Setting drag

[nutsaboutfishing]

Was just wondering  when you use a scale to set drag. What angle do you hold the rod at 180 or 45 degees?? And what angle do you pull the line? Straight down or at about 45 degrees like  it would be when you actually fight a fish.  Also do you set drag according to mainline or leader weight?

Edited April 27, 2018 by nutsaboutfishing

[dirvin21]

the only time I've seen scales used is in gamefishing when specific drag pressures are used

you should set your drag according to the situation you're fishing..... fishing sandflats with no snags I'll usually go fairly light and on the flip side casting oyster racks I'll basically lock it up 

[JonD]

It's a tricky one as the faster you pull the line the more the drag will be, about 1/3 the breaking strain of the main line is normally the starting point. 

As above I don't know to many people who would use a set of scales these days, most people just go off feel. Targetting big shore fish I have mine set at a firm pull much like what I use on snapper etc from the boat, if the fish is going a bit to hard I can always slow it up with my hand on the spool.

When I'm chassing game like marlin or tuna I can still pull line from the spool but when I'm chassing kings I tend to have the drag virtually at the point the line cuts my hand if I try to pull it.

[Berleyguts]

I use scales to set the drag on my lever drag game reels, as per Shimano instructions. This makes sense because you can set strike drag to precision at 1/3 the breaking strain of the line. My 6kg outfit is set to 2kg, my 15kg outfit is set to 5kg. When I rig my new Tyrnos 20 (10kg) outfit it will be set to about 3.3kg. I hold the rod at about 45 degrees and I get my son to hold the scales at about waist level where he can read them and he stands down the back yard a bit, which slopes down from the house. I reckon this approximates the angle the line takes when trolling with the rod in the rod holder (no outriggers). For threadlines and star drag reels, I just go by feel. I used to use scales but if you’re adjusting the drag all the time, you can never get it back to a precision setting for strike drag, so I stopped bothering.

[blaxland]

As said before I set the drag by feel some of the smaller egg beaters reels have a  14lb drag max anyway so my tackle shop told me. your other question set the drag to your weakest link weather that be the main line or leader. 

[Volitan]

On 28/04/2018 at 6:06 AM, nutsaboutfishing said:

Was just wondering  when you use a scale to set drag. What angle do you hold the rod at 180 or 45 degees?? And what angle do you pull the line? Straight down or at about 45 degrees like  it would be when you actually fight a fish.  Also do you set drag according to mainline or leader weight?

I imagine you should use the angle which best approximates your actual fishing position.

and most tackle manufacturers advise to set to 1/3 of line strength (of the weakest link, of course).

incidently, I admire your methodical and empirical approach. 

[robrooster]

On my rod with 6lb line, i hold the rod at 45degs, tie on a 600ml bottle of water and slowly lift and tighten drag until it slowly decends/stops decending.

You’d be suprised how much pressure is on the rod.

Not sure if you can break the tip of the rod, but hasn’t yet.