Alan's Workbench
Setting a Smooth Drag
Mar. 27 2009, 7:37 AM
Mar. 27 2009, 7:37 AM
The short answer is one foot every five seconds. This is the objective standard that I use to define a smooth drag system for a reel. Let’s say that I have star drag reel loaded with straight 20-pound mono and I want to set the drag to 25 percent, or five pounds. What I’ll do is put the reel on the rod, run the line through the guides, tie the line off to a five-pound downrigger weight and then button down the star.
Then I will reel the rod tip down to the weight and lift until I have a 45-degree angle on the butt and a nice gentleman’s bend in the rest of the rod. Ideally, the rod should be loaded up so that the rod tip is midway between the bottom of the butt and the top of the arc. This should distribute the load evenly over all the guides. Now back off the star until the weight drops one foot every five seconds. You now have a dynamic drag setting of five pounds THROUGH the guides. Lower the rod and you decrease the drag. Point the rod straight down and you eliminate the rod’s contribution to the total drag pressure. Good quality guides will contribute no more than 10 percent to the total drag setting.
This is a little more difficult to do with a lever drag reel. Pulling back on a scale will give you a close enough approximation. If your drag system is not smooth, you will know as soon as you hook on a fish that’s big enough to peel some line off the spool. We’ve all seen a rod tip bounce when the drag is sticky. Check your own reels to see how smooth your drags are. If your reels have a greased carbon fiber drag system, you should easily be able to reach this level of performance. If they are sticky, consider an upgrade. Smooth is always better. Having a sticky drag system is a quick way to break off a fish.
Post a Comment
All comments are moderated by the administrators.All fields are required.
