Drag

[Brady4]

Today I had a nice eye on the line, but he broke my line. My drag was going out so I let it go. Do you guys reel while it is dragging out? How tight do you have your drag set?

[OnAFly]

Don't reel with the drag going out. This will just twist your line up. Are you sure it was a walleye and not a pike?

As far as drag setting goes, just set it heavy enough not to let it out on a hookset.

[Brady4]

Yeah, almost positive it was an eye. If it wasn't, it was a bass. Had him a few feet from the hole and could see him through the ice. So when the drag is going out, when do I start reeling again?

[EBass]

You wait for it to stop and slowy pull back up the entire rod and then reel the slack up while your rod is going down towards the hole and repeat. You could also back reel. That's always fun. You'll get the hang of it after you loose some.

You want a happy medium for drag. If it's zipping out like nothing tighten it a lil. Helps to have good line. 2lb breaks pretty easy.

Hey at least you had something big on. All I caught were wee perch last time.

[shortfatguy]

When you set your drag you should pull on the line making it bend the rod like a fish would and make sure the drag lets loose before the line or rod breaks. better to have it a little loose than to lose a fish when it makes a run. You can always tighten it up a bit while fighting a fish.

[Mike Walerak]

I like to set my drag to about half of the breaking strength of the line. For instance, if your using 8lb set the drag to about 4 lbs of pull.

mw

[reinhard1]

on average fish or panfish you can rely on drag if neccessary. however i am a big fan of back-reeling when it comes to a fish that you feel will be a larger one. i dont mess with drags when it comes to that. all it takes is one nick in the line or a weak spot and there will be no drag to help there. where back-reeling might give you that extra edge. good luck.

[harvey lee]

I set my drgas to the point they will almost let go if I do too hard of a hookset. But, I fish with light line so I have too.

last night, using my Mitchell meatstick with 4# test mono, I landed a 27" channel cat and it was a fight.

After the hookset and 10 seconds of trying to move the fish, I lightened up my drag so it could run without breaking the line. Yes, it took a bit to ice the fish but it was a blast.

The reason I was using such light gear was that the kitties were biting very light and that was about the only way to detect a bite short of a spring bobber.

I also like to use lighter gear fo a better fight.

The rod I was deadsticking is considerably heavier and when I reeled a kittie in, there was simply no battle. Just give it all you wanted. I could crank hard as I had a braided white line on.

[TruthWalleyes]

I'm using 4# line and i like to keep my drag on the lighter side. During a hookset, i like to hear a very slight zzz.

It was described above very well, drag set to half the breaking strength.

Now when i'm using 80# power pro...I'm cranking that drag tight from the get go.

[EBass]

Ah, remember to loosen the drag when you're done fishing. You don't want to have a tight drag when it's not in use. That will ruin the drag.

[PerchJerker]

I set my drags tight enough that I can drive the hooks home on a good hookset with only minimal drag slippage on the hookset, but then I back the drag off right away if it feels like a decent fish.

For big fish I back reel --- it is much more reliable than the drag.

[panfishpounder00]

i set my drag just tight enough to not slip when setting the hook, but if the fish takes a hard run then i feed line by pulling the line off by hand with the drag. i try to find a good balance between the hookset and the lightest drag possible for a fish. a tad bit looser is better than tighter! just make sure you have a good hookset! as for backreeling, i dont do it! sure it works, but if the fish makes a big run and you slip on the reel handle, then you will most likely have a rats nest in the spool and can kiss that fish goodbye! also any knicks or abbrasion on the line should be clipped off, line inspection is also key! if im using mono for eyes and land a pike i'll instantlly check the line for knicks or weak spots and get rid of it. even an eye for that matter would make me check. also change the line every year! it may cost a bit more and take a bit of time to do it depending on how many rods you have but the payoff overules! braided i let go every other season.

[Stick in Mud]

When ice fishing, I prefer a drag that's too light to too strong, mainly because I use the lightest line I can possibly get away with. Sometimes it takes me a long time to get a big fish out of the hole, but that's part of the fun.

And as others have said, do not real when the drag is pulling out. Doing so will most certainly twist the line to the point where it's unusable.

[Comit 2]

Quote:

Today I had a nice eye on the line, but he broke my line. My drag was going out so I let it go. Do you guys reel while it is dragging out? How tight do you have your drag set?

I would take the rod and reel into the house and check you line. If it is old mono replace it. Then tie the line to something heavy and try to lift it with the rod. Set the drag so the rod doesn't max out on bending. That is the highest you want to set the drag.

I too set the drag so when I set the hook the drag will give just a bit. Then feel how big the fish is and make adjustments to the drag as needed. On small arber reels with mono I back reel only. Mono + light drag = a nightmare of rabbit ears.

[Beast26]

I usually have mine light enough that I can hear it on the hookset. I also leave my back reel on when fishing bigger fish (walleyes and pike) or big bluegills and crappies with 1 or 2 lb test (which I usually use).

[FutbolGuru]

I leave the drag loose enough to give just a little bit on a solid hookset, but tight enough that it won't give TOO much. Since you're fishing vertically when ice fishing, hooksets are fairly easy to bury and therefore I don't feel the need to overtighten the drag as long as you're connecting on your hooksets.

Of course, this is all assuming you're using the typical #4 test ice fishing line... if using heavier line you can get away with tightening it down a bit.

[Stick in Mud]

Yeah, I prefer to err on the side of too much drag as opposed to not enough. It's funny how big of fish I'll catch on really light line if I have the drag set light...for me, for whatever reason, I'm more likely to break off a fish than I am to have one come unglued if I've got a good hookset. I don't always get a good hookset, of course, but it seems like when I do, I can get big fish on light line with a loose drag. The problem most often isn't losing a fish because of a bad hookset; it's breaking the line because the drag--which i thought was light enough--wasn't light enough. It's a fine line (no pun intended). At least for me. Just my .02.