One of the best reels ever made. I still have mine from the 70s and is still looking and working like new.

People say jig masters is trash cuz they don’t know how 4 cast.

In my opinion-the Squidder jr is the best, first conventional reel…especially for casting.

Jig500 is an iconic reel!! I still have mine from the 80's Newelled out and lived!!

I used to love browsing the 100 plus club page to see what gear was used. Jigmasters and 3/0’s slayed some giants!

Thank you for talking about one of the the greatest conventional reels of all time! And it still outperforms some of the newer reels due to it's simplicity and being a true workhorse. The Jigmaster 500 came out in 1958, with the chrome on bronze spool or two plastic bakelite spools that had a wide arbor. The "early" jigmasters from 1958 all the way to the late 70's all had nickel plated/chrome plated internals like the bridge, jack, and eccentric (the yoke was brass). These jigmasters all had the single post bars instead of the modern one-piece bars. In my opinion, these were the best made ones because of the internals. The chrome/nickel plated internals are very, very easy to clean compared to the bare brass used from the 80's to present. Not to mention the main gears were STEEL, not brass, before the 80's. During the 80's, a stainless three piece spool was made available to a number of reels, including the Jigmaster. The one that is pictured here has that stainless spool. If you have a jigmaster from the "early" days, upgrade the cross bars or get a tiburon frame, get new drags, and an aluminum spool. If you are planning to get the 5-1 drag stack, make sure that the drag isn't in total lock. This can cause the infamous "frame twist" that commonly occurred on the 155 beachmaster, 200 surfmaster, and 140 squidder and other wide frame reels. 5-1 gears obviously has a speed upgrade, but even if the material is SS, the gears will tend to shred easier under a high drag load. I have a 501 and a 506HS. These are less heard of in Hawaii because they are narrow jigmasters and line capacity is key here so people generally don't use them here. They are fun for fighting Oio though and cast better than the 500 and 505HS. Jigmaster 500, 500M, 500L, 501M, 501L: Your regular Jigmaster with plastic, metal, and aluminum spools respectively. 501 is narrowed, eliminating frame twist and great for kayak fishing. Jigmaster 500S: "Take apart" feature is on left tail plate. Tail-plate will lock up from saltwater more frequently that the regular 500 series and frame supposedly twists more easily. Regular 500 spool fits the 500S Jigmaster 505HS, 506HS: "Super" jigmasters with two ball bearings on each spool shaft and a 5-1 gear ratio. Gears in this series tend to shred much easier, as the gear is the same diameter of the 4-1 regular gear but with more and finer teeth. Spool and certain internals will NOT be compatible with the 500/501 like the spool and bridge. Jigmaster "99 Conversion". Not an official Penn reel, but a now rare Silver Beach 99 fitted with the 500 right side plate, giving it a 4-1 ratio instead of 3-1. What's special about this is the width is in-between the 501 and the 500, making it an extremely versatile reel for boat and shore casting. A kit is available to convert a 500 to a 99 width from Tiburon frames.

The Jigmaster was my very first reel. It was spooled with 30 lb mono. I caught many small sharks and some edible fish on it. I wasn't a good caster. I got about 50 yards with it.

There is one thing that I have learned from my dad. You do not have to cast 300m to catch a big fish. My best fish was caught at around 100 to 150m always.

Love my squidders and my jigmasters…all of them have 270 degree aluminum frames…

500 is one of the finest in its class in its years, it was copied by Japan very quickly. I use one in Africa since 1968.

Hey there, ..🤙 I've used Penn reels since I was a kid, and still do…. I had a few Squidders wide and narrow models... The Jig Master was too big for my little hand back then.. 🤣 but a lot of other guys were casting Senator and Jig Master reels like nobody’s business as you guys do 👌👍🤙 we cast for Stripers and you guys cast for Ulua which are the MMA fighters of the ocean…! Anyway, ... Jig masters are not trash..! If you can tune it with some Abec 7 bearings, balance the spool and you have a beast of a reel, ...! Although, .. I do like my Abu reels as well…got a pair of Abu 10000c big game 2 speed, .. A chrome 9000c and a 7000c 2 of these have been sitting on a shelf in Japan for the last 50 years, and... Never been used, ... I thought these to be a good find… 🤙🤙🤙

I just bought one today

Bought my two teenage boys their first deep sea reals last year. Got them both Jigmasters.

Love the jigmaster.

I love my jig master!! Perfect for the keiki too!!

I upgraded the drag on mine and Tiburon frame and landed a #120 sail and plenty of #30shibi spooled with #65 power pro line.

Pink nitro Mid. Heavy I caught a 105lbs. Ulna Bait casting tako leg 50 feet off shore 10mins. Strike 10 mins fight love that pole

I grew up with the chee family , I remember shout out to Benny C 🤙🏾

the 500 has been known to outlast many a fishing rod.

There ain't a better real for kingfish trolling

Great video brother. Squidder or jig master which is better

ciguateria is a tolerance level by consuming lots of reef fish!!! How would anybody kno if Roi is bad? nobody eats dem cuz dey sked! its A grouper and groupers are good eating fish! if you sked of ciguateria DONT EAT REEF FISH!!!

i still have my penn500 and 350 USA. upgrade handle but landed tuna already.

Aloha, really like your KZfaq show, you and Nick are great. Do you sell palu bait bags and can ship to Big Island let me know or maybe send online link? Mahalo, Tom

Loved

I thought i wrote alot ... lol.. braddah down there👇👇👇👇👇must be more mad den me about this... lol 😂😂😂😂

I use mine to troll and jig I just updated the drag and Handel there almost the same as a penn 112h

is a penn Senator 112h good for striped bass and bluefish?

Das real shit rite there...i heard crazy stories too and they real too... u gotta remember we the new generation of fisherman the old generation bin there done that kind stuff... the old generation only could dream of the kine reels we get now... but they made do wit wat they had... and they use to slay fish .... so next time u talk about one jig master like dat go ask one real fisherman first💯%.. me i 30yrs old learned from some of the best old timers around... straight 🔨🔨🔨🔨z...jig master forever.. lol

Does any one no super jig master

Another reason you might wanna use that shitty olde no good piece of crap Jigmaster is cause the retrieve ratio of said reel matches your collection of shitty olde no good piece of crap jigs from back in the day. I even had the trick willie Aftco handle on my 505 when I caught a 40# Bluefin on the grind once. The fish never complained that I cheated and used a reel with 5:1 instead of 4:1.