Drag Setting on large fish
 

Hi All,

I've been fishing for a number of years in sal****er and have never have any
problems landing big fish (60 - 120 lbs.) on lever reels. However, I
recently purchased a Penn 114L and an Electra-Mate 940 XP electric motor for
the Penn. A few days ago I ran into something big. The fish was probably
either a large Warsaw or Golith Grouper. The fish was definitely in the
neighborhood of 200 - 300 lbs. I had the star drag set as tight as it would
go and the damn fish kept taking line like there was know tomorrow. I may
be
mistaken but can't Star Drags be completely locked down like Lever systems.
The problem came when I tried to reel the fish up. The motor kept spinning
and the line kept going out. Could someone explain this?

Thanks

Drag Setting on large fish
 

Mark, what happens to drags is, if overloaded, they heat up. And the
hotter they get, the less effective they are. Now on a lever drag reel
the drag washers are quite large, three to four inches across, so they
can disapate more heat, and on larger reels their are multiple washers
(lots of surface area) and usually, the reel being made of aluminum
helps as well. On your 114L the drag washers are only about an inch
across, their are multiple ones, but their mounted within a gear, they
don't disipate heat very well, they overheat very easily under a heavy
sustained load.

The moral of the story, when bear hunting, leave the BB gun home
(sorry, I couldn't resist that one). I've had my share of times
trolling for Tuna with "the big guns" out and someone decides to put
out a light weight rod like a 20 or 30. Guess which rod get's the hit
every time?

Do you ever get Blue Fins where you are? Every now and then here in NY
someone hooks a big one up while trolling spoons for Stripers. It's
usually over very quickly. If the line doesn't snap you just get
stripped.

Set your drag before fishing. You do not want to hear the familiar "ZZZZZZZZZ"from the drag is too loose or the popular "snapshot "of you when your resistance line too tight. Check it out pull it with your hand about the conversion of every ten.