I don't believe it, I just got an electronic invoice from Charkbait. The Torque's shipped out today. The nice thing about Charkbait, is if you don't order any line on the reel, and you have the Captain's card, you get 40 bucks off each Torque. That 10% off really adds up. Problem is I have to give Mrbill one for losing a bet. In a couple of days, I'll see if they live up the icast award "Best of Show."
Ya gotta love the way Mark and his crew treat folks. I have never had a problem with charkbait. What are ya gonna use the Torque for Gunsmoke? I feel that the new 16's fits the bill better for me. I'm gonna use a spinner for tossing anything that might be heavy enough to make the spool spin. I look forward to you review of the reel.
What are ya gonna use the Torque for Gunsmoke? Hell, I don't have any idea. I just got back from a great dove hunt and when the torques arrive, I'll just inspect them and pile them in a closet until I'm ready to fish again.
Torques showing up on ebay today. http://cgi.ebay.com/Penn-Torque-300-International-Fishing-Reel-BRAND-NEW_W0QQitemZ160034953593QQihZ006QQcategoryZ36163QQssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem
The Penn torque 300 arrived today. It appears to be very well constructed. I was worried about the black star wheel drag, but it is not plastic but powder coated stainless steel. It is also larger and wider than the usual penn star drag wheels. The star drag wheel also has a clicker on it. I think that was designed to help hold the drag setting from vibrations. I like the clicker on the drag wheel, but not sure it will not vibrate to a different setting with the drag set at a low setting. The handle is nice and large. I like large knobs and this one fits my hand for a change. I only wish they could have designed it with a lever drag adjustment. Time will tell if this reel will perform, but from my initial inspection it looks like Penn did a great job. Here are some pics I just took.
For the heck of it, I pulled a new torsa 30 out of inventory and took some pics of the torsa 30 and the torque 300 together. This should help you with the size of the torque.
I had a chance to look at Penn Torgue30 at a tackleshop in Long Island, NY Sunday. The first thing I checked was how the free spool is as I know I don't have to worry about the durability and smooth drag of the reel. I read field testers of the reel said the castability of the reel is excellent. But I feel the spool itself is pretty heavy and it doesn't look like a great casting reel. I might be wrong because I did not cast with the reel, but that is what I felt. The other thing I noticed is that the length of handle is pretty short for jigging. The length of my Saltiga's handle is 4" and Ocea Jigger's is 4.5"(fully extended). For my taste, I like 4" handle length as it is pretty easy to turn the handle and give enough cranking power. I used Ocea JIgger 4000P for tuna jigging on Fri/Sat and the 4.5" handle is a little too long for me though many jig fishermen around the world love the long handle. Other than that, the reel looks awesome.
What a surprise. When I got home from work this evening, a torque and fresh tuna was at my back door. I like a man that pays off his bets. Thanks GS. Your a good friend but no more leaving me behind to be a wife sitter and shrimp delivery boy. I like the torque. I also wish it had a lever drag, but the star wheel is nice sized. I just found a guy on the net that has taken one apart. Hope he can get it back together. It wasn't even his reel. He breaks it down and talks about the guts of the reel. I just want to fish it. http://www.bloodydecks.com/forums/reels/54382-penn-trq-300-inside-view.html
for those that have seen/played with both the Torque and the Torsa, if the price were identical, which would you pick (lever drag vs. star drag issue aside)??
for those that have seen/played with both the Torque and the Torsa, if the price were identical, which would you pick (lever drag vs. star drag issue aside)?? Man, that's a tough question. The nice thing about the torsa is the interchangeable cams. If you were to only buy one reel, you would have to pick the torsa. I do like the large knob on the torque. Parts and service should not be a problem on either reel. I plan on testing the torque this next weekend.
