Drag Setting

[andrew399]

Just a quick question for those that know what they are talking about in regards to drag settings. If i was fishing 20lb mono for kings, livebaiting not downrigging, how many kilos of drag should i apply?? And the same again with 30lb braid?

Is there a set percentage or does it vary with total breaking strain etc

Thanks for any help!

[andrew399]

guess it depends on where i'l be fishing and the size of the fish around. Around the wedding cakes i use 30lb flouro but if i get dusted i can bump up as heavy as 60lb... connected to mainline via swivel with uni knot. So you rekon go 1/3? about 3.5 kg...

[Red]

Dicko, mate i'd give the mono away and stick to the braid for kings and push your braid as far as your rod can go, just shy of breaking point . That's been my general approach with braid as you will never bust it through the rod, unless your braid is from a bad batch or your knots aren't quite up to abuse. Basically treat your 30lb braid as if it were 60lb mono because chances are it's even stronger again. No real need for scales however if you must use scales, start at 7kg and go up from there providing your rod, knots and hooks are up to the load. Give kings nothing otherwise they'll give you plenty

Cheers

Red

[miller]

Dicko, mate i'd give the mono away and stick to the braid for kings and push your braid as far as your rod can go, just shy of breaking point . That's been my general approach with braid as you will never bust it through the rod, unless your braid is from a bad batch or your knots aren't quite up to abuse. Basically treat your 30lb braid as if it were 60lb mono because chances are it's even stronger again. No real need for scales however if you must use scales, start at 7kg and go up from there providing your rod, knots and hooks are up to the load. Give kings nothing otherwise they'll give you plenty

Cheers

Red

reds on the money

7kg + is a good starting point

cheers

miller

[jewgaffer]

Dicko, mate i'd give the mono away and stick to the braid for kings and push your braid as far as your rod can go, just shy of breaking point . That's been my general approach with braid as you will never bust it through the rod, unless your braid is from a bad batch or your knots aren't quite up to abuse. Basically treat your 30lb braid as if it were 60lb mono because chances are it's even stronger again. No real need for scales however if you must use scales, start at 7kg and go up from there providing your rod, knots and hooks are up to the load. Give kings nothing otherwise they'll give you plenty

Cheers

Red

High beamed on this one. Red is right on the money here and is giving members the best advice here

Tight drag and give your kingfish no quarter is the way to go as Red said ! There's enough free running space for kingfish in a bent rod cushioning the fish as it is. And you can always feed him a little bit of drag and tighten up to tire him and to get the good feel to decide on a favourite rod as you change from rod to rod once you're amongst them.

A quality light weight rod with enough backbone to give you the leverage and not the fish, plus a good quality smooth reel with a good drag system gives you all the sport you need.

If you use at least 30lb braid you still get the fun out of the rod and reel without all the bust offs and hard luck stories you read in the reports.

Quality light gear with fast action is fine for playing fun and braid is meant to do the job nicely by its rigidity and small diameter nature and there is no need to skimp on breaking strain.

Going up in line strength hardly effects the price, nor does it spoil the sportiness. Of course lighter braids do play a major role in the proper working of smaller artificials and flies and braid allows for more line strength to be used without affecting the action.

To have yourself more rod playing fun for example grab a 10w fly spin convertable or a quality nibble tip rod etc, close your eyes and on an oversize king and you'll think you're playing a marlin and you won't cop the usual undersize line bust offs which does not do anything improve sportiness, is the trend these days but will finish up a no brainer when you hook up a kingfish too big for these undersize lines to handle.

Still there is a tendency towards the self satisfaction of landing oversize fish on ridulously undersize line but that won't be done by this old boy, after I blew everything including the wax out of my ears on a kingfish while fishing for tailor on a heavyweight bait jig.

Cheers

jewgaffer

[Red]

There's enough free running space for kingfish in a bent rod cushioning the fish as it is.

Jewgaffer, you are spot on. Thats all we like to give them where possible, using only 15lb braid. Sometimes half the rod is in the water before they get any line off the reel. These fights really test the tackle. You need atleast a 7ft rod to effectively fight fish in this manner. Any line won by the fish is very hard earnt.

You should see how hard my mate fishes 10lb Fireline. Most people will be totally astounded. He's done 4.7kg kings on 10lb that have taken less than 2 metres of line off him. I've witnessed it on several occasions. Ofcourse there's both good rods a degree of angling skill involved in fishing kamikaze style otherwise rod breakages will go through the roof.

My favourite 15lb outfit weighs a total of 300 grams and a joy to use. There's simply no need to go up to bulky/expensive 50 and 80lb braid outfits for these fish.

tight lines

Red