A Great Day

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m3040c
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A Great Day

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The people at Penn were kind enough to invite me to the last surviving manufacturing plant in the USA for Penn reels.

Needless to say, it was a very special day



mike cass,,, if you can't collect it, it must be food
spadej1
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Re: A Great Day

Post by spadej1 »

Wow. Must have been a very great day! Thanks for sharing some pics
-James-
New to reel collecting so bear with me please. I like reel deals!
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john elder
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Re: A Great Day

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Fantastic, Mike! An honor well deserved! :bow:
ORCA member since 1999
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Specializing in saltwater reels...and fly reels...and oh, yeah, kentucky style reels.....and those tiny little RP reels.....oh, heck...i collect fishing reels!...and fly rods....and lures
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m3040c
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Re: A Great Day

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Thanks Guys, there is history hanging on the walls, standing on the floor and hidden in the closets. It is an amazing place. The walls of the old public waiting room are a hanging place for historic artifacts. This is an extremely rare Limited Edition made from the original documents by a company named Reel Classics working with Loren Grey. The actual documents are privately owned and in a very safe place. I do not know how many of these were made; but, this one hangs in what used to be the public waiting. Now that the plant is locked, the waiting room is always empty.



mike cass,,, if you can't collect it, it must be food
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Rick H
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Re: A Great Day

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Mike...Penn has always surrounded themselves with quality products and quality people. THAT's why they invited you. You've done a HUGE service to that end and to maintaining Penn's history & reputation.
Thank You!!!
Rick Heitman
- Bad Casts, backlash, no bites? Check the Nut holding the rod !! -
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sdlehr
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Re: A Great Day

Post by sdlehr »

Nice to see you made it there (finally) after having to cancel on our tour a few years ago. I think you might've gotten a little more complete tour than we did, I don't remember seeing any Zane Grey room.....
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m3040c
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Re: A Great Day

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Mike...Penn has always surrounded themselves with quality products and quality people. THAT's why they invited you. You've done a HUGE service to that end and to maintaining Penn's history & reputation.
Thank You!!!
Very good to hear from you Rick. I hope all is well with you and your family. Thank you very much for the kind words.
mike cass,,, if you can't collect it, it must be food
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m3040c
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Re: A Great Day

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Nice to see you made it there (finally) after having to cancel on our tour a few years ago. I think you might've gotten a little more complete tour than we did, I don't remember seeing any Zane Grey room.....
The Zane Grey documents were hanging in the what used to be the Public Waiting room. Because of security problems, the plant is now closed to the public. The two executives that gave me their day were very gracious hosts. They showed me every nook and cranny. There are some very special artifacts locked away in the plant. Everything is now the property of Pure Fishing. Maybe someday they will put a museum somewhere.

In the Public Waiting room are great collectibles hanging on the walls and in the glass cabinets. One of the curio cabinets I pictured earlier had both Model K and a Model F original reel, along with other very interesting pieces. The original patents for those reels were also in the cabinet.

I saw this giant tuna mount on the wall and had to take a photo of it. It was explained to me that this tuna was the tuna caught by Martha Henze Egly at Wedgeport, Nova Scotia in 1951. The story went that the original skin mount had deteriorated so much so, that a new fiberglass mounted tuna was made. The people did not have a model large enough to match the original fish, so the new mounted tuna hanging in the waiting room is smaller than the true fish. The ceiling tiles above the fish are four foot long. That will give you an idea of the size of this fish!



When I got home I looked through one of my old books and found the reference to this same fish. Those kind of connections make the hobby come alive for me.



I always love it when I can put a mounted fish together with its history, especially when the tackle used is a Penn reel mounted to the best big game rod in the world, a Tycoon Bimini King model and fisher person is a celebrity in my mind.
mike cass,,, if you can't collect it, it must be food
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sdlehr
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Re: A Great Day

Post by sdlehr »

Cool story. Looks like that rod took quite a set! Mike, you got the complete tour and two executives because they see you as the celebrity..... we got Tony on our tour.....
Sid Lehr
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Re: A Great Day

Post by KIWI »

Mike, What did they have in the 1st gen senator line up? Would love to know. Thanks, Doug
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m3040c
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Re: A Great Day

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Cool story. Looks like that rod took quite a set! Mike, you got the complete tour and two executives because they see you as the celebrity..... we got Tony on our tour.....
Yes, Sid, that rod has had many fish. Martha enjoyed fishing and she was a very well liked and respected executive by the Penn Company employees and the other business people of the Philadelphia business community. She was an amazing lady.

I had Tony DuBeck and Peter Yaskowski, Director of Penn Product Development. It was a very interesting day.
mike cass,,, if you can't collect it, it must be food
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m3040c
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Re: A Great Day

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Mike, What did they have in the 1st gen senator line up? Would love to know. Thanks, Doug
That's an interesting question because there was no sign of any knowledge of the first generation Senators. That is a secret I kept for many years. First generation Senators are pre-war reels. No one at the plant has that kind of history.

The only first gen Senator in the plant is captured in the oil painting of the photo of Otto Henze fighting a giant tuna with a prototype 1937 Senator 12/0. This painting still hangs in Mr. Herbert O. Henze's (Otto and Martha Henze's son) old office, next to a equally famous picture of Martha Henze fighting a tuna. On the other side of the famous oil painting is a Tarpon mount of a Tarpon caught by Martha Henze Egly.




Notice that the reel is a Senator 12/0 with the first non-torpedo handle knob, no front lugs and no rod clamp. The fish he is fighting in this painting can be seen on page 55 of the Chronological History of Penn Reels (my Blue book).
An interesting point about first generation Senators is how they are being identified today. The 12/0 and 14/0 are still made in the Penn plant today. An outside vendor is molding the plates because the old Bakelite molding equipment is no longer being used at the plant. The logo on the new Penn reels is the original 1937 logo. The outside vendor is using the original 1930's plugs. so if you buy a new 12/0 you will see the 1937 logo molded into the head plate.

Here is a view of a 1937 Penn 12/0. The 2018 Penn 12/0 is wearing the same logo.
mike cass,,, if you can't collect it, it must be food
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