Baitcasters low drag pressure?

[Maydar1]

Do you guys ever have issues with low drag pressure from the low profile baitcasters. I bought a pinnacle Matrix last year and I could easlily pull out line with my hand when the drag was cranked down. That was the worst I've tried, but even my Shimano Curado, Pflueger President doesn't handle a ton of pressure. They both max out between 5-7 lbs. Maybe I'm wrong, but this seems light. My shimano spinning reels max out at 10-15 lbs. I know I've had problems with drag slippage, but what happens when I hook into that 6 or 7 pounder. I also bass fish down south at times and what would an 8 - 10 lb bass do to that weak drag. 99% of the time I never have a problem with 1 to 4lb ers, but what about those bigger bass, or pike? Just wondering your opinions.

[waterfoul]

Do you guys ever have issues with low drag pressure from the low profile baitcasters. I bought a pinnacle Matrix last year and I could easlily pull out line with my hand when the drag was cranked down. That was the worst I've tried, but even my Shimano Curado, Pflueger President doesn't handle a ton of pressure. They both max out between 5-7 lbs. Maybe I'm wrong, but this seems light. My shimano spinning reels max out at 10-15 lbs. I know I've had problems with drag slippage, but what happens when I hook into that 6 or 7 pounder. I also bass fish down south at times and what would an 8 - 10 lb bass do to that weak drag. 99% of the time I never have a problem with 1 to 4lb ers, but what about those bigger bass, or pike? Just wondering your opinions.

My Curado will get tight enough that I can just barely pull line off. I have a Diawa Capricorn baitcaster and it's pretty much the same... I feel I'm going to break the line if I pull any harder to engage the drag. Are you sure your line isn't slipping around the spool??

[wally-eye]

I have a Pfluegar Trion that I can crank down enough that you can't pull out line period. This is with fireline with backing.

[FISH21]

What kind of line are you using? If you're using a braid like fireline or some other brand they don't get very good grip on the spool and tend to slip. You can easily solve that problem by putting on about 15 yds of mono onto your reel in the beginning, then connect the braid to the mono with a uni knot.

[icefishermanmark]

don't have the problem with quantum

[ESOX]

Lots of bait casters seem to suffer from this malady. There are some superior after market drag washers available for just about all of the more popular reels. Jaid is an expert on this topic, but I haven't seen him around here much lately.

[ESOX]

http://www.smoothdrag.com/

[jaid]

Lots of bait casters seem to suffer from this malady. There are some superior after market drag washers available for just about all of the more popular reels. Jaid is an expert on this topic, but I haven't seen him around here much lately.

I wouldnt say im an expert by any means, but I used to spend way too much time tinkering with drag washers. :lol:

Personally, I love my curado 201b5 drag. With it cranked all the way down, I find it to be just about a perfect setting for 30lb power pro. I can pull it out by hand, but it hurts my hand. On a heavy hookset, the drag gives just a little (which is fine by me, the alternative is eventually a slipping/broken anti reverse bearing). Its light enough that a 15lb musky can take line, but its heavy enough that it wont do so unless its trying pretty hard. If you need to stop a fish, all you have to do is thumb the spool. Personally, if ive got a fish pulling that hard, I dont think I want to stop it, I want to tire it out a little more. I dont have a scale handy, but if I had to guess, id say the drag my curado cranked down is in the 10-12lb range.

With the drag on the better daiwa reels use(the 7+ disk graphite stacks, not the crappy daiwa felt washers like in their cheap stuff and trolling reels), you can crank them down just about to nothing. Beware that doing so, as mentioned above, may make increase the risk of anti reverse bearing failure and/or slippage. If anyone wants to buy a CVX253LA that has suffered the wrath of an official jaid temper tantrum, Ill give you a good deal.

Abus seem to be adjustable to around 8-12lbs range out of the box. Ive always found them to have enough stopping power for the most part. These were the first reels that I modified things in using the washers ESOX linked to from smoothdrag. They are definitely worth the few bucks that they cost, and definitely give more stopping power. Ive been very pleased with them in Abus, Okuma trolling reels, Daiwa trolling reels, etc.

Just to make yet another point of it, the more stopping power you get out of your drag, the harder it is on the rest of the reel. A drag slipping is a good thing as far as im concerned. Hope that helps!