How to Properly Set Drag on a Fishing Reel - Important Fishing Skill

How to Properly Set Your Drag

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One of the most important fishing skills for a fisherman is being able to properly set the drag. There are many factors that play into this equation such as line strength, quaily of reel and type of fish being targeted. One of the most common reasons people lose big fish the hook is an improper drag setting. Typically anglers use to much drag which snaps the line, straightens the hook or pulls through the lip of the fish. The angler should always keep tension with the fish but the fish does not need to be in the boat 20 seconds after it is hooked. Patience is the key to landing big fish.

Huge fish can be caught on just a few pounds of drag. Fish typically tire themselves out after a few hard runs. Some fish do require a large amount of drag a using a quality reel with pre-set drag is important in those cases. If drag is two light it is not possible to keep tension with the fish and the fish will likely getaway as well.

Captain Cody shows how to adjust your drag on a spinning reel, star drag conventional reel, and a lever drag conventional reel.

To set the drag on a spinning reel or star drag reel it is easiest to just pull with your hand and feel how much tension is on the line. It is not an exact science and gets easier with experience.

For a lever drag system, the drag is often too much to just pull by hand and feel the right drag amount. For this reason, a pull-scale is used to determine the amount of drag on the reel. This is not with the lever set on strike and on full drag. The strike drag level should be 25-30 percent of the line strength. When it is on full it should be about 50 percent of line strength. Never go to full drag though until the fish is tired out or you are about to get spooled by a large fish.

I hope this helps properly set the drag on your reels so the big fish does not snap your line!

Thanks for watching,

Captain Cody