I recently added a Penn Pursuit IV 3000 to my line up and I am a Shimano guy primarily (and one Daiwa) when it comes to reels. I bought this Penn because of the decent reviews and its saltwater worthiness which is what I needed this reel. My gut and heart told me to get the Nasci and be done with it (it’s saltwater worthy) but I was trying to be economical and weighing the fact that only fish the salt in odd years (for just a few months) and didn’t think I needed to spend a $100 for a reel.
 

I took it for a test run in the salt and noticed several times that during the retrieve, a couple of retrieving loops actually laid off the spool (below it) and I was a bit shocked.
 

I think I understand the basics of making adjustments for uneven line lay, but what if it’s laying  line under the spool a couple of wraps? 
 

This suggests to me that perhaps the spool is traveling too far down or maybe staying at the bottom of the cycle a little too long. 
 

Outside of this observance, the line lay appears to be fairly even so I am a little perplexed. 
 

Has anyone ever experienced this and did adding a shim/washer resolve the issue? 
 

 I’m not blaming the reel yet, lol. 
 

The line on the spool is 12#  PLine c21, which is well in the range for a 3000 sized reel.  This line has been incredible for me for both bass and salmon fishing this year. 

 

Other thoughts about the Pursuit IV

 

Pros

Excellent price $56

Comes with a power handle
Fairly smooth for its price point

Saltwater worthy

 

Cons

A bit on the heavy side

It is not a Shimano (🤣😇😂)

 

All advice and input is greatly appreciated. 
 

Thanks in advance. 

 

 

Take off the spool and see if there any washers you can remove from the spool shaft. That will let the spool sit a little lower.

 

Many spinning reels come with extra washers so you can adjust the line lay.

@Big Hands thanks. I did and one washer is in place. Is it okay for the reel to not use a spacer?

It'll likely need one washer to ride on. If it's a thick washer, you might see if you could source some thinner ones. 

 

Are you certain the spool is all the way down on the shaft?

Big Hands is right on target with this.

 

Sometimes reels come with as many as 3 shim washers of varying thicknesses just so you can play around with it to get it right. Sometimes all 3 are on the reel, or 1 on the reel and spares in the box.

 

Line lay should be even all the way across as you mentioned, but if it stacks to the front, the spool needs to move forward, so add a shim one a time until you get even line lay.

 

If line stacks to the back or rear of the reel, it needs to go back even further so remove shims one at a time and take a look at their thicknesses and start with thinnest. If not enough take a thicker shim off and put the thin one back one. Check line lay.

 

You can play around with adjusting them to get it right.

 

As for line spooling outside the normal line lay channel, I can't explain that one, but BullDog has one...

 

Let us know what you find out.

 

And BullDog, he did say the line lays "fairly even" so who knows, maybe it is a line pickup issue as you mentioned below. He also said it was a $56 reel.

No no no.  Not.  Even.  

Line on the spool skirt below the bottom of the spool indicates the spool is is too far up.  

The problem isn't in spool shimming.  

You shim spool when line lay doesn't reach the bottom of the spool, giving line dig at least, reverse cone at worst - you can create these by removing shim, and @islandbass said the problem showed up in a few retrieves.  

Shimming problems show up when first lining the spool.  

The problem is most likely in the bail and line roller - for some reason, while the rotor turns, the line is leaving or not getting to the bottom of the groove in the line roller

Same result, possible cause is operator error - slack line.  

See Manual Bail Technique.  

Sounds like line springing off the spool and finding its way behind the spool.  How this is happening I am unsure.  Is this a fresh re-spool?  

@bulldog1935 is on target.  Manually flip the bail and get some tension before reeling.  In addition, the spool likely has too much line on it.  Peel off 10-20 yards and cut it off.

 

The manual technique is show in detail here: 

 

Thanks for all the input, everyone!

 

I had a chance to finally really dig into this case. Much closer inspection of the spool indicated slightly higher stacking at the bottom. Fortunately, the pursuit iv spool has marking on the top and bottom of the spool and there was a difference between then that helped to identify this. 
 

@bulldog1935: Despite me being someone who manually closes the bail, and always strives to start my retrieve with a taut line, this could very well be the culprit. I was fishing with a heavy metal spoon where the technique is to jig, pickup the slack, yada, yada, lather, rinse and repeat. 
 

Perhaps my technique was off, though no different from my shimano (symetre and lowly sienna)  or rapala reels that never had this issue. I suppose with the Penn, I’ll need to be more mindful. 
 

per Penn instructions, the solution is to remove the default washer and replace it with one of the additional washers. The original is much thicker. The line lay is definitely more even so I will be more mindful of the slack during the retrieve. 😇😎

 

 

Your line could also be dragging on the bail, and hanging there before it gets to the line roller.  

I think you would see this, but you have to be watching for it.  

Finding zero-slack line tension before you retrieve pretty much guarantees line is seated in the roller.  Turn with the rod before you retrieve.  

In addition did anyone think of more springier line.

1 hour ago, Alex from GA said:

In addition did anyone think of more springier line.

As in using a springier line than he has?  C21 is a pretty limp line.  It is on the lower memory/limp side of the equation so I don't think that is a problem for him at all (especially with only 12# test).

46 minutes ago, casts_by_fly said:

As in using a springier line than he has?  C21 is a pretty limp line.  It is on the lower memory/limp side of the equation so I don't think that is a problem for him at all (especially with only 12# test).

C21 12# test is .0116 or .012 dia, anytime you go over .010dia using 2500/3000 size spinning reel line management is marginal due to memory issues like the OP is experiencing. 
Suggest removing about 30’ of line and use a line conditioner.

Tom

PS, Sunline SuperNatural mono is a low memory line, 12# is .011 dia, both are marginal regarding dia.

 

I definitely appreciate the responses. I have been using this line on other 3000 reels this season with no issues such as this. These are a size 30 rapala real and a sienna. 
 

I am going to see if my first experience was an anomaly and I will be even more mindful of the slack, even though I am roughly 95% of the time. I guess I’ll need to step it up to 99.9% with this Penn Puursuit IV, lol.

 

@WRB-2.0: I decided to do this before seeing your post this morning. I believe this to be an excellent suggestion and neat affirmation. 😇

Thanks to everyone!
 

 

Update: Replacing the original thicker spacer with a thinner spacer and removing the extra line (might have been a bit over spooled) did the trick to resolve the line lay issue.

 

I believe the true culprit might have been having  a little too much line on the spool. I removed a good portion of the extra line did the trick to eliminate the spooling issue. 
 

The pursuit iv worked like a champ yesterday evening. If I were playing Jax on mortal kombat, I would have achieved “flawless victory,“ lol. 😂 

 

I am pleased with this addition. I still get a nasci anyway, because that’s what the bait monkey said.