drag - and fighting a fish

[slater]

Guys, something that i've never quite understood and hoping for some explanation. When casting in a bait and leaving your line in the water for a time - you set the drag so that if a fish takes the bait and runs it can take line. When you reel in with your drag like this the pulling power is diminished because the drag is not tightened.

If you watch on ESA you dont see the guys playing with their drag all the time. Are you supposed to leave the drag loosened so that if the fish takes another run it can take line or are you supposed to play with the drag to tighten it when you are reeling in and loosen it when the fish is going on a run.

thanks

Slater

 

[neilg]

Your drag setting shouldn't be over about 50% of the lines breaking strain and should be left as is.

You can fiddle with it if you know it's a smaller fish that won't be able to break the line

if you do make your drag too tight and the fish runs it will break the line

ps : pull with the rod and use the reel to take up the line as you drop the rod again.

 

[Fin-S]

I am not sure about rock and surf, but I figure the same must apply as game fishing. I have three drag settings that I mainly use. 1. Strike drag. generally 25% of lines breaking strain. 2. fighting drag, 40% of lines breaking strain and 3, max drag up to 70% of lines breaking strain. Bear in mind this will be on 50lb (24kg) class and lighter, hence the respective drags will be 12.5, 20lb and 35lb. Strike drag is for the initial bite and first run, the fighting drag as the fish settles down, then maximum drag when you need to really "pull" the fish. As the fish is ready to be landed, then slacken back to strike / fighting (depending on species) to soften the last rush. Obviously setting the drags is much easier on a lever drag reel, but with experience you can come very close with a star drag or decent fixed spool. As regards the ESA guys, look very closely and you can often see a forefinger and thumb around the drag. Although the drag settings seem light, bear in mind that most knots will test at 85% of BS, and that wet mono will undertest by about 20%, then you can understand why anything over 65% is borderline.

 

[Patrick]

Hey slater, if you've set your drag and dont want to fiddle with it, then try leaving the reel in free spool mode with the ratchet setting on whilst waiting for a bite. That way when the fish picks up theres no resistance on the line and then switching the reel out of free spool mode will allow you to keep your drag setting and play the fish as you would.

 

[Dorado75]

When i was still fishing offshore leaugue we would preset the star drag reels to about 33% and then secure the star drag to the reel handle with a thin rubber band..... it worked pretty well!

 

[Guest]

[color="#006600"]slater[/color] wrote:

Guys, something that i've never quite understood and hoping for some explanation. When casting in a bait and leaving your line in the water for a time - you set the drag so that if a fish takes the bait and runs it can take line. When you reel in with your drag like this the pulling power is diminished because the drag is not tightened.

If you watch on ESA you dont see the guys playing with their drag all the time. Are you supposed to leave the drag loosened so that if the fish takes another run it can take line or are you supposed to play with the drag to tighten it when you are reeling in and loosen it when the fish is going on a run.

thanks

Slater
 

Typically 50 -60% of your line breaking strain.

Do not do what is done by the ESA members, that is done for TV. I have seen a 10kg bronzie strip a reel down to the braid on the show. That is with a Saltiga and .50mm Kingfisher GA line and a top rod. With that outfit they should put that fish on the beach inside 5 minutes. But that would not make for interesting TV. They have to fill the 10 minutes that they are going to be on air and if it has been a quite day they have to fill it.

If you play with your drag the chances of tightening the drag to much or too quickly is high and you are going to loose a good fish.

If you have a big fish that is really hammering you, then carefully tighten the drag a bit. If it is a monster and you are losing all your line then tighten as much as you can to try and stop it but the rule is do not play with your drag. The more you fish the more you will be able to get it right. A good reel, line and rod should do most of the work.

If ESA lose a fish when they are playing with the drag you will never know, it is just not shown. After all it is entertainment.

My 5c worth.

