When mechanically setting drag do you pull straight off the spool or do you do it like in a real world setting...line through the guides and rod loaded? There's a big difference.

Real World.

Real world and drags are always set by feel.

I set mine by feel to but I wanted to know how accurate my feel is.

Real world and drags are always set by feel.

Always set by feel? Thats a wild statement.Especially from a fresh and saltwater angler.

Always set by feel? Thats a wild statement.Especially from a fresh and saltwater angler.

I've always set mine by feel.

You can have a good guesstimate on how much pound you set your drags by:

1. With the reel set up on the rod. Set the drag to near max.

2. Pull the line straight from the reel, just get the feel how heavy is your reel near max before it stop releasing lines.

3. Now get a scale and tie it down to a post in one end and the other end to your mainline line as you would tie a sinker.

4. With the drag set to near max, start lifting the rod to put pressure on the scale until the spool slowly starts releasing lines.

5. Check the scale how much pressure it took to release lines. Take note on how much pounds were registered in the scale.

6. Now start releasing the drag and do step 4 and Step 5 until you get let say 2 pounds.

7. Then do Step 2.

8. At this point you already have a good idea on how much pounds your reel near max drag and also how a two pounds drags feels when you pull the line straight from the reel. Now you can guesstimate how much pounds you are setting your drags next time you are out in the water.

I hope this makes sense to you, but this is how I know how much drags my reels are set.

Always set by feel? Thats a wild statement.Especially from a fresh and saltwater angler.

Always.........I see no reason for me to use a scale and do the the math to set my drag, I know what I want, it's like riding bike, you don't forget.

Not unusual to adjust the drag as I'm fighting a fish, especially the saltwater species, usually by palming the spinning spool, sometimes manual adjusting.

You only need to the scale measurement the first time to get a good basis of how some pounds would feel. The rest of the time would be just by feel to adjust drag poundage.

One would need some basis before one can make a good guesstimate how much pounds the drags are set and that's where you need the scale to confirm the 'feel'. Otherwise someone else 5 pounds feel could be only 2 pounds feel to others.

Makes no difference, 2 lbs. of resistance is 2 lb. of resistance, whether a straight pull off the reel, or with a loaded rod.

Now, if you're trying to get a feel of what your rod, reel, and line is like together, by all means, set it up like real world, INCLUDING a cast's worth of line. Especially if you are using fluoro or mono.