I am relatively new to the surf fishing scene and as such, I didn’t consider the dunkability of a reel when I made my decision to buy the Penn Battle II. I’ve fished from boats, piers, and jetties for years and never really gave much thought to whether a reel can be submerged in water, until about a week ago.
Pre-submersion Thoughts about the Penn Battle II as a Surf Fishing Reel
I’ve surf fished with my Penn Battle II for about a year now and it’s been a great, trouble free reel. From the get go, turning the handle never had that super smooth feel to it. Rather, the Penn Battle II has a nice dampened feel to it, especially against it’s solid metal body. I was having a blast with it until about a week ago when the unthinkable happened.
How I got to dunking my Penn Battle II
0630hrs – I was fishing at a local spot (Junipero Beach in the city of Long Beach) when I hooked into a decent sized sand bass. It was a beauty and it put up a good fight, especially on my lightweight surf fishing setup. It had earned its release and it was in that effort that I let my rod swing down, dunking my Penn Battle II into the salty bay. After releasing the bass, I shook the water off my reel and kept on fishing.
Less than an hour later, I began to notice some resistance on the Penn Battle II’s spinning action. I had a feeling the submersion had done something to the reel, but it’s a saltwater rated reel so I shrugged it off. As time went on, I noticed more resistance and a squeaking sound that had developed. Again, I didn’t give it much thought, after all, it was never that smooth to start with and it was only underwater for a few seconds. Well, it wasn’t long after the squeaking sound developed that I noticed the reel was starting to bind up. There was definitely metal on metal contact and rotating the handle felt like I was grinding metal. I had to do something. With most of the fishing day still ahead of me, I did the only thing I could do. I walked back to my truck, dug around the bed alittle and found a fresh bottle of… you guessed it: Mobile One. It did the trick and I was able to finish off the day with only alittle squeaking to ignore.
What actually happened to my Penn Battle II after submersion
Once I got home, I decided to conduct a full teardown to see what was going on with my Penn Battle II. Here’s what I found.
Upon opening the side plate, I noticed little droplets of water mixed in with a ton of Penn grease (from the factory). No big deal, I took a Q-tip and picked up the droplets and continued. Here’s what shocked me.
Take a look at the pinion gear (part number 1191231). It’s the brass tube with the spiral grooves on it. Notice how it gets dark towards the right side? That’s corrosion, even after I gave it a good wipe down. Click on the picture to enlarge it and you will see that rust has formed on the grooves (heel, toe, and root of tooth as well as on the drive and coast sides) of the gear.
The main shaft assembly runs through the pinion gear which is turned by the main gear. I believe rust on the pinion gear is what caused the increased resistance. What’s surprising to me was why didn’t the factory grease stick to the pinion gear? Did the brief water submersion cause it to break down that fast?
Here is that pinion gear after cleaning it. I used a brass bristle brush and Hoppe’s No.9 powder solvent to clean away all the corrosion. Note, it’s important to clean off the pinion gear with rubbing alcohol after using Hoppe’s No.9 to prevent the solvent from eating away at the pinion gear.
Here’s the other part that was rusted. Inside the clutch / sleeve assembly there are approximately 8 roller bearings that are held in place by some sort of plastic (perhaps Delrin). There was no visible rust on the roller bearings themselves, but notice all the brownish paste between the roller bearings? I’ll get to that in a minute.
When I dunked my Penn Battle II, the salt water must have leaked onto the clutch/sleeve assembly and started to form rust on the roller bearing surface. Since I kept on fishing after the dunking, the constant spinning of the reel must have scraped away any surface rust that had formed on the roller bearings. Adding motor oil did two things: 1) it picked up the surface rust that was scraped off the roller bearings and pushed it out and away from the bearings (as seen in the picture below), 2) the motor oil lubricated the moving parts, protecting it from further corrosion and allowing me to fish the rest of the day.
Click on the picture above to get a closer look at the sleeve. Notice the two rings of rust and the clean spot in between? The clean spot is where the roller bearings ride. Seeing the two rust rings and the rust sludge inside the clutch bearing seats is why I think the roller bearings rusted over and the motor oil carried it away.
I thought I’d throw this picture in here to illustrate my point. That is not fresh synthetic motor oil and it certainly isn’t that blue Penn grease. It’s rust suspended in oil.
To clean the roller bearings, I simply took clean dry Q-tips and rolled the bearings with it by twisting the Q-tips. Several Q-tips later, it looked as good as new. If you look closely, you can tell that the rust was only superficial. I was not able to see any pitting on the roller bearings or sleeve.
The parts I mentioned above are the only parts that were noticeably affected by the submersion; the rest of the reel was perfectly fine. Sure, there was water droplets everywhere inside the reel, but I expected that. Satisfied that nothing else was corroded, I cleaned out all the old grease, repacked it with fresh Penn Precision Reel Grease, oiled everything that needed to be oiled with Penn Precision Reel Oil. After reassembly, I gave it the old spin test. Still not buttery smooth, but I got that familiar, nicely dampened glide, like warm smooth peanut butter. Good as new.
Penn Battle II is ready for more
To be clear, I am, in no way, blaming Penn for what happened. Penn does not advertise the Battle II as being sealed, waterproof, or dunkable. I wrote this article simply to help others understand what can happen if their Penn Battle II reels go for a swim in the ocean. Sure the corrosion was a bummer, but now that I know what the vulnerable parts are, I can take steps to prevent future failures.
So is the Penn Battle II dunkable? That depends on the type of person you are.
Dunkable if you: 1) aren’t shy about taking things apart (you have to service it everytime you submerge this reel in saltwater), 2) have lots of time and money so someone else can service it for you, or 3) just don’t care about your gear getting rusted.
Not dunkable if you: 1) just want to have fun and don’t want to hassle with your Penn Battle II, 2) aren’t good with disassembling/reassembling unfamiliar devices, 3) don’t have the funds to pay someone else to do it for you.
The Penn Battle II is an excellent reel and despite my one negative incident, I still love it. I’m sure there are reels out there that would have laughed at being dunked, but the way I look at it, it was an experience that I can learn from. I now know what can go wrong, how to fix it, and more importantly, how I can prevent it from happening in the future. So to me, yes, it’s dunkable.
Catching fish and maintaining your gear is all part of the process. Enjoy it. Good or bad, on the water or in it, my experience with the Penn Battle II has been, for the most part, positive. And quite frankly, it’s built like a tank so with proper maintenance, I can see this reel lasting a very long time.
