Penn Battle III Longcast Review
This is a review of the Penn Battle III Longcast. To review this reel, we applied a series of tests while fishing on the Cornish coast. We also contacted some tournament anglers from the the GB fishing team to hear how they have found the reel.
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The Penn Battle III 7000 paired nicely with our 12ft beach caster casting 6oz
We used the Penn Battle III 7000 with a 12ft rod that casts up to 6oz, and it balanced nicely. The reel is light and slightly more compact than many other beachcasting reels, so would pair well with a similarly light-blank in your rod.
The line lay on this reel was insanely good
See for yourself. We’re using Daiwa Tournament Monofil here in 20lb, and it sits beautifully on that spool. The reel is called the Penn Battle ‘Longcast’ because it has this long spool, which means the line comes out of the spool with less resistance, allowing for a further cast. It’s good to see that the reel has line lay like this, as it means it genuinely will provide longer casting. Line flies out of it like silk.
The reel is mostly made of graphite, and the spool and handle provided a feeling of toughness with zero flex in the handle
The handle and spool are aluminium and the body is graphite. It has a rugged feel but it’s not bomb proof like Penn reels used to be a few decades ago. It’s interesting how the emphasis for so long has been on lightness at the expense of toughness, but this reel is still one of the toughest out there at its price point. Full metal body reels nowadays cost a bomb. The reel gave no impression on me of not being up to the job, and I think it would handle the odd drop onto the rocks fine. The bonus of that graphite body is that it’s much lighter than it otherwise would be, so it’s more useful as a generalist sea fishing reel as well as for your beach casting.
We expect this reel to have a good level of saltwater resistance, but keep it well away from surf spray
The max drag is 12kg, more than what we needed for our UK shore fishing sadly
A max drag of 12kg is suitable for fish up to 100lb, so you shouldn’t run into any problems with this reel while beachcasting in the UK.
The line capacity is 382m with Daiwa Tournament monofil in 20lb – and the line clip worked beautifully
Some longer spooled reels are shallower and carry less line. This can be frustrating when distance casting or if you lose some line in a snag and are less with a scantily clad reel. One standard spool of 20lb line will fill this reel up twice without any backing.
382m is a ton of line, it’s nice to have that. If you’re using decent braid, you’ll need a lot of backing line on this.
The Penn Battle III Longcast 7000 weights in at 662 g, so it was noticeably light compared to some other reels we’ve tested
In terms of build quality, I’d be more excited if this thing weighed more because it would indicate a full metal body and brass gear etc. If you want those features you have to look even further up in the market.
However, for people that fish from sketchier rock marks or places where they have to walk down cliff paths, it’s handy to have something that you can lug around easily. The battle III longcast is light enough that it’s not going to restrict where you can fish. A cracking reel for rock fishing at rough ground marks. Plenty of power, plenty toughness, and light enough to free you up to fish all over the shop.
FISHMAG’s Verdict
This is a reliable high end beach casting reel. If you’re interested in this but think it’s a bit out of budget, you might like the Shorecast instead.