Penn Fathom Review

 

Yes I am talking about catfishing. 

In the late 80's round reels like the Abu 4500's were king of the bass reels and why not. They could cast 3/8 and 1/2 oz lures just fine and they could double as channel cat reels. But. Casting 600 times a day chasing bass (bait fish) would take a tool on levelwinds. Bass fishing got bigger and reel manufactures could smell money. Reels began to evolve a little, levelwinds would disengage and 6.3:1 ratios became more popular. Frames became cast aluminum and then low profile. All this left a new weakness. The 6.3:1 gear ratios were not holding up to deep diving crank baits and they were causing a bit of cranking fatigue. Stainless steel gears would have solved the strength problem but they are noisy and it would not fix the effort needed to reel in crank baits. The answer was to enlarge and lower the main gear. In order to keep the same gear ratio the pinion had to be enlarged as well. All this lowered the reels center of gravity, increased line retrieve speed, and reduced the effort needed at the handle.

Compare the Fathom to an old school reel like the 310 GTi or 209M and you will see the difference between the old school reels and the new technologies. This is not your dads Penn.

When pick you up an Alphamar and a Fathom at the same time you will notice it feels different. It's hard to put you hands on just what the difference is but I decided it was just the Fathoms extra weight. 17.7oz. vs 19.2oz. You will notice the handle, it is more comfortable than the Alphamar's. 

Tear Down and Inspection

The two reels may be quite similar but the Penn is a step up from the Alphamar in several ways. Both reels feathure the same aluminum frame, the primary difference being color. The Alphamar ueses graphite side plates and aluminum rings for reinforcement. The Fahom uses aluminun side plates for it's extra strength and rigidity with no reinforcing rings needed.

Drive shaft is Stainless Steel and supported by a bearing on the bottom as well as being supported by the IAR bearing on the handle end. This gives the reel a smoother feel than the 7000iC3. The spool is supported on the left by the side plate. On the right side the bearing is mounted on the spool shaft and supported by the frame. Contrast this to the 7000's that support their spool shafts outboard on the sideplates. Moving the right bearing inboard and supporting it with the frame along with a heavier spool shaft allows the Fathom to handle much more drag, with out axle flex. You will also notice a complete lack of plastic in the mechanism.

For gearheads the design is simple and is easy to disassemble, without any hidden surprises like springs that fly off to who knows where.

 

Drag

The drag on the Fathom is for lack of a better way to describe it unique. Versa-Drag is what Penn calls it. Unlike most reels the carbon fiber drag washers have ears that tie it to the main gear. On this reel rearanging the drag washer will allow you to lower maximum obtainable drag. It comes set for max drag, so basicaly you can use it like all other star drag reels.

I hooked it to my trusty Shimano spring scale for a drag test, it pulled 27 lbs and was smooth and consistant all the way. At this point I stopped. The way I test drags is to put the scale loosly in a vise, tie the line to it and walk back a few feet. Then I reel in tighten more drag and repeat until I reach my goal. This has always worked until now. After pulling 5, 11 15, 20, 25, and 27 lbs, on the same few ft of line. The braid was digging in a bit, so before I dug it in even more I stopped. I need to do this out side when pulling that much drag, so I can keep walking back with out reeling back in.   

Caution never exceed the factory recommended drag settings on this or any reel.

Gear sets

Both reels share a common stainless steel pinion gear, but the Alphamar uses a brass main gear. While the Fathom uses a bronze alloy main gear. Both materials are copper based. The difference being Brass uses Zinc and Bronze uses Tin to make the alloy, the tin makes for a much stronger alloy. Just for a comparison I set a 7000 main gear beside the Fathom gears, so you can see the difference in size. The gear set on the fathom is larger than most of the common cat reels and with a 4.3:1 ratio should be capable of handling any flathead. 

Anti-Reverse

The Fathom uses two anti-reverse systems. The first is an instant anti-reverse bearing, and as a backup an anti-reverse dog. I believe that all reels should have both systems, so much so that I have added the anti-reverse dog to all my 6000's.

Clickers

The Fathom has the normal line out alarm, mounted high on the left side for easy access. It's loud and easy to turn on and off. It also has a clicker on the star drag and a clicker on the cast adjustment knob. For a total of three. 

Line Capacity and Recovery

Line Capacity on the 15 size is 17/280 for mono and 50/300 for braid. On the fathom 15 that works out to about 65/230 for braid. One nice feature of the spool is it has a mushroom post, so braid users will not have to use a mono backing or wrap the spool with electrical tape. Just tie directly to the post and you are good to go. Line recovery is 24” per handle turn of the handle. The handle is adjustable for length of throw, the short throw is the same as the Alphamar's. Moving the handle to the outer most hole gives you an extra 3/8 inch of handle throw for more leverage. Another feature is line capacity rings, that let you know when you reach or get down to 1/3rd, 2/3rd, or a full spool of line.

Casting

Okay I have to admit I did not take this reel out and cast it. The first reason being its raining and cold. I didn't want to be out in it. The second reason is it's cold and the bearings are lubed with grease, cold grease doesn't spin up as well as warm grease. So it would not be a fair test of the reels ability.

I did test an Alphamar 12 a while back, it is the same size as the Fathom 15. In fact the spools will interchange. The Alphamar 12 beat my 7500iC3 HS CHR by 75 ft. both reels casting 65 lb. braid and 5 oz. Bank sinkers. I have no reason to believe the Fathom will be any different.

Conclusion

There are a lot of great reels being made today, as cat fisherman we have never had so many choices. For the money you will be hard pressed to find a better reel for trophy cat fishing. As much as I liked the Alphamar's with out a doubt, the Penn is a step up in class.