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Merwin: That's Such A Drag
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February 27, 2009
Merwin: That's Such A Drag
By John Merwin
Sometimes I have the happy occasion of testing a bunch of different baitcasting reels, which includes testing the drags. The last time I did this, things got a little crazy.
My fishing buddy Bruce Bowlen and I stood on the dock at a local lake. We adjusted reel drags and then tied our lines to the back of another friend's big Ranger bass boat. My wife was lying on the boat's back deck to take photos. Then Ed, our bass boat friend, gunned the big Evinrude like a dragster taking off.
The reel drags actually stood the test okay. It's hard to find a reel with a really bad drag system these days. For the rest of us, it was a different story. My wife refused to make a second run, having had too much excitement the first time.
Then all of us agreed the whole scene just might be too violent to be a good idea. Anybody else want to play?
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Comments (13)
What the hell, I'm game. I'll try just about anything once.
John Merwin is the luckiest man alive for 3 reason. 1) He has a wife that would partake in these shananigans. 2) He gets free stuff to test and 3) He has a friend with a Ranger Bass Boat.
Your livin the dream John.
I abuse my gear, but this is a new one.
Can a reel be ruined by overusing the drag? For example, the stunt you performed, or by using the bottle and drill to remove line (which btw I made and it works great).
what reel did you test?
that crazy but i guess if u want to try one out do it right you will find out reel quick if it will hold up for a while or not.
Great Idea to really test the drag.
I did the same for a large catfish reel I tested out before I made a purchase. I had my nephew strap the line to a backpack and run at full speed to try and get away from me, similar to a football drill with a parachute to build strength and indurance.
I test the drag by trying to stop him from pulling away and reigning him in.
It was great fun for both of us and we made a game of it while testing the drag system on the reel.
John--when I was researching the history of Fin-Nor big game reels I ran across the story of how they tested the drags on the prototypes in '33 or '34, which included using pilot whales (not sure how they hooked them up--probably don't want to know), neighborhood kids and one of their cars.
If I need the drag strength to fight a fish as strong as a 225 e-tech, Heaven help me!
when we would fish some of the creeks in alaska, our drags got tested when the gulls would pick our roe out of the water and take off. usually they would drop it eventually but if not, do not let go of the rod!
Cool Idea. I did a similar drag test by accident once, foul hooked a guy's fishing vest in a speedboat on the backcast from my fly rod. He decided to run and gun as my fly hooked his vest, ran out 35 yards of backing when the hook sank in as little further and woke this guy up as the drag performed it's job. He was kind enough to unhook my fly and toss it overboard, not a jerk like the guy who cut my fly line out on Nantucket Sound because the fish I was fighting made a run across the bow of his boat.
I have never thought of anything like that! I personally always do a horrible job of setting my drag, and much to my dismay, I usually pay for it. This is quite an idea, but I dont think I would try it for myself.
Buckhunter: You're right!
Jim in MO: No, you won't hurt your drag. It's designed to perform and to do so repeatedly. Also, with the spin-the-bottle thing, you are presumably just using a very light setting to keep the reel spool from over-running as you remove the line.
bayboater9: That was interesting. I don't want to know about the pilot whales, either...
TheEasternShore: We were testing a number of reels. See our March 2009 print edition for details.
fishjay40: Hang in there, buddy. I'll try to post some drag-setting tips in the near future that you may find helpful.
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John Merwin is the luckiest man alive for 3 reason. 1) He has a wife that would partake in these shananigans. 2) He gets free stuff to test and 3) He has a friend with a Ranger Bass Boat.
Your livin the dream John.
What the hell, I'm game. I'll try just about anything once.
I abuse my gear, but this is a new one.
Can a reel be ruined by overusing the drag? For example, the stunt you performed, or by using the bottle and drill to remove line (which btw I made and it works great).
what reel did you test?
that crazy but i guess if u want to try one out do it right you will find out reel quick if it will hold up for a while or not.
Great Idea to really test the drag.
I did the same for a large catfish reel I tested out before I made a purchase. I had my nephew strap the line to a backpack and run at full speed to try and get away from me, similar to a football drill with a parachute to build strength and indurance.
I test the drag by trying to stop him from pulling away and reigning him in.
It was great fun for both of us and we made a game of it while testing the drag system on the reel.
John--when I was researching the history of Fin-Nor big game reels I ran across the story of how they tested the drags on the prototypes in '33 or '34, which included using pilot whales (not sure how they hooked them up--probably don't want to know), neighborhood kids and one of their cars.
If I need the drag strength to fight a fish as strong as a 225 e-tech, Heaven help me!
when we would fish some of the creeks in alaska, our drags got tested when the gulls would pick our roe out of the water and take off. usually they would drop it eventually but if not, do not let go of the rod!
Cool Idea. I did a similar drag test by accident once, foul hooked a guy's fishing vest in a speedboat on the backcast from my fly rod. He decided to run and gun as my fly hooked his vest, ran out 35 yards of backing when the hook sank in as little further and woke this guy up as the drag performed it's job. He was kind enough to unhook my fly and toss it overboard, not a jerk like the guy who cut my fly line out on Nantucket Sound because the fish I was fighting made a run across the bow of his boat.
I have never thought of anything like that! I personally always do a horrible job of setting my drag, and much to my dismay, I usually pay for it. This is quite an idea, but I dont think I would try it for myself.
Buckhunter: You're right!
Jim in MO: No, you won't hurt your drag. It's designed to perform and to do so repeatedly. Also, with the spin-the-bottle thing, you are presumably just using a very light setting to keep the reel spool from over-running as you remove the line.
bayboater9: That was interesting. I don't want to know about the pilot whales, either...
TheEasternShore: We were testing a number of reels. See our March 2009 print edition for details.
fishjay40: Hang in there, buddy. I'll try to post some drag-setting tips in the near future that you may find helpful.
Post a Comment