Battle III put to the test
Alistair Arkel shares his experiences putting the new Penn Battle III through it’s paces.
Its not often a reel manufacturer creates a reel series that covers off the majority of fishing styles, that you’re likely to encounter on a day out on the salt water. But with the Battle III series, that’s exactly what Penn has done. Getting to test and use Penn gear before it hits the shelves gives me the opportunity to fish a wide spectrum of gear in a variety of fishing situations. Essentially, I get to try out all manner of fishing gear before it hits the market.
Given the diversity of fishing in NZ and the many requirements that one reel might get put through its pretty cool too see a manufacturer listen to consumer demands and make a quality no-nonsense reel that is just as at home on the boat as it is the beach or rocks. I took exceptional liking to the Battle 3000 and put it through some tough, shallow water soft baiting and caught some hard-scrapping snapper with it.
Then using the set, did some casting off my local river mouth and wharf for some Kahawai, with my young son James. Exactly the sort of scenario many kiwi fathers might find themselves in during a summer holiday. Although the fish were not huge, it handled snapper in the 50cm range with ease, exerted nice smooth drag throughout the fight and I would be super comfortable using the reel on snapper in the 70cm plus bracket
Similarly, and my pick of the Battle range was the 6000HS – a nice size reel that was very comfortable in the hand, not to heavy, this reel is perfect for anyone wanting a multi-purpose reel that they can cast a stick bait or popper for Kingfish or use as a traditional reel for boat fishing for Snapper. I spooled it with 30lb Berkley Fireline and this covered all my basis – we even used it for some land-based fishing as well.
With winter ascending on us in NZ it means one thing, big winter Kings. On our most recent trip out we had perfect sized 1kg Kahawai ready for a big NZ hoodlum which we towed around one of our favourite areas – unfortunately we only had smaller kings harass out over size bait and couldn’t find the XL king we had hoped for. Our hunger to catch and release big kings, will see us back out at the next window and looking for that elusive fish of a lifetime. The Penn Battle III 8000 and in hand ready to tackle whatever comes at us.
With the Penn Battle III you get a reel that is ready for its namesake, with Kingfish, Snapper, and other inshore species you want to target. The Penn Battle is tough, hearty, smooth, affordable and feels good in the hand and most importantly it will not let you down.
