In a few weeks I will be heading back to Jekyll for another shark fishing adventure, and then heading from there to Mexico Beach Florida for some vacation. We were a little light on the sharking gear last trip, so we have been trying to get a few more rods/reels. I stumbled upon an old 14/0 senator that had seen better days, but decided the price was worth the gamble since there isn't much to these old reels. Well, it showed up today and so far, it looks like I may have gotten a pretty good deal. I am going to try and tear it down tonight, and that is when I will really know what issues there may be, but either way, it's a cool reel just for decoration.

IF a big old shark strips line on that puppy, it's going to drag your scrawny booty all over the beach! lol

You may have to get a bigger beack

Haha...Luckily there will be 6 of us out there, so if someone starts getting drug around, someone else can grab on. I guess that is one bad thing about the fighting harness we have. You are strapped to the reel, so if you lose your balance, you are going where ever the shark takes you...lol

I keep getting these visions of you in a Roadrunner and Wil-E-Coyote cartoons! 'cept its Chris and Wil-E-Shark!

Haha...there is no telling what might happen out there. But, I do know with this bigger reel, we are really going to step up the size of our bait. The plan is to drop a bait that weight a little more than the average limit of Allatoona specials.

I spent the evening taking line off the spool, and boy was that a chore! I ended up hooking up a wooden dowel to a drill, and 3 batteries later, I finally had the line off the spool. I disassembled everything, and left it soaking in vinegar over night. Everything cleaned up pretty well, but I do need a few parts. One of the bearings was so rusted that I had to take vice grips to pull it off the spool shaft, so that will need to be replaced:



And the drag washers are the old asbestos ones, and really could use an update, so I am going to order a new set of those as well. But, all the chrome pieces seem to be in decent shape, and the soaking really brought back some shine to them.



And just for kicks, I took a picture of the side plate next to a 9/0 senator, which is a massive reel in its own right:



So far this has been a fun project. I can't wait to get some parts ordered and put this all back together. Hopefully it goes together as easily as it came apart!

compared to the 1 gallon milk jug, both are huge!

Mounts on 12 ft 6x6!!!

I used to love collecting old saltwater reels and had a bunch of them I would haul around. Unfortunately, they aren’t worth much of anything. It’s a shame…