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Penn casting special

blakdog is back said:
Once you take that lump of a cement mixer handle off them they are quite a compact reel ... good size for casting but with much more strength than the Ambassadeurs, 7HTs etc. My go to reels for all but very light stuff now.


I'm not by any means anti-akios at all but the basic issue with the Nitron is that it's junk (or at least the original was .. I've not handled the new flavour). The design of it seems to have ignored some basic engineering principles, particularly in respect of helical gears and that big gear is a con as only half of the gear depth is meshing in drive. I'm also convinced that the quality of the plastic used is not up to much as they seem to go out of true for no reason .... but that seemed to happen to the early Chinese built Penn 525 mags too.

To be completely honest I avoid having in the Chinese made plastic models now as they are not cost effective to work on.

I'd echo what you've said about the Casting Special ... I've always wondered why they bothered really.
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I won a mk1 nitron in the club raffle at the start of the year. It’s casts amazingly and I’ve not had the line getting trapped issue, as I use slightly thicker line on it. It sounds like a bag of spanner’s when you’re reeling in and makes a USA penn feel refined, but so far it’s been faultless. The cage has got quite an alarming flex and yet I’ve had no issues catching double figure hounds in the uk and reasonable stingrays in the canaries. However, I still think it’s a bag of shit and I’m going to break it. 🤣

Akios could’ve produced a brilliant reel with the nitron, but they blew it. Certainly with the mk1.
 
concrete said:
I won a mk1 nitron in the club raffle at the start of the year. It’s casts amazingly and I’ve not had the line getting trapped issue, as I use slightly thicker line on it. It sounds like a bag of spanner’s when you’re reeling in and makes a USA penn feel refined, but so far it’s been faultless. The cage has got quite an alarming flex and yet I’ve had no issues catching double figure hounds in the uk and reasonable stingrays in the canaries. However, I still think it’s a bag of shit and I’m going to break it. 🤣

Akios could’ve produced a brilliant reel with the nitron, but they blew it. Certainly with the mk1.
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I’m really surprised akios made such a crap reel they say the mk2 is better but I’ll not bother I use mk1 fathoms and diawa saltist can’t beat them
 
concrete said:
I won a mk1 nitron in the club raffle at the start of the year. It’s casts amazingly and I’ve not had the line getting trapped issue, as I use slightly thicker line on it. It sounds like a bag of spanner’s when you’re reeling in and makes a USA penn feel refined, but so far it’s been faultless. The cage has got quite an alarming flex and yet I’ve had no issues catching double figure hounds in the uk and reasonable stingrays in the canaries. However, I still think it’s a bag of shit and I’m going to break it. 🤣

Akios could’ve produced a brilliant reel with the nitron, but they blew it. Certainly with the mk1.
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Don't ever take it apart because they have a party trick of not running when you put them back together.
 
Never owned the MK1 red trim ones but out of curiosity bought the newer MK2 blue trim ones and wasn't expecting much but have been very presently surprised. Hammered them since spring until now and they are still good as new. In fact I'm so impressed with them I sold my casting specials and 7HTmags and don't miss either of them. The introns cast nearly as far, feel far more robust and retrieve heavy fish and weed far better than any 7ht ever could. They are also built to much tighter tolerances than the casting specials and are nicer to fish with. Time will tell if they suddenly fall apart or not but I'm so pleased with them I'm considering buying another pair and if they are still as good as now in a year or so I may even replace my saltists with another pair.
 
goose said:
Never owned the MK1 red trim ones but out of curiosity bought the newer MK2 blue trim ones and wasn't expecting much but have been very presently surprised. Hammered them since spring until now and they are still good as new. In fact I'm so impressed with them I sold my casting specials and 7HTmags and don't miss either of them. The introns cast nearly as far, feel far more robust and retrieve heavy fish and weed far better than any 7ht ever could. They are also built to much tighter tolerances than the casting specials and are nicer to fish with. Time will tell if they suddenly fall apart or not but I'm so pleased with them I'm considering buying another pair and if they are still as good as now in a year or so I may even replace my saltists with another pair.
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I can’t fault the casting and I’ve only wound the mag back ten clicks so far.
 
Apologies for being pedantic but 525 Mags were made in this order :-

Mk1 - black USA originals, the real ones
Mk2 - gold edged Chinese shitbox pretenders
Mk3 - red " " " "
Mk4 - blue " " " "

Imo the 7ht Mag and deluxe MagST are/were probably the best of all the mass produced 'round' baitcasters. Not without shortcomings that's for sure, but Magnofuge is a clever system if you're casting hard. Unfortunately it doesn't engage on a gentle cast. The Blakdog pinion support should have been factory fitted (with large royalties paid to Russ for retro fixing an obvious and oft reported design flaw). They're definitely clean to light mixed distance casting tools and therefore not really comparable with any 'gear box' reels aimed at heavier duty fishing.

