zephi

That's right, left side is top of the stack. I've never disassembled the drag knob up until I found out about the issue, in fact I took it apart today to have a look at it, and reassembled it the same way. Didn't tinker with anything though. Put everything back into place and screwed it back on, and the issue is still there. One little thing, does the waterproof drag rubber seal require any lubrication? That's the other thing which touches the spool. There is no damage to the spool whatsoever, I've even put my spare spool on to test it, and it also faces the same issue. Thanks for helping out Slinky

Mate go with shimano reels. I don't know what reel that shop is recommending you. I'm not a penn fan really, I've caught kings easily on my shimano stradic 6000FI, would set you back about $200-$250 Mate it handles kings with ease. It comes with 10 years warranty as well, so that's quite reassuring. It has 13kg of drag pressure, with a waterproof drag system. Mine has 40lb braid on it, a little overkill but kings are dirty fighters so it's needed.

Thanks everyone for all the replies and contributions. Also sorry to hear about that Slinky. I'm sorta leaning towards the drag knob itself which is causing the problem. But it could also be because of the lack of grease in the drag washers. I'm waiting for the carbontex washers and cals universal grease to arrive. Then try upgrading to those washers and lightly smearing a fingerprint of grease on each washer. If it doesn't help then we definitely know its not the drag washers themselves which is causing the problem. Then we can say its probably the drag knob itself. Which I'll take it in to get it serviced and have it checked on. Could there be any other contributing factors which I should consider apart from the drag washers and drag knob? Slinky, the drag washers are lined up from left to right, what you see in the photo is the top side of each washer. Drag stack doesn't spin when the drag knob is removed. Drag stack is in the right order, I followed the sequence from the spare spool I got just in case. Spare spool also has the same issue, but the drag washers in there are lightly covered in grease, but this grease has become very tacky.

just go with the berkley gulp ranges, somewhere about the 2inch-3inch would be great. Get some small jig heads, size 4 to size 1 hooks. jig weight about 1/32oz to 1/8oz will suffice. Gulp will be good as it has a scent to it, and fish even eat it like bait. Type of plastic, try the camo and blood worm, pumpkinseed minnows, different prawns, After you get more confident then you can go with plastics without scents. You could go with some other plastics like berkley powerbait, or squidgies and squidgies pro ranges. etc If you dont mind losing lures that cost about $20 each then you could step up to getting some hardbodies. Fishing from shallows and structures, try to ecogear SX40 hardbodies or even the MX48's. Blades and vibes are great too. You could try small poppers on sand flats or for whiting,bream and flatties. Snaggy shallow terrain for bream. Jazza zappas are great lures for the walk the dog style fishing for top water fishing.

nahh mate only when something pulls drag out, the drag knob will spin with the spool, and thus making the drag pressure increase. Drag will stop self tightening after it reaches a threshold of probably 1.5kg-2kg Most probably the knob is making contact with the spool. The drag discs are correctly placed in order.

Actually mate, you might be right about the drag washers being worn down and causing drag knob to make contact, but still it shouldnt make the whole spool spin. I'll actually swap some of the washers from new spool and place on the old one to check if it does the same, and let you know asap.. If it does then you're right about washers wearing down EDIT: No good, it still does the same thing. I really have no idea why when the line is pulled with minimal drag, it would self-tighten up. Imagine fighting a fish and the drag increases all of a sudden..

Oh yeah I forgot to mention this. Slinky, after reading about those carbontex fibres, I actually decided to order some, and get some reel grease from smoothdrag. Would this by any chance solve this issue?

Thanks Daniel I read it, it was interesting with similar issues but I know for sure my drag discs are in the right order. Thanks Grant, hopefully he will be able to help here. I was hoping he will see this post soon as he is very knowledgeable about drags systems ^^ (based on the help he has given to other members in the reel maintenance section).

I have a Shimano stradic 6000 FI since December 09. It hasn't really been used that much, but lately I've found that the drag is really acting up... I'm not too sure what's happening. When I set my drag very loose to allow the fish to run initially, then tighten up and set the hooks. On low to medium drag settings, the drag self tightens and pretty much the drag increases by A LOT. When I first noticed it, I pulled the line out quickly and would notice the drag clicking away as the line came out. It would stop eventually when the drag reaches probably about 2kg or more drag pressure. I'm not too sure about these drag discs, but when I first purchased this reel they came dry and I'm not sure about this whole dry/wet drag. The drag discs have a black coating which rubs off easily. IS this supposed to be run dry or what or am I supposed to grease it up? I believe this is the main cause of this very bad drag on this reel.. Edit: I forgot to add, when I adjust the drag when drag settings are low, the whole spool spins as well... Can anyone shed some light on this issue? I would love to have my reel up and running perfectly for the summer. Thanks a lot

I've got both symetres and stradics. I'd go with the stradic mate, its worth it, yuu have higher drag, water proof drag and a spare spool, which is already enough to win me. It also weighs a tad bit less than the symetre.

definitely a goby, i used to catch em with nets, and put em in my fishtank. Very interesting pelvic fins they got there. Even able to suck on the glass surface.

If you have another 2500 reel somewhere. Then just like wind the braid on to it, then top up the rest with mono... Now set the drag correct so there's some resistance. Simply attach the mono end to your baitrunner and wind the rest of the line off your other reel. That's the easiest method.

I never got tangles even with weighted squid jigs. Never had a problem with it... BUT I always have tangle problems when I use the conventional paternoster rig with 2 separate lines. 1 to sinker and 1 to lure.

