Upgrading a Reel to handle more than one King... Advice, please!
Last week we spent a couple days at Sandestin, and on advice from frednic in a previous post, I fished the Okaloosa Island Pier a couple of times. Long story short, I was able to deck a couple kings 20ish lbs. (my first actual king catch, since the sharks have cut me short every time at GSPP) and fought HARD with a really nice one that based off of the size of the head reeled in would have been in the 40-50 lb. range.
After the the fight (3 near complete spoolings) with the "big one" the drag stack on the reel (lower end combo) was TOAST... literally the felt washers were melted like dried up chewing gum in between the metal plates and the heat had built up so much that the "eared metal plates" had deeply embedded themselves into the melted plastic spool beyond repair.
I have looked at the Penn Battle II reel (not sure on class) as a possible upgrade. Would this be a logical choice??? Pros, Cons and all opinions welcome; looking for what would withstand more than a couple of king fights.
Keep in mind we are only able to fish saltwater 2-3 times a year, 3-4 days at a time... If more time was available to fish saltwater, or more importantly more DISCRETIONARY FUNDING was available, I would consider higher end gear that was built to last and could be serviced... that's just not where I am right now.
