Penn ? Roddy 181?

[TonTo]

Well went shopping today and picked up a 320gt2, to replace some of my stolen equipment and got an Ugly Stik black tiger to put it on.I also grabbed a Roddy Hunter 181 reel which is a nock off of the penn 320,and about half the price.I asked the counter guy at Bob's (Downer)what he knew about the Roddy reels and he said they were made buy Master and that Master just bought out Penn :shocked: now it's a close enough copy of the 320 that if Master didn't own penn now there may be some licensing questions there.But my ? I guess is what can we expect from penn in the futer now as far as quality or was this purchase just so master can build cheaper penn nock offs or will penn be cheapened by the whole deal?And has anyone had any experience with theese roddy reals good or bad? I already bought one trying to save a little money on an extra rod reel combo,put it on a Roddy Hunter gator tail,just wondering if I wasted my $$ probably should have held out a little longer and got another 320 but oh well I'll be getting another penn soon anyway.

[ 01-03-2004, 02:24 PM: Message edited by: TonTo ]

[TonTo]

bump

[reelmeister]

Yes, Penn was bought out over a year ago by a company that includes Master brand products. They are specialists in purchasing brand name companies and transferring production off shore (China). So that is the future of Penn. The upshot is that the Penn brand will continue to exist (they were in deep financial trouble before the take over) but it will not be the same. A couple of models may continue to be made here (internationals) but others will be completely outsourced, and you will find a dilution of some well-designed reels among the product lines.


Al