Well I screwed up and lost a nice large mouth this morning. For some reason I got it in my head to lower my drag a little. I guess it was something a saw in a thread a few weeks ago. Anyways, I'm running Abrazix 15lb so I went from full drag on my Lews TP and I backed it off 4 or 5 clicks. Sure enough I throw out my baby brush hog and get a gentle bite. No taps just weight with a little movement. So I don't give it the full hookset just a medium one. Sure enough I feel good weight on the set of a good fish. I start to reel him in and he stats to move and pulls the drag. It kinda freaked me out he was pulling it out so I keep tension on him and reach down to increase the drag. Well that was my mistake. I guess he turned toward me and out pops the lure. He makes it just to the top of the water and he gives me a nice big swirl vortex from jerking his head back in the water where he was just about to jump. This is gonna have me sick for a while. I hate losing fish! So if I'm running 15lb test how far should I back off my drag? 1-2 clicks? I think the TP test out to 16lb drag.

You can't measure by clicks. Best is to set it using actual weights. Sooner or later you'll know the proper setting by pulling it by hand. Drag or not, you're bound to lose a fish here or there. That's the way it goes. Dont beat yourself up over it or fishing will lose its fun in time.

Losing a nice fish is always tough Fireguy. Proper drag, and solid hookset as you know are the keys to land a nice fish. I am not technical when it comes to drag setting. I do not take weight readings like other anglers. I simply over the years have learned what is the proper tension that works for me and the fish I catch, by pulling out line by hand. I basically look and feel by hand what the right tension should be. Once I have it dialed in, I leave it alone. If I come across a monster, and it loads up real good on the rod I manually start pulling out line while keeping good tension. With these new strong lines, the amount of give they have is close to nothing, so you run the risk of a nice fish pulling the hook if fish has a lot of fight in him close to the boat/bank.

You have to learn what is right for you, with Fluorocarbon there is very little stretch and with braid there is no stretch, I use about 4 to 5 pounds drag on a straight pull, I know this by feel after years of using my drags. This is compounded when you you add bend to the rod, it all matters and all take time to learn. I asure you that is plenty for most fishing in open water to bury any hook in any Bass, if you set it to tight it is even easier to loose more fish with hooks tearing loose, just don't over tighten it now and let that start happening!! It's another reason they call it fish'n and not catch'n!! 

 

Like anything else you will learn much more and much quicker by experience than word of mouth (unfortunately), some things you just have to learn by been there done that!!   

I've done the same too many times but usually after cleaning reels drag too loose will sometime keep the hookset from burying the point and or while trying to adjust the drag during the heat of the battle, I'll make a mistake on rod to fish position that gives her an advantage.

Don't worry bout it, consider it one of your learning curves and be happy you got a good look at her

My rule of thumb:  Crank it all the way down.  With the right rod and line you shouldn't pop the line.