Setting drag

[Bulman711]

I am going to be setting the drag on my Penn 130s and 80s myself for the fist time. Does anyone have tips? What to use as a scale or weight? And what would be the preferred setting for BFT?

Thanks, Jack.

 

[badabing]

5 gallon bucket full of water so it just creeps off the rod tip.....35lbs

 

[Super Suck]

What is the drag force on the reel when lines are 300 or 400 feet out?

 

[badabing]

to figure it at 300 or 400 feet swim down that deep with a drag scale tied to you and see what it registers.......obviously drag increases as spool diameter decreases

 

[Downeaster]

When we switched from handlines to rod & reel in the early 80's, I set the strike drag on our 130 Internationals at 65#. Used a Chatillon spring scale that had a rod brass body - probably still around somewhere. The drag setting probably doesn't apply today as we were using 180# outfits (a heavier layup that Lamiglas made for us using their 130# mandrel). We used Jap hooks but they were much larger and had a much heavier wire than what I'm seeing on NetGeo. Things were much different in the day - our career average fish weight was 740#.

 

[tomy]

Way back..the Murry Bros made a vidio..some nice tckle prep stuff on it....
Drags were set by someone on reel with rod in rodholder....some one on dock wih Gloves on.....have person on deck pull on line while wearing the gloves......pull quickley with enough of drag set to put a little resistance on reel. The purpose of this is to warm up the drag. Person on reel takes up slack after each pull. do this 5-6 times

Now set the lever on reel to srtike button.
Put scale on the tag end of line with gloved person
Start retreving line and person on dock reads scale. when spool starts to turn...call it....that is the lbs of drag your set at.

adjust the drag setting after each pull until your happy with the lb setting.
hope that helps...

 

[Bulman711]

good info, thanks for the help

 

[Super Suck]

What's the difference in drag weight whether the drag is warm vs. cold?

 

[Tunascapes]

I have no idea on the difference when warm or cold but I will tell you having a rod tip on the butt when pulling adds 3 to 4 pounds. I have a family member that still argues that it doesn't make a difference but I did the test again over the weekend and it is true.

 

[duxbait]

our career average fish weight was 740#.

Yea guess things were different. Wow!
As for setting the drag, everyone has given good advice, but you will learn what you like as you fish. Each rod fishes differently. just remember if your gonna be using 130 flouro instead of something heavier, then your gonna want to baby the drag a little

 

[Jay c]

Way back..the Murry Bros made a vidio..some nice tckle prep stuff on it....
Drags were set by someone on reel with rod in rodholder....some one on dock wih Gloves on.....have person on deck pull on line while wearing the gloves......pull quickley with enough of drag set to put a little resistance on reel. The purpose of this is to warm up the drag. Person on reel takes up slack after each pull. do this 5-6 times

Now set the lever on reel to srtike button.
Put scale on the tag end of line with gloved person
Start retreving line and person on dock reads scale. when spool starts to turn...call it....that is the lbs of drag your set at.

adjust the drag setting after each pull until your happy with the lb setting.
hope that helps...

I've got that video, just don't the vcr to play it anymore..
Absolutely sick footage of bigs hammering mac chains.

 

[Tuna Pursuit]

Wow this is a little fucked up guys. Just put a little drag on & pull off the rod tip and reel back in 10-20 times to warm up the drags. Tie a loop in the end of the line & put your 50# manley brass scale in the loop. Set it so it pulls 35#'s at strike. Done