# Upgrades for a penn senator 9/0



## nevets

I do not own the reel yet but I plan on ordering one in the next few days unless I am convinced otherwise. 

I am a freshwater striper fisherman at heart but I have seen a lot about land based shark fishing and decided I need to give it a try. I will be surf fishing along the South Carolina coast. I own several penns already although much smaller(209,309). I do like their simple ruggedness and quality for the money which is why I decided on the penn senator 9/0 to give this shark fishing a try. 

My reason for posting is once I get this reel I would like to upgrade it to get the best performance possible. Bare with me as I have never owned a reel for big game or fished for big game other than a few smaller sharks when making trips to the coast.

I plan on upgrading to the accurate frame and side plates to reduce some weight as well as I just like the look of the upgrade in general. I also know than an ergonomic handle is on my list But now I need your help.

I would like to get recommendations for upgrades to increase the dependability of the reel. I also would like to have a decent drag on it, something I can really hammer down when needed but I would also like the drag to be smooth. 

I saw on some older posts where a guy with a company Named OCD reel repairs does some upgrades and I would like to have this all setup by someone with some experience. Is this guy still doing reel work or do you have other recommendations? 

Any help at all is greatly appreciated everyone


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## submariner

ocean master on this forum does repairs and upgrades he is excellent


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## MrFish

I don't think Keith is working on large reels anymore. Check with PompanoJoe also.


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## Splittine

Get with Pompano Joe, he can turn it into a tank. Keith isn't working on big reels anymore.


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## kingfish501

Word of advise...never put too much drag on a shark...or you'll wind up in the water with him. When I used to shark fish with a bunch of friends off the pier in PUB, we had a guy from Atlanta watched us several weekends. He decided to try his hand. Had me build him a high end unlimited class rod, all roller guides, and put an international 80W on it. This was prebraid era, so he was spooled with 100 pound Indian. We rigged his leader and bait . He got hit and harnessed up. Seems he had tightened his brag way down from us presetting his drag, got slammed into the rail three times and we caught him as he got close to going over the rail. Small sharks don't have near the power of the big boys, plus a large green shark next to you is not an ideal situation. Let the rod and drag do ehat they were designed to do, which is wear the shark down. Another thought, too heavy on the drag can warp the spool on a 9/0.


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## NoMoSurf

I've got a 6/0 that I upgraded for the same purpose. I put the Black Pearl gearset, sleeve, and other internals, Bryan Young's hex cut carbon drag stack, etc. You can read alot about beefing up these old monsters over on Alan Tani's website.

http://alantani.com/index.php?topic=12629.0

Black Pearl Gears:
http://alantani.com/index.php?topic=7761.0

You can also double dog it:
http://alantani.com/index.php?PHPSESSID=asaec4u55f0e7pc055pe7lp730&topic=3396.0


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## Ocean Master

I'm back in business. I dont have Carpul Tunnel just arthritis in my left hand. Its from grasping the bigger reels with my left hand as I use tools with my right.

Accurate doesn't have anything for the 9/0 reel that I'm aware of. I do have a the machined aluminum half frames that most people use. I also have all the SS internal parts such as gears, dogs, and gear sleeves. I have SS gear sleeves for all reels up to the 16/0. 

I have the Motive Fab drag inserts for all reels also up to the 16/0.

With the drag insert expect 35lbs of drag using one finger to tighten the drag star. With 2 fingers it goes up to 70 which is not really usable by one person. You would need a full harness. 

Keith


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## nevets

Thanks for all the replies everyone I will def look into kieth or pompano joe, whichever one will do it for me. Ocean master, what would it run me to replace all the internals with stainless and upgrade the drag? Also you mention you have a half frame. Is that for the 9/0? If so what would everything cost me with that as well?


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## NoMoSurf

nevets said:


> Thanks for all the replies everyone I will def look into kieth or pompano joe, whichever one will do it for me. Ocean master, what would it run me to replace all the internals with stainless and upgrade the drag?


Ocean Master is Keith. Great guy. Recommend him 100% :thumbup:


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