question on drag power

[coldfront]

Last night while unwinding before hitting the pillow for real, I was looking through the 2009 BPS master catalogue at the various reels...

Daiwa Zillionaires   8.8 pounds drag power
Shimano Curado    12 pounds drag power
Ambassador Records   22 pounds drag power
Ambassador Revo  24 pounds drag power

so, what's up with all the variability?  are those 'real' (in that there's an industry standard to determine?) or just company specific approaches?

What differences do these values truly make?

[Mike Cork]

While I think the 8.8 pounds might be a little light for any heavy duty flipping situations, I have found that most reels don't reach the drag potential because of the rod. Unless you are using a pool cue that doesn't bend what so ever. Your rod takes up most of the fight of a fish. So a reel doesn't have to have much drag capability to be effective.

Revo came out with the 24# and used it as an advertising gimmick. To be honest, if you crank a drag to about 12-14 pounds and even with a heavy flipping stick, you are not going to have much if any slippage. With that said I have to put in a disclaimer that the drag has to be working properly.

I am not really sure why reel manuf. have such a difference. I do know the stronger drags are more expensive to build and have pricey parts.

[v1per]

Yeah, it makes you wonder how many guys have had the rod/reel combo locked down with 12 plus pounds of drag and had a big ol' pig (Bass, monster Pike, Musky or any other big and powerful fish) just slam their lure and yank it outta their hands and then they turn around looking like this.....
Hahahahahahahahaha!

[islandbass]

I would be inclined that if measured those drag ratings are probably accurate.

For many bass fishing applications, that is excess and unneeded (but nice to have)

The purpose of the drag is to allow the fish to safely pull off line so that the line doesn't break during the fight. Granted, there are scenarios in which you might need to muscle fish out of the cover, but many times, you will probably need to set it to about 25-33% of the line's breaking strength as a rule of thumb.

So if you're using say 20# mono, a good starting point is to set the drag at about 5 lbs. Cover comes into play of course, but as I said it's a starting point. Even with the daiwa listed above, there is still a lot of "extra" drag left over, another 3.8 lbs. It goes to show that even 8.8 lbs is sufficient although it seems to lowly compared to the other reels. There is no real need to have 24 lbs of drag but if it makes you feel secure, no one here is going to stop you. If you set your drag to that max setting and say you're using that 20# line, that setting is 105% of the line's strength. The line is probably not going to break since it probably has a breaking strength higher than 20# (many line makers overrate their lines intentionally except maybe ande) which can lead you to realize that something is going to break, either the line (unlikely) or your rod.

To put things in perspective, I have seen 30# king salmon landed on 6# test with 2 lbs of drag. That makes for a 33% drag setting. Now if that can land a 30# king salmon, no way a 5# bass is going to fare better under the same conditions.

Touting drag strength indeed makes for a great marketing ploy as Mike pointed out.