Max drag before losing free spool?

[titan05]

Questions for everybody......even you Steve K

I set my drag at strike at say 15 pounds with freespool and am on a long soak with a quarter spool in the water and get bit.....whats my drag at strike ?
Hell do I even care ?

If I am fishing straight braid do I even want to go to strike or do I just ease into the fish like I have forever ?
The beauty of the lever drag.....ease into it or hammer down the drag then cop a feel

How I set up my reel makes a difference......braid or braid/flouro or braid/flouro/mono and the rod I'm fishing.....graphite or composite or glass vs the amount of hook pulls

Sometimes I think we all suffer from paralysis by analysis

 

[Pitchinwedge]

Questions for everybody......even you Steve K

I set my drag at strike at say 15 pounds with freespool and am on a long soak with a quarter spool in the water and get bit.....whats my drag at strike ?
Hell do I even care ?

From the book Fishing Techniques, by Steve Cooper, "When diameter of line on spool is halved, drag will have doubled. Line diameter down to 1/4 of original size, drag increased four-fold."

Long soak with Penn reel? Try using thirds instead of quarters.... the spool will be down to the second line capacity ring.

Wasn't sure if your post was just banter or if you were really looking for an answers but thought this concept might help someone.

 

[Pitchinwedge]

Oohhh, maybe I just haven't been cranking down hard enough on the drag preset.


After watching this video, I wiped off as much drag grease as I could, reapplied Cal's grease, and then again wiped off as much grease as I could. Retested the 16VISX and it easily got 36lbs on the spring scale with no loss. 42lbs with slight loss of freespool, and achieved the advertised max of 45lbs with only a moderate amount of loss. Amen.

 

[Pitchinwedge]

Would be awesome if Alan could share a video of how he grinds the cam.

 

[Tugboat64]

You're getting 25lbs of drag STRIKE?

I get that with my torque 40 no problem... not sure where everyone here is getting 12-13 lbs... I fished an international 16 with 36lbs of drag on an 8 day trip and I still had freespool

 

[FishRock]

It is obvious that these reels can achieve advertised drag levels but they almost always need some massaging to get there. As stated it would be nice to know the proper procedure or simply have them come out of the box ready to roll.

 

[Highwayman]

I couldn’t get nearly what I thought should get out of my Fathom 40 LD2. I took it to Ken’s and explained the problem his tech who took it apart and checked the parts for spec. One of the plates or washers was not the correct part. He had his reel there , pulled the washer/plate out and put it in my reel. It gets 20lb at strike with freespool No problem. He serviced it too and that was the total cost. The reels are awesome. Penn would do it within warranty I imagine.

 

[pacificscout]

Can someone explain to me in simple terms whatchu all guys are talking about?
I am lost.
Thank you

 

[pacificscout]

Video helped.

 

[Pitchinwedge]

I couldn’t get nearly what I thought should get out of my Fathom 40 LD2. I took it to Ken’s and explained the problem his tech who took it apart and checked the parts for spec. One of the plates or washers was not the correct part. He had his reel there , pulled the washer/plate out and put it in my reel. It gets 20lb at strike with freespool No problem. He serviced it too and that was the total cost. The reels are awesome. Penn would do it within warranty I imagine.

Do you happen to know which part was incorrect? Where was it located? Sounds like the tech didn't have to dig too deep into the reels for the parts swap.

Now that you get 20lb @ STRIKE, can you continue to push the lever all the way up to FULL and SUNSET? How much is the resulting drag at those settings?

 

[Highwayman]

I'm on the water every single day and the best piece of advice I can give is don't rig with one single j hook, recipe for disaster. The more low profile hooks the better, a stinger at the top and at the bottom of the big is perfect. J hooks have a smaller chance at catching in there mouth and they ware a hole in the sides of there mouths.

I've got my 400 fathom on order.
Yay

Do you happen to know which part was incorrect? Where was it located? Sounds like the tech didn't have to dig too deep into the reels for the parts swap.