Good luck with your Nitrons Goose, hopefully you'll never need warranty or spares 👍
 
Well goose has chucked a spanner in the works regarding the fishability of the Nitron. I'm aware of the limitations of the 7ht mag when just lobing a bait as I have owned one. When it comes down to it it totally depends on how often you fish and the type of fishing that you do. The best reel in the world for an occasional angler isn't the same for a guy who's smashing out a 6 oz weight and bait three times a week.
I'm lost to wihich way to turn the 7ht mag felt awesome, both casting and retrieving, but lobing was huge pain in the bottom. The Penn mag 1 was a great reel both casting and retrieving.. I had a few years out of fishing and mistakenly thought things had moved on and sold the Mag 1, huge mistake. ,I've had the mag 2 and now own the mag 3 both cast well and have a powerfull retrieve's but unfortunaletly they both are poorly made and line gets trapped between the spool and frame. TAhey fish well enough for me to forgive this small indisgression but it doest stop you looking for the holy grail, if that exits . Any more thoughts on what is the holy grail I'm listening.
 
nearly70ty said:
Well goose has chucked a spanner in the works regarding the fishability of the Nitron. I'm aware of the limitations of the 7ht mag when just lobing a bait as I have owned one. When it comes down to it it totally depends on how often you fish and the type of fishing that you do. The best reel in the world for an occasional angler isn't the same for a guy who's smashing out a 6 oz weight and bait three times a week.
I'm lost to wihich way to turn the 7ht mag felt awesome, both casting and retrieving, but lobing was huge pain in the bottom. The Penn mag 1 was a great reel both casting and retrieving.. I had a few years out of fishing and mistakenly thought things had moved on and sold the Mag 1, huge mistake. ,I've had the mag 2 and now own the mag 3 both cast well and have a powerfull retrieve's but unfortunaletly they both are poorly made and line gets trapped between the spool and frame. TAhey fish well enough for me to forgive this small indisgression but it doest stop you looking for the holy grail, if that exits . Any more thoughts on what is the holy grail I'm listening.
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There is only one holy grail reel for clean medium ground and that's the 7ht mag ST.
It's not for medium heavy..... it's for max medium but they are the best in my opinion.
 
Topwater said:
Apologies for being pedantic but 525 Mags were made in this order :-

Mk1 - black USA originals, the real ones
Mk2 - gold edged Chinese shitbox pretenders
Mk3 - red " " " "
Mk4 - blue " " " "

Imo the 7ht Mag and deluxe MagST are/were probably the best of all the mass produced 'round' baitcasters. Not without shortcomings that's for sure, but Magnofuge is a clever system if you're casting hard. Unfortunately it doesn't engage on a gentle cast. The Blakdog pinion support should have been factory fitted (with large royalties paid to Russ for retro fixing an obvious and oft reported design flaw). They're definitely clean to light mixed distance casting tools and therefore not really comparable with any 'gear box' reels aimed at heavier duty fishing.

Good luck with your Nitrons Goose, hopefully you'll never need warranty or spares 👍
Click to expand...
The same can now be said of the 7HT series now daiwa have stopped production and don't have vast stock of spares.
 
Topwater said:
Apologies for being pedantic but 525 Mags were made in this order :-

Mk1 - black USA originals, the real ones
Mk2 - gold edged Chinese shitbox pretenders
Mk3 - red " " " "
Mk4 - blue " " " "

Imo the 7ht Mag and deluxe MagST are/were probably the best of all the mass produced 'round' baitcasters. Not without shortcomings that's for sure, but Magnofuge is a clever system if you're casting hard. Unfortunately it doesn't engage on a gentle cast. The Blakdog pinion support should have been factory fitted (with large royalties paid to Russ for retro fixing an obvious and oft reported design flaw). They're definitely clean to light mixed distance casting tools and therefore not really comparable with any 'gear box' reels aimed at heavier duty fishing.

Good luck with your Nitrons Goose, hopefully you'll never need warranty or spares 👍
Click to expand...

Apologies if one is wrong, and I'm sure @blakdog is back can correct me, but was it not the late Mick Sullivan who first introduced the pinion support sleeve to the 7HT?
 

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