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Posts: 202
| For blades I leave it tight but make it so line can pull out. This is mainly for figure 8 fish and because bucktails normally hook up so well you dont need a locked down drag. Everything else I take a pliers to and lock them totally down. Use the free spool when the fish runs. You will probably lose some fish due to this when they run and you cant free spool fast enough however the amount you lose due to that will be far less then what you would lose by keeping your drag loose and not getting hooks into them. |
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Posts: 1938
Location: Black Creek, WI | Spencer... can you elaborate more about why you back off your drag for bucktails but lock it tight with other lures? For learning purposes in this discussion.... what would happen if I did the opposite? |
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Posts: 2361
| Hey Spencer, did you know that a drag setting can be incremental?
Clue, it doesn't have to be either "locked down" or "loose", it can be any stage in between.
You'll enjoy those extra fish you land.
Naw, no charge, it's free...
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I'm just wondering why reel manufacturers even make reels with drags anymore.
We should just go back to direct drive reels, that way we'd never lose fish!
JS |
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Location: Contrarian Island | agreed, JS... direct drive...luv it... ! ; ) your leaders are in the mail my friend... bring me some Salsa! ; ) |
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Location: Latitude 41.3016 Longitude 88.6160 | I wonder why only in Musky fishing that you don't use the drag of the reel ?????
I'm glad guys don't  I repair alot of reels that way and sell alot of parts for reels that guys push open the reel fighting a Musky. |
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Posts: 1149
Location: Minnesota. | All this discussion. Important stuff for sure but ever since I've been a fisherboy with my Garcia Mitchell 300 all I've read is to set your drag so you can rip off line w/o breaking it and leave the bloody thing alone...
Anybody do that anymore or am I seeing this through myopic eyes?
Set your drag and leave the danged thing be....
The opinion of 50 yrs fishin' - 30 chasing muskies and it's worked well for me even with 4lb test and some honkin' walleyes. Then again I'm just a simple guy...*winky deally*...
Jeremy.
Edited by Jeremy 6/7/2012 12:19 PM
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Posts: 1906
Location: Oconto Falls, WI | A lot will end up being determined by how you hold your rod. I was from the school of setting like JLong mentioned. Wrap around hand and pull. It should give. This was while I palmed the reel. However when I went to the foregrip a few years ago I had to lock it down to make sure it didn't slip if set a bit loose.
I am going back to palming the reel, and thus will not be locking my drag down. Use a drag as it is meant to be used. I may freespool on big fish on occasion, or if a fish is very lightly hooked, but other than that I'll let the drag do the work. Saltwater guys use their drags, and a lot of those fish are a whole lot meaner than muskies and have just as boney of jaws as muskies.
If you palm it is as easy as thumbing the spool while you set if you are concerned of the drag slipping upon the set. |
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Posts: 720
| This is a topic of conversation my friends and I have all the time. I am in the camp of setting my drag so I can pull the line out with a fair amount of pull. My friends tighten the drag all the way down. My thoughts on this are as follow: For $369.00 the #*^@ drag better work and it better work well. With braids and longer rods hooking fish has become easier. But I think the margin for error on setting your drag has become an art form. How many times has the bait fallen out in the net. A lot more it seems than it use to. Take a look at the size of the gap the hook leaves in the fish you catch. I'll be willing to bet that a lot of those flesh wounds are a 1/4" to 3/8" wide/long. That amount of tearing is from using a longer rod and braided line with little to no give. I don't know if I'm right or wrong but it works for me. |
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Posts: 433
Location: Cedarburg, Wisconsin | I'll never forget a well know fisherman doing a seminar and the topic of drag setting came up. He said he cranks it down tight and loosenes it if/when needed. Then proceeded to show a video of him running down the side of the boat after a big fish hooked in the eight because he couldn't get the drag loosened in time, and lost the fish. Thats pretty convincing. NOT!!
If you grab the rod on the foregrip obviously you need a lot tighter drag to get hooks. If you palm the reel a tight drag isn't nescessary if your thumb can lock up the spool on the set. I palm and set the drag only tight enough to keep the lure from slipping line when worked. The very last thing in the world I want to see is a big musky boatside going nuts on three feet of line and no way to let more out. But whatever works for you is what you need to do. Screw up enough fish and you'll learn what doesn't work. |
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Posts: 8824
| Almost-B-Good - 6/7/2012 12:43 PM
[...] Screw up enough fish and you'll learn what doesn't work.