 

[miles]

Hiya

The international rule is regarded as a 1/3 of your breaking strain. Specifically for boat anglers who are targetting large game-fish with lever drag reels. Why 33.33% then? Quite simply, knots weaken line. Secondly, when you set your drag, your reel has a full spool of line. Should a fish take half you line off your reel, the reels diameter has now changed and your drag setting is actually much higher!! I did this test when i was teaching my crew about loosening your drag when you spool is half empty. I set my drags on my lever drag 50W's to 8kg's. When the reel was half empty, we checked the drag and it read over 12kg's. Filled the spool up again and it was back to 8kg's!! Thirdly, with plenty of line out on a big fish, the DRAG of the line through the water has also to be taken into account. Boat anglers will know what i'm talking about, throw out half your line behind the boat, with nothing attached to it and try and reel it back in!! HARD work!!

How-ever, this is not really applicable to rock and surf anglers. Most simply fish with a slightly loose drag and if you hook a fish, that's too small and doesn't need drag, you simply tighten up the drag.

Why isn't the above applicable to rock and surf anglers? Well, lets start off with this scenario. You get a puncture and have to remove your cars wheel. You take out the wheelbrace and try to loosen the nut, but it won't budge. So, you take a long metal pole and slip it over the wheel brace, basically making a powerbar and then you can easily loosen then nut. Now, the EXACT same principle applies to fishing. YOU, the angler, are how-ever the "NUT" on the wheel!! The longer the fishing rod, the more pressure a fish can exert over YOU. Thats why boat anglers, fishing for very large game fish, use short rods, for more leverage. 

This in turn means that long surf rods can't pull heavy drags. If you were fishing 18kg line (.52mm siglon), you'd need a drag setting of 6kg at 33.33%. I can't remember what my surf rods tested as a maximum for drag, but very few surf rods can pull that sort of drag!! I think it was around 4kg's. Would actually be very interesting to get somebody to test their rods. Simply attach your reel, thread the line and tie to a electronic scale. Pull then as HARD as you can and get the reading from the scale.

Other than the above, fishing with too a heavy drag will cause you plenty of lost fish due to hooks pulling out!! If fishing off the surf, rather fish with too a soft drag, as the fish will eventually tire. When fishing off the rocks, lock up and PULL!!!!  

 

[willem wikkel spies]

Nicely written Miles.

It's true.
We have tested our grandwave 50's drag settings.
on a full spool we managed to get around 6.5 kg drag. then you really need to tigten the star.

the kingfish that i cought---- the drag setting on the full spool was 3.8 kg's. that was the ultimate as the fish did not want to stop so tigten, tighten and finally the fish stopped.

it's amazing when you get such a fish, and when you think you have tightened the drag enough the fish, drops a gear and pulls harder.

With a 4 meter rod, to continiously pull 4 kg or more will eventually break you, because of the power bar effect.

so when guys said that fish broke the the line, is most of the time due to knots giving in, and the stupidity of the angler.

Slater, the advice to you, is make sure of your knots. it would be hard for you to break a knot with your rod, if it was tested properly.
take care of your line. any damage that you find, cut off and replace, its not worth the while to loose a great fish, because of damaged line.

and if you are fishing with 40 pound kingfisher ga, i cannot see how you can break the line with a rod being in the upright position.

 

[slater]

Guys thanks for the advice, one more question. If your drag is set to 33% and you feel a bite - how do you strike. Won't the line just come off your reel and exert no pressure on the fish.
thanks again - great to be a part of such a knowledgeable forum.

 

[miles]

Hiya

Slater, the 33% guideline is more applicable to the boating fraternaty.

If you're leaving your rod in a rod stand on the beach, ease off your drag so that a fish can take line easily. You want just enough pressure for the hook to set. If your drag is too tight, a large fish can easily pull your rod out of the stand and then its bye-bye rod and reel.....

If you're fishing off a beach, with the rod in your hands, you can tighten your drag a bit more. Should a large fish pick you up, you can still take a step or two closer to the water, whilst loosening your drag.

If you're fishing off the rocks, i fish with a fully locked up drag. Most of the fish you'll catch off the rocks in False bay will not be able to take line. The problem with a lose drag on the rocks is that after you get a pick-up, say a galgoen, you'll get reefed very quickly should your drag be loose. When fishing area's like Arniston or Rietfontein, where large 'crackers or big steenbras is around, i prefer a fairly tight drag. When a large fish picks you up, you simply ease up on the drag.

Because rock and surf fishing requires you to constantly play with the drag, you can't accurately set your drag. You do how-ever pretty easily get the hang of how much drag to use.