Now that you get 20lb @ STRIKE, can you continue to push the lever all the way up to FULL and SUNSET? How much is the resulting drag at those settings?

It was one of the drag washers right on top When he pulled the drag lever and assembly. I watched him pull it and replace it in a short amount of time checking parts with a micrometer. I think it was checking the parts relationship and then fine tuning the inspection. The drag works fine/unbelievably well though I don’t set it higher than 20lb at strike.

 

[Pitchinwedge]

It was one of the drag washers right on top When he pulled the drag lever and assembly. I watched him pull it and replace it in a short amount of time checking parts with a micrometer. I think it was checking the parts relationship and then fine tuning the inspection. The drag works fine/unbelievably well though I don’t set it higher than 20lb at strike.

The "drag lever and assembly" sounds to me like the drag preset knob, cam, follower, and lever. Perhaps he swapped his drag cam into your reel?

The reason I asked about FULL and SUNSET drag levels is to understand how your particular reel (which now gets 20lbs @ STRIKE) functions overall.

With your drag set for 20 @ STRIKE, how easy is it to push the lever all the way up to SUNSET and how much drag do you get once there? Knowing this may allow comparison to our own reels possible.

 

[Highwayman]

The "drag lever and assembly" sounds to me like the drag preset knob, cam, follower, and lever. Perhaps he swapped his drag cam into your reel?

The reason I asked about FULL and SUNSET drag levels is to understand how your particular reel (which now gets 20lbs @ STRIKE) functions overall.

With your drag set for 20 @ STRIKE, how easy is it to push the lever all the way up to SUNSET and how much drag do you get once there? Knowing this may allow comparison to our own reels possible.

I am pretty sure it was as simple as an over-sized washer in the drag assembly. Honestly I have not tested the drag at sunset though it moves there with a little increased resistance to sunset as I would expect and is typical to my other two speeds. I moved it up and it was real hard to pull so I let it go If I happen to take it out in the near future I will post it. I spoke with some commercial fisherman that fish big BFT that were in the shop and that is their go to reel for most cases. This was 2 years ago and things may have changed. I have a couple 12's, 16's and a 30 INT. I fish that had blue printed for different occasions so this is definitely fished as a high performance medium weight reel.

 

[Big_Tuna_]

I am pretty sure it was as simple as an over-sized washer in the drag assembly. Honestly I have not tested the drag at sunset though it moves there with a little increased resistance to sunset as I would expect and is typical to my other two speeds. I moved it up and it was real hard to pull so I let it go If I happen to take it out in the near future I will post it. I spoke with some commercial fisherman that fish big BFT that were in the shop and that is their go to reel for most cases. This was 2 years ago and things may have changed. I have a couple 12's, 16's and a 30 INT. I fish that had blue printed for different occasions so this is definitely fished as a high performance medium weight reel.

Do you happen to have the 2 washers? I will gladly pay you money to let me get a micrometer on those 2 washers... I feel like this is kind of a big deal. Surprised Penn has not discovered this quality control error?

 

[Highwayman]

He kept the bad one and put the new one in my reel. I will pull it when I get a minute or get my Christmas shopping done. I have the measuring tools.

 

[Big_Tuna_]

That

He kept the bad one and put the new one in my reel. I will pull it when I get a minute or get my Christmas shopping done. I have the measuring tools.

That would be awesome! Thanks

 

[Pitchinwedge]

He kept the bad one and put the new one in my reel. I will pull it when I get a minute or get my Christmas shopping done. I have the measuring tools.

Don't want to distract for your Xmas shopping, but can you tell us what part this is?

 

[Highwayman]

Don't want to distract for your Xmas shopping, but can you tell us what part this is?

I haven't had time (seriously) to even think about taking it apart. But I think it was the cam washer binding and not moving freely. I think it was over sized If I correctly recall the conversation. I looked at an exploded view an I think that was it. He missed it the first time and when I went to pick it up it wasn't working properly. He figured it out and had it fixed in about 15 minutes.