Allan, I recommend you to try the dropper loop... Works for me But it sorta inhibits the action of the jig... But then again it means less tangles... I simply get a line that's probably 2.5m long, create a dropper loop which is about 10-20cm long (forming dropper loop uses double the length of line, so approx 30-40cm used). Below the dropper loop... Give it let's say 1.5m of line to keep the jig off the bottom and attach sinker. and the remainder (above the dropper loop attach a swivel). It's difficult to cast, but I've managed (landbased). But on kayak, it would work really great I'd say. A little tip, to save your jigs is when snagged is to use some very light leader to attach to your sinker which is connected to this rig. eg. Main line rig = 20lb, sacrificial sinker line 6lb. lol it would work great on your kayak but really crappy landbased.

it's a nice size by all standards haha. Welcome to Fishraider, look forward to more of your reports. I love squid reports!

totally agree about not seeing ant yakkas there haha... there's no right sized livebaits there... haven't seen any for over a month in fact. Monch are you like always fishing at that spot?? well I haven't seen any calamari squid around since those little baitfish have been around there. Although have landed 2 x arrows.

Hey mate great work on the squid! I'm glad you got a great one too.

Lol nice job on locating those large calamari... Well just letting yuu know. Both these spots were talking about don't have any squid ATM..... Both spots have too many of those baitfish around which proabably scare off those squid. Yeah mannn I have to agreed with you... Orange ain't doing any good atm.... Caught Jack sheet on it lol. Best jig for us is pink, natural brown, dark coloured jigs and blue. Lately haven't even had any livebaits gettin killed by squid... That's how crappy those spots are. I'm not even fishing in the right spots for squid... I'm more after those large pelagics... But lately has been pretty dead (like not even bream, blackies or trevs) so resorted to getting baitfish =.=" but wouldn't mind an odd squid or two. Cuz like who can resist squid hahha. yeah crystal blue power tip. I love that rod.... Still I haven't caught anything on it yet. Although my stradic has with my old retired rod. We need to go for another fish togetheer man... Have u got yur mob yet? U can pm me ur number and we'll talk via pm instead of making this thread offtopic.

hahaha... but those arrows were caught ages ago... (in fact at this spot we're talking about). We were using yamashita natural 1.8 brown natural, and a blue yamashita 2.0.. But this was back in summer when they were like everywhere and large schools... Probably cleaned the school out in fact. Caught 2 the other day at the other spot, where we first met. Using a pink yamashita 2.0... Nowadays there so much harder to find man... it's frustrating. What are you targetting with them?

I fished landbased.. it's completely different to on the boat, but thanks for letting me know that there are plenty of slimies out there. I think I gotta try what you did... lol im just wondering do you think a piece of white fat from like chicken or beef (which should sink VERY slowly) work? Maybe after this heavy rain, it should improve with the water being a bit more murkier. The trickle idea is good too, although the problem is... there was so many yakkas in there that the slimies were way too slow to move in. Half a slice of bread disappeared in like 15 seconds.

A.dawg knows what I'm talking about...What's very funny though is sometimes they would take any baits even on heavier lines.. but on most days they are too timid. Sabiki rigs won't change much in this situation... I tie my own multihook rigs, with 2-3 hooks on a 6lb line. Using baits like pilchards or w/e... I'm sure these are much better compared with the sabiki rigs?

Yesterday with such perfect fishing weather decided to head out to Port Hacking to fish for anything.. Saw a lot of large blue mackerels swimming in and out of our berley trail casually and eating everything but the hooked baits. It would always avoid the hooked baits or played with the bait by mouthing and spitting it out, swimming in to check it out then swim away, swim past and hitting the bait and swimming away again. We were using 6lb berkley vanish with size 8-10 hooks unweighted baits. It was frustrating... does anyone know how to catch these slimies landbased?? Has it got something to do with bright sunny day, very clear water they can see the line too easily? OR maybe they notice the different sinking rate? The fish were about 1.5-2m deep. Also can lures catch them?

Slinky's right on. It's definitely not an octopus. It's a squid/cuttlefish, and a big one too. This image is of a squid tentacle. When compared to the marks on the bonnie, its exactly the same. The little suckers are also present there, which was the first thing I noticed... and Octopuses don't have these little suckers.

Don't use mullets, I find yakkas one of the best baits for enticing squid. Both squid and yakkas live down deep, so it's like a natural food for them.. whereas mullets are more pelagic and squid hardly target them. You will find that livebaited mullet will swim on the surface, and yakkas go deep. (very important for squid). I'm not too sure mate as to why they're not there. But definitely the smaller ones don't hang around like they do in summer. Try one day fishing there at about 6am, and fish as the sun rises. In one of my spots, it fires during that time, from sunrise to when the sun hits the water (from about 6:30 - 8:30am). Don't take the info I'm going to say next seriously as it could be incorrect, these are just my hypothesis. The larger ones prefer to live down deep, possibly to avoid strong currents?? (not sure about this one), to avoid runoff and for safety. Also they are breeding so they would want to find a nice safe area to lay their eggs. Squid are also territorial when breeding, so some squid should move into that area you're fishing in sooner or later... Could be other people have fished it out already. They will pretty much hit anything that goes past them (this is true from what I've seen).

I find that when the water is too crystal clear, the squid are more timid and tend to avoid hitting jigs. Even using livebaits, when you bring them close, they tend to let go even before you see them. We've had luck catching squid in murky water during bright days. As for clear water, probably best to have overcast, and/or fish dawn/dusk. Do you see any livebaits around that area? They wouldn't want to be around where there's no food around. Landbased wise stick with the smaller jigs (1.8-2.5) and probably get some squid attractant spray. I'm assuming that spot would get quite popular at times. Same thing applies though, just throw a livebait out weightless on a hook and hope a squid comes and grabs it, and if you're lucky you might even hook up to a nice fish as a by-catch.