a penn international 30 arm.
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i checked the drag on a scale and broke the line at 25#'s. this reel will easily fish straight 50# mono at 15#'s of drag, or straight 60# mono at 18#'s of drag. it also had 30 seconds of freespool after just a gentle spin. it's a little tight right now, but will loosen up nicely after a couple of albacore or yellowfin tuna. yes, it's old school, but i still believe that, for what it costs and what it does, the penn 113h remains the best value on the market today.
oh, and bob, your reel is ready......
![]()
they're really not hard to do, just a little tedious. still, it's rare for me to find one already put together that doesn't have some small issue, a screw in the wrong place, or something. i wanted this one to be perfect! so the bearings were all lubed, all the screw holes and non-exposed metal surfaces had a light coating of grease, used all stainless hex head screws for the side plate, switched out the brass yoke for a stainless steel one that i had left over, shimmed the gear sleeve, greased the drag washers and installed an oversized pete kolekar handle on a penn international 30 arm.
i checked the drag on a scale and broke the line at 25#'s. this reel will easily fish straight 50# mono at 15#'s of drag, or straight 60# mono at 18#'s of drag. it also had 30 seconds of freespool after just a gentle spin. it's a little tight right now, but will loosen up nicely after a couple of albacore or yellowfin tuna. yes, it's old school, but i still believe that, for what it costs and what it does, the penn 113h remains the best value on the market today.
oh, and bob, your reel is ready......
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