[WAVES CRASHING] Nothing beats the thrill of catching a big fish,
and one of the secrets to making that big catch is having your drag properly set.
Hi folks! I'm Lenny Rudow for BoatUS, and today we're going to talk about how to set your fishing
reel drags properly. Now I know 95% of you folks -- I know exactly how you do it. I'm guilty, too.
Usually you just grab the line, give a tug, say oh that's a little loose. I'll tighten it some,
give it another tug, maybe loosen it. OK, that's probably about right. Well it may be about right,
but it's not set properly. First I want to point out that what we're going to talk about today
applies to all different kinds of fishing reels -- spinning reels, lever drag conventionals,
and star drags. Of course before we can set the drag, we have to determine where we want it set.
Right now this reel right here has 15 pound test so I'm going to set the drag on that one for about
5 pounds. As a general rule of thumb, you want your drag set at about one-third of the line's
rated breaking strength. Now in order to set this, you need to recognize you have to have
something like the swivel tied onto the end or maybe a loop tied into the end of your line.
Whatever you do, don't do this with a lure with a hook on it, and you'll see why in a second.
We're going to put this line under some tension. Normally I might have a friend hold this hand
scale for me but since I'm alone today, what I'll do is I'll hitch it to something solid
like this rail. Now I'll clip the end of the line onto the scale here. Close that up. OK
and I'm going to watch that scale and see how many pounds of pressure it takes to pull drag out.
That is close to 10, so I'll loosen it up a little bit.
Try again. That's 8. Loosen a little more.
There we go: 5 pounds of pressure. Now I've got this lever drag reel on
here. Let's see how this one's done. Same thing, we're going to secure it,
pull, and watch that scale. Oh boy, that's taking a lot of pressure, a lot of pressure.
That's putting out about 15 pounds right there, Now this line is 30 pound test so I want about 10,
but in order to change the drag on a lever drag reel, it's a little bit different.
Here what we're gonna do is pull the lever all the way back.
Then I'm going to rotate the style forward to tighten the drag, backward to loosen
the drag. So I want to go looser, give it a couple clicks, and then let's try it again.
Ah there we go! 10 pounds. Now let's take a look at how we do it with a star drag reel.
This reel is a little simpler. You just turn this star forward or backward to loosen it
or tighten it. That's really all there is to it, so again we're going to clip on.
And again, this reel has 30 pound test, so I'm looking for 10 pounds.
Oh boy, and I can't even pull it out. Definitely need to loosen this one up a little bit.
Let's try there.
It's a little too loose. Oh there we go. Get those drag
scale set properly set and the next time Bubba hits, you won't break him off ... hopefully!
Well folks, we hope you've enjoyed this video, we hope you find it helpful.
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[WAVES CRASHING]