Article by Capt. Mark Sampson
Last week, one of my clients told me about the big stripers he hooks on the Chesapeake Bay and how, “They’re so big they keep snapping my line.” When I asked him what pound test he was using he said, “Twenty. So I guess those fish are a lot bigger than that”! In the same breath he pointed to one of the rods we had set out for sharks that morning and asked what pound test was on the reel. When I said “twenty” he got a real strange look on his face and asked, “How do you expect to catch anything big on that”? After I gave him a quick lecture on the working of a fishing reel’s drag system and how when properly used, allow anglers to land very large fish on very light line, I went on to mention that if he was breaking 20-pound line on striped bass that it wasn’t that the fish were too big - it was that he was doing something wrong.
There can be a lot of reasons why a fishing line breaks during a fight; there is a nick in the line, a weak knot, the line hits something in the water, the fish “spools” the reel by taking off all the line, so much line is out that it breaks from increased water pressure or there is some kind of malfunction in the reel like a backlash or locked-up drag. But, if an angler does everything right, the tackle works as it should and there are no unforeseen glitches in the process, it doesn’t matter if someone has a blue whale on 2-pound test, a fishing line will never break simply because the line it too light for the fish.
Of course, that’s not to say it’s possible to land a blue whale on 2-pound test, it’s not, but in that hypothetical battle, “when” the line breaks it’s going to be for one of the other reasons, “not” just because it’s 2-pound test line. That’s because the drag on the reel simply won’t let it happen.
Understanding how to set and use the drag on a reel is one of the most important aspects of saltwater fishing. The drag on a reel does two things, it applies pressure to a fish and it keeps the line from breaking by allowing it to slip before snapping. It’s all very simple, but as any charter captain or fishing guide will tell you, the improper use of drags is rampant among novice and sometimes even experienced anglers. We see it all the time, someone who maybe has a lot of fishing experience but has never caught a fish that had the size or strength to actually pull out drag, hooks into a decent saltwater fish that immediately takes off on a long run. Seeing line pouring off their reel when they expect to be cranking it in, anglers will often conclude that something is wrong, panic, and try to stop it by either thumbing the spool or cranking down the drag. With option “one” destined to end in a painful burn to the thumb, and option “two” sure to conclude in a broken line, either way the angler loses, and the fish swims free.
In most cases, drags should be set and then left alone, which puts the burden on the fisherman to decide ahead of time how much pressure they want to put on the jaw of the fish, the hook, the leader, the swivels and every knot before the line slips. It’s not all about the breaking strength of the line, because if there’s a failure in any of those other factors the fish can be lost just as easily as if the line itself parts. For instance, putting too much pressure on a soft-mouthed fish like a sea trout (weakfish) is going to end in a lost fish. However, putting too little pressure on a fish like a tuna, that needs to be slowed down and controlled quickly, can drag out a fight too long and enhance the chances of the fish being lost due to sharks, a worn out angler or the line getting fouled in someone else’s anchor or fishing line.
The strength of the terminal tackle must also be taken into consideration when setting drags. Somewhere between the fish and the rod tip is a weak link that is going to fail under pressure before anything else. When using really light line that link could be the line itself, but most likely it will be the knot that links the line to the leader or swivel. However, in situations similar to when anglers are chunking for tuna and need to use very light leaders to fool finicky fish, the weak link could very well be the leader. If you’re using 50-pound line but 30-pound leader, you’d better set the drag to accommodate the 30-pound leader or you’ll be popping off every bite you get! Similarly, if an angler is using thin-gage or very small hooks that don’t take a big bite out of the fish’s jaw, they’ll have to lighten the drag to prevent straightening or tearing out the hook in the heat of the battle.
Anglers need to set their drags taking all these things into consideration and then leave the drag setting alone and fight the fish with what they’ve got. If they know that the drag was set right but fear the fish is taking too much line and might spool the reel, a better option to tightening down is to regain line by getting the boat moving in the direction of the fish. Chase it down and stay on top of it, keep applying a reasonable amount of pressure and sooner or later victory will be yours. Unfortunately too many anglers don’t let the drag do the work and make the critical error of tightening the drag or thumbing the spool or the line against the foregrip to slow the fish. Anglers should keep in mind that as line is lost and the diameter of the spool gets smaller the drag of a reel actually increases on it’s own due to the higher RPM’s of the spool. Therefore, under such situations it actually makes more sense to back the drag off a little than to increase it. A tough thing to do when you’re worried about a fish taking all your string!
Setting drag pressure can be done using a scale or just by feel. Many big game anglers can get away with using a scale because the terminal tackle they use and the fish they pursue are always the same. I never use a scale because our target species and the terminal gear we use for them is always different and so I need to constantly reset the drags to accommodate what we have, or hope to have on the end of our line. I might also change drag settings if the angler is a child or anyone else who might not have the physical strength needed to hold onto a rod if there is too much pull on the other end. But once the fish is hooked up, unless you really REALLY know what you’re doing – don’t touch that drag!
Captain Mark Sampson is an outdoor writer and captain of the charter boat “Fish Finder”, docked at the Ocean City Fishing Center.
