TACKLE
THE PRESSURE’S ON! The importance of a correct drag setting
By Paul Nixon
PROPERLY set drag is one of the key things that stands between your fish, and a break-off. Nevertheless, few people set their drags properly, or even understand the nuances of how the drag’s setting affects your level of success. In fact, most of us simply push the leverdrag, turn the star drag, grab the line and give it a yank, and if the line pulls out at our desired tension then we feel the drag tension is A for away. One of the most frequent mistakes people make when they think about how a reel’s drag works, is believing they’ve set it at a particular level and so it will stay there. Not so. As the line runs off a reel, the spool becomes smaller. As its diameter shrinks, the effective drag setting constantly increases. Think of it like mechanical gearing — reducing the spool’s diameter means it takes more force to make it turn. The second misconception people have is that when they grab the line just above the reel and pull, that’s the amount of tension it will take for a fish to strip line. Not even close. They’ve forgotten to account for friction. As the line runs through the guides of a rod bent under tension, there’s a significant amount of friction at play, and that also increases how much force needs to be applied to get the spool turning. Then there’s the line drag underwater and at pace with a fish on one end and boat moving in the opposite direction on the other.As a test, try grabbing the line beyond your rod tip, pull down so there’s an arc in the rod, and you’ll see for yourself just how much harder it is to get the spool moving than it is when you grab the line right in front of the reel. To properly set a drag, you need to hold the rod in a fish-fighting position and pull from a distance — with a scale, not with your hand. This is best done outside and with someone else holding the scale. Alternatively you can secure it to a fence post or a tree, loop your line around the scale’s hook, walk out about five metres and then put the setup under load and to the poundage you want to set your drag at.
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Making markings on the reel housing is a simple way of reinforcing the drag pressure when action and excitement is at its highest during a fight with a big fish. SKI-BOAT March/April 2022 • 41
