Front drag or rear drag reels...

[Renrag39]

Rear drag for me too. Its just more convenient. Tend to have a light setting anyway (unless its snaggy) and always back it right off at the end of a session and reset at the start of a new one. Just a habit.

I do have a front drag for my float reel. Never touch it. Set at about 1lb pull, perpendicular to the spool.

How long before Phone (or someone) mentions multipliers?

 

Renrag

Edited November 22, 2011 by Renrag39

[Phone]

All,

 

I voted rear drag. That doesn't mean everyone should go buy one right now. Actually for most of my (carp) fishing I use a 'spincast' reel. As Chesters suggests the drag on a Zebco is on TOP of the reel.

 

Something I do with both baitcasters and fixed spool reels is back them off when the session is over. Don't know if it really helps but it is always recommended by the reel manufacturers. Just in the habit now.

 

Yes, I use a particular part of my kit (marked 5 gal bucket) to 'set' the drag at the beginning of a session. Drag is set based on breaking strength of the line I happen to have on. The weight(s) escapes me at the moment. I also engage the drag a time or two before the first cast just to be sure. I have confidence in doing this. One less element in the equation.

 

Phone

[wotnobivvy]

Do any of you use a spring balance to set your drag?

 

 

I set it and give a good tug, then adjust as necessary

[Dick Dastardly]

Glad you brought this up Rob! Over the past few years Ive read several people saying that they think front drags are better than rear,So many so that Ive had to give it a bit of thought!

 

I was brought up on Mitchell 300