Hi all new member here, just been reading about the Torque. Sounds like a winner. Gunsmoke did you get to have a fish with this new reel. What did you think?? Rob
a possibly issue i have with a lot of reels and that is present here on the penn torque is that the clamp screws are a ***** and therefore the clamp is difficult to get on. I see on this one that you probably will have to insert the screws hold onto them, and then get the clamp in place. I like how the newer saltigas and trinidads have a screw in place so that you dont need to worry about dropping screws on a pitching boat.
I know Charbait is down on Shimano, but they make a pretty decent argument in regards to gear durability on their site. http://www.charkbait.com/cs/csrp.htm
Hi all new member here, just been reading about the Torque. Sounds like a winner. Gunsmoke did you get to have a fish with this new reel. What did you think?? Rob I finally fished the torque the middle of last week. Conditions were not very favorable as we were in 10-13's most of the day. The torque's did bring in a few hoo's. I had four out for most of the morning. I think what I used it for will be perfect for me. Trolling a rip in the 25 to 50 fathom range. I preset the drag at 20 pounds before letting out the lures. The drag was very smooth and adjusting the star wheel in heavy seas wasn't a problem. The high gear ratio really helps retrieve line when the hoo's turn toward the boat. I normally keep the boat in gear when a hoo is on because of their tendency to turn toward the fisherman at some point. That particular day we went to neutral because of the sea conditions. I also think I will use the torque for snapper fishing. Changing baits will be fast because the reel has a fast retrieve rate. It's also small and light in weight. I'm not sure I will attempt AJ fishing as the high gear ratio will make it difficult to get the fish off the bottom. Overall, I like the reel. But, I love and am used to fishing with lever drags. I also love two speed reels. I prefer the international 16VS as it has both a lever drag and two speeds. The 16VS might not produce as much drag, but I'll take the lever and two speeds and day. The torque is a fun reel bringing me back to my star drag days. Sometimes it's just fun to rotate the star and adjust drag as needed. I locked it down on one hoo and nearly broke the 20 pound class rod. It also might be a good jigging reel. I haven't used it for jigging yet but that will come after hunting season.
My friend used the Penn Torgue reel for wahoo jigging on a recent 10 day trip on the Independence out of San Diego. He said the fast gear ratio helped to get hit from wahoo, but he had hard time to turn the handle when hooked. He used to use Saltiga 40/50 for tuna jigging and he thinks the Saltiga's cranking power is better. I think it is because of high gear ratio and short handle of the Torgue reel.
I have used the TRQ300 since June and the TRQ200 since September. Have caught many yellowtail, wahoo, yellowfin tuna to 95 pounds, striped marlin to 175 pounds, amberjack, pargo, etc. on TRQ300, and lots of the same stuff to 60 pounds on the 200. Go ahead and use the reel for amberjack! The fast cranking will get you more bites, and although I have not caught any real big AJ's with it, I have caught several of their "first cousins" yellowtail that were well over 40 pounds with it. I've also caught AJ's to 82 pounds in the past, so I know what you're up against. Plenty of cranking power, however, be sure to change the handle to the "outermost" hole position. It may be that the angler using the "demo model" on the Indy still had the handle in the original position. Not really sure why anybody even needs that innermost "speed" position for a reel with a high gear ratio.
