Fishing reel questions

[taggermike]

20 lbs of drag is plenty. Dont know what yak you're using but I've gotten enough drag out of an old beat up Shimano TLD 15 to almost flip my OK prowler 15. You don't need a $400 reel to horse in our local yt.

There are other factors besides drag. I'm fishing a calstar west coast rod (all glass) rated 20-50. Last month while fighting a thresher the shark was straight under the yak and the rod was completely maxed out, bent to the point where all its recoil could not move the fish. I was only using 30 lb line. Another 50 lbs of drag would not have helped me. Mike

[taggermike]

Sounds like you must have had a bad experience with Penn. I bought a Penn fathom 30 2 speed from takle direct. The reel had a slipping drag that I didn't find until I'd fought a yt with it. Still landed the fish. I sent the reel back to tackle direct. I got a replacement reel in 2 weeks. They transferred my spectra to the new reel and put in a free spool of braid as a bonus. New reel works great. Caught a couple yt and had a slug fest with a thresher, nice smooth drag and plenty if cranking power. Mike

[maquinapescado]

I have several Fathom lever drags. They are great. Smooth drag, cast well and at jandh.com you can get the singles for 130-155. You can pop the side covers off pretty easy for greasing. The only thing is that if you surf launch and submerge them, you'll want to pull them apart more often, like any reel. All you need to do is pull the clicker control cover off and put like 1-2 drops of oil down the axle. More drag than you'll ever need kayak fishing.

[chris138]

TLD 15 all day everyday. Don't buy a reel for the kayak that you don't mind losing in the drink. 16-18# of drag is plenty to horse any fish in la jolla, including the blacks.

[PescadorPete]

Originally Posted by chris138

TLD 15 all day everyday. Don't buy a reel for the kayak that you don't mind losing in the drink. 16-18# of drag is plenty to horse any fish in la jolla, including the blacks.

Yes indeed, a simple reliable lever drag reel. Replace the felt drag washer with HT-100 or Carbontex and it is just about bullet proof. I use a Daiwa BG35 geared down to 4.9:1 for a star drag.

I don't think I could handle 20# of drag on my Revo, that would probably flip me over. ~~~Pete~~~

[YakDout]

Originally Posted by PescadorPete

Yes indeed, a simple reliable lever drag reel. Replace the felt drag washer with HT-100 or Carbontex and it is just about bullet proof. I use a Daiwa BG35 geared down to 4.9:1 for a star drag.

I don't think I could handle 20# of drag on my Revo, that would probably flip me over. ~~~Pete~~~

Did you gear it down yourself? Where did you get the part at if so? Im looking to gear down my saltist bg's but cannot find the parts.

[PescadorPete]

Originally Posted by YakDout

Did you gear it down yourself? Where did you get the part at if so? Im looking to gear down my saltist bg's but cannot find the parts.

Pardon my thread jack for a moment.

I did, being the gear head that I am.

Not cost effective but who cares, it's hot-rod fishing after all. You need the main gear, pinion gear and spool from the discontinued 30T. They changed the spool shaft from the 30T to the BG35 so you can't just go with the main/pinion. You also need the spool.

Best bet is to find a trashed 30T and use it for parts. I bought a couple of 30Ts when they were blowing them out, used them heavily until the paint wore off and then morphed them into BG35s 4.9.

Back on topic, for "heavy drag" rods, I use a Calstar glass WC 670C and a graphite 700M.

[Sheephead]

Originally Posted by taggermike

Sounds like you must have had a bad experience with Penn. I bought a Penn fathom 30 2 speed from takle direct. The reel had a slipping drag that I didn't find until I'd fought a yt with it. Still landed the fish. I sent the reel back to tackle direct. I got a replacement reel in 2 weeks. They transferred my spectra to the new reel and put in a free spool of braid as a bonus. New reel works great. Caught a couple yt and had a slug fest with a thresher, nice smooth drag and plenty if cranking power. Mike

Great point's and thanks for giving me insight on something so obvious I'm not sure how I completely ignored it. My penn jigmasters death is why I hate penn so much. Opened it up and everything spewed out before I took the cap off... Trying to replace my reels with easily serviceable one's so I don't spend $50+ every month per reel. Guess I'll have to give the newer penn products a chance.