Probably the best advice I've heard here in a long time... |
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Posts: 1938
Location: Black Creek, WI | esoxaddict - 6/7/2012 1:01 PM Almost-B-Good - 6/7/2012 12:43 PM [...] Screw up enough fish and you'll learn what doesn't work. Probably the best advice I've heard here in a long time... Well.... some people never learn.  Pending your conclusions made each time you lost a fish... you might not learn from it if you made the WRONG conclusion. The lively discussion here confirms that... for me anyway. Also, if you catch 100+ muskies a season... but none are over 40 inches.... you might be teaching yourself some bad habits that you can get away with on those smaller fish (and not realizing it)... but those same bad habits burn ya when you finally tangle with a 40 pounder. If you are not losing the same percentage of smaller fish as you are bigger fish... perhaps its time to re-evaluate your fish fighting technique... which includes your drag setting. Great discussion guys.... |
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Posts: 3907
| Sage advice above, except the bad stuff. Why spend a bunch of money on a reel with a fancy drag system if you are going to "lock it down"?
Use the reel as a tool. The rule I use is to set the drag to allow a big boatside strike to both bury hooks and draw line. All my reels are upgraded with Smoothie drag washers and when not on the water they are loose as can be. I reset each reel every time I hit the water.
Works great, and saves my thumbs for hitchhiking.
Abus have concave washers as parts of the drag system. "Locking it down" will flatten, sorta, those concave washers that are critical to tweaking the drag to being just right.
The other big mistake is alowing oil to get into the drag washers. |
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Location: Latitude 41.3016 Longitude 88.6160 | If anyone wants reels drag system upgraded PM me.
If your drag is not smooth or you have no top end stopping power give me a PM. |
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Posts: 793
Location: Ames, Iowa | BNelson and Ranger got it right. I still have a collection of 2005 posts from Moccasin Mike that explained how to improve ABU drags/washers. Still look at it when I get into the reels. |
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| If it takes both hands to pull line out....that is locked down and the best way to check your drag. |
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| tight just near the rupture point.don't be ridiculous,don't free spool drag is not something new then use it.only the around1950 reel drag are unsafe |
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Posts: 3
| I'd have it about 85 percent tight and
Make sure the hooks are super sharp. Touch them up even if they are brand new. Most are dull right out of the package! |
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Posts: 829
Location: Maple Grove, MN | I have lost way more fish to having a drag to loose than to having it to tight. I set my drag very tight and then immediately lossen it once the hook is set. I also keep the hooks razer sharp and often resharpen them while fishing. Rocks and weeds can take the edge off a hook fater than one thinks. All it takes is a couple quick stokes with the file. I have found that biggest thing is having the drag tight enough so it doesn't slip when setting the hook. The only downfall is that I occasionally launch a 5 lb Bass at my fishing partner(s). I always tell them that when I say "Duck", it is usually best to do so.
Only problem is that when settting the hook so hard on really big fish, something has to give and unfortunately that was my shoulder last year. I never thought that I would find myself wishing that I had hooked one less big fish. |
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| Herb_b - 6/12/2012 5:47 PM
I have lost way more fish to having a drag to loose than to having it to tight. I set my drag very tight and then immediately lossen it once the hook is set. I also keep the hooks razer sharp and often resharpen them while fishing. Rocks and weeds can take the edge off a hook fater than one thinks. All it takes is a couple quick stokes with the file. I have found that biggest thing is having the drag tight enough so it doesn't slip when setting the hook. The only downfall is that I occasionally launch a 5 lb Bass at my fishing partner(s). I always tell them that when I say "Duck", it is usually best to do so.
Only problem is that when settting the hook so hard on really big fish, something has to give and unfortunately that was my shoulder last year. I never thought that I would find myself wishing that I had hooked one less big fish. :)
I find that hard to believe, didn't you used to post about how you worked out with the Vikings and you lived at the gym getting ripped? |
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Posts: 829
Location: Maple Grove, MN | I hear you. Unfortunately, that was 20 years ago when I was a much younger man. And all that weight lifting is probably why I have so many joint problems now. At least that is what my doctor thinks. Oh well, its not the only stupid thing I did when I was young.
Getting old kind of sucks.  |
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Posts: 512
| I wouldnt lock em down. My nephew had his over tight a few years ago, and had a monster fish break his 80 braid shortly after it hit..
Im still sick we didnt land that fish!
Dave |
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