Guys, I can't remember if I read it somewhere or dreamt it but after a day of fishing should you back the drag off of all your reels until the next time you go?  If so, what is the real reason behind this?

Yup, you want to do that, especially if you're not going to use the baitcast reel or even a spinning reel for a few days or weeks.  I loosen the star drag & the round tension knob.  I'll also back off the drag on my spinning reels.

You see, there are washers for the drags.  If you keep constant pressure, you will compress the washers for too long of a time.  The washers will not perform the job of "drag" when you need it.

A friend found out the hard way.  He stored his baitcaster for the winter & when he first used it this year, a month ago, the drag did not hold.  He cranked it down & still it slipped.

When you loosen the drag, it gives the washer time to recover.

Back your drag off??

Always

Keeping the drag tightened creates un-necessary wear of the metalic and felt washers, with time the drag will malfunction.

My oldest reels are over two decades old, never had to change a washer.

What they said and........I back my drag off when playing a large(4 lbs and up) Bass when it gets near the boat.  A too-tight drag can cause you to lose a nice Bass when it decides to surge(usually right under the boat).  Then my thumb comes into play and becomes my backup drag .

Dan

Always, no room for arguments 8-)

thanks for responding guys---I thought that I should.

For the sake of discussion, I'll throw some gas on the coals...

I have also always heard to do this but NEVER did.  I have a handfull of reels that I bought in the early 80's and 90's that are still set exactly where I set them.  (only minor changes like when I switch # ratings on line).

So here is my question-  I sent ReelMech about 8 of those reels last spring and he said they all looked very good internally and only had to clean and relube them.  Seems like the drag washer fears are overrated to me I mean a couple of these reels have had drags tightened pretty tight (since I use mostly 14# and 17# XT) for 20 years or more with NO DAMAGE and no excess wear.

To go one step further, my fishing partner does back them off after every trip and what ends up happening is that he miss one of them when we go out the next time and misses a fish because his drag slips on the first hookset... and sometimes gets a nice backlash since the drag was so loose.  ...lol

I don't doubt that there could be merit in doing this but I wonder if it's specific to one type of drag washer or system and people just mistook that to mean all reels over time.

My oldest reels are over two decades old, never had to change a washer.

Mine also.

Gentlemen,

Maybe I can clear some things up here. Yes it is a good thing to back off the drags in today's reels if they are being stored.

But the misconception seems to be that the main drag pads are what's being compressed.

Not so...

The main drag pads in today's reels are made of materials and thickness that cannot compress.

What is being compressed are the 2 drag spring washers that sit on the upper part of the stack just under the drag star. These washers can compress and you can lose 2 full turns of drag adjustment on the star.

The older main pads in the reels from the 70's, and, some of the older main pads in the reels from the 80's that used the leather like fiber pads, could be compressed to the point they would stick to the drive gear and tear when removed, but still there would be a drag spring washer that would compress and you would lose drag pressure adjustments.

I still advocate releasing as much of the pressure in the drag stack as you can when storing your reels....

Tight Lines All!!

Thanks for the clarification, ReelMech!

Old reels had compresible material used for the pads, compresible material that compressed and lost thickness if you kept the drag tightened ( my old Abus have that kind of material ), but the spring washers, the ones that look like this ---> () were and are still being used, and those flatten out, with time, if kept under constant pressure.

The pad material may have changed but the spring washers are still there, never ever leave a spring whatever the shape it has under pressure unnecessarily, the same thing applies to guns, never store the magazine full for an extended period of time, the only gun you can leave loaded is a revolver or a twin shotgun, all the others use springs to reload the gun.

Very often, I'll fish all day without ever touching the drag. But if I'm lucky enough to hang a really good fish,

I might "back-off" on the drag as the fish gets close to the boat (more often in saltwater).

Tight drag-tension promotes three mishaps, particularly with big fish that make a boat-side lunge on a short line:

1. A fray or nick in the line may 'pop'

2. A lightly-hooked fish is almost certain to 'break-off'

3. A very strong fish may 'straighten the hook' or simply 'rip free' of the hook.

I know that it's rarely addressed, but backing off on the drag can work wonders on preventing the loss of big fish at boat-side.

Roger

I never knew that you should loosen the drag after fishing.  I learn something new everytimeI log on!

Great points RoLo....

I never knew that you should loosen the drag after fishing.  I learn something new everytimeI log on!

I also leardned this from these forums.  I would have never known!

I don't worry too much about this unless i'm storing away for a long period of time.I'm definely gonna make sure i'll do it just as a precaution though.Seems like a good idea.

Now as far as fighting a bigger fish,i alway loosen up the drag a bit...i learned the hard way with a drag too tight isn't a good thing.