I have used the TRQ300 since June and the TRQ200 since September. Have caught many yellowtail, wahoo, yellowfin tuna to 95 pounds, striped marlin to 175 pounds, amberjack, pargo, etc. on TRQ300, and lots of the same stuff to 60 pounds on the 200. Go ahead and use the reel for amberjack! The fast cranking will get you more bites, and although I have not caught any real big AJ's with it, I have caught several of their "first cousins" yellowtail that were well over 40 pounds with it. I've also caught AJ's to 82 pounds in the past, so I know what you're up against. Plenty of cranking power, however, be sure to change the handle to the "outermost" hole position. It may be that the angler using the "demo model" on the Indy still had the handle in the original position. Not really sure why anybody even needs that innermost "speed" position for a reel with a high gear ratio. Thanks for your input. It is natural to have different opinions on the same reel depending on your preferences and experiences. That is why we need discussion. I had a great expection on the new Torgue reels because I was looking for small powerful star drag reels as most jigging reels I have max drag upto 25 lbs and are not strong enough to handle over 150 lbs tuna. But the high gear ratio of 6.3:1 and the short handle turned me off. For tuna jigging high gear ratio is not necessary and cranking power to fight a big tuna is more important. No matter what others insist, I don't believe high gear ratio with great cranking power. Penn should have given choices to users between high gear ratio and low gear ratio as there are many fishermen who don't need high gear ratio like for bottom fishing or tuna fishing. When a reel has a max drag of 27 lbs, any reel can handle a big fish under 200 lbs fish if the line capacity is not a problem. The problem is how you fight effectively. If you think the high gear ratio Torgue reel has good cranking power, I wonder how good the low gear ratio Torgue reel would be. My friend who fished on the Independence is not novice fisherman. He has many years tuna experiences and caught many tuna on jigs using Saltiga 40/50 or Ocea Jigger 4000P. He is not dummy to use innermost "speed" position. When he said he had hard time to turn the handle with 50 lbs wahoo, I was a little surprised as I had no such an issue when I fought 86 lbs wahoo on a jig on my Saltiga 50. The other concern of Torgue reel was the castability as I thought the spool is pretty heavy. But he said the reel cast pretty good. As there are new small, but powerful reels like Alutecnos 12 Golilla or two speed Accurate Boss reels available and Avet Woo-X is coming, the market of single high speed reel will have severe competition. 86 lbs wahoo caught on Saltiga 50 at Midnight Lumps out of Veince, LA
Ksong, I've seen your posts regarding a search for a jigging reel for 150 to 250-plus size tuna. No doubt a 2-speed is going to be your only choice for such a reel, I certainly don't make the claim that a Torque or any other 1-speed will be suitable for that. In the setting of the San Diego long-range fleet, a few bigger tuna have been caught on single-speeds intended for wahoo, but a lot of luck was involved. Having caught numerous bigger tuna standup-style on traditional gear, including "back in the day" when 2-speed reels did not exist, I almost shudder at the thought of returning to the 1-speeds even with the modern engineering advances. I have a fairly good dialogue going with the Penn engineering dept, and they do keep teasing me with cryptic references to upcoming "surprises", I can only speculate what might be coming. Possibly different gear ratios or perhaps a stamped/diecast version with a lower price tag like the Trinidad/Torium split. Also, the upcoming 12VSX and 8VSX will be high-drag 2 speeds with mid gear ratios, could be a viable answer, not sure on weights. All that said, I believe the high gear ratio versions should have been the first ones out, given that most people want/need it for the majority of their jigging uses. Having caught tuna to 95 pounds with the TRQ300, I would not recommend it **or any 1-speed** for tuna much past the 140-150 pound range, even though it develops plenty of drag for that use. For anybody who might be in the San Diego area on Saturday December 2, I will be presenting the "Jig Fishing on 3 to 10 Day Long Range Trips" seminar at Fisherman's Landing at the "Tackle Day" event. I would be happy to go "in depth" to discuss the new reels, new vs. old style jigs, changing hooks or whatever.
Tunanorth, Thanks for your input. If Penn is coming out with a 12vsx that would be a nice size 2 speed reel. Penn seems to be getting with it lately on their new reels the past two years. I guess sleeping at the wheel for many years caused them to lose market share. You can't sit on your butt any more with all the competition in the fishing business. Penn has always produced great products and I hope they continue to use a R&D department. The only problem with all these new neat reels is that I buy them. I'd rather fish than collect reels. It's hard to choose which reels to bring on a fishing trip. I feel guilty when one of the reels looks at me and says "Please take me out ". I guess I'll have to do some remodeling to get some more square footage for tackle storage. I'm sure I'm not the only person with this problem. Ksong, That's one big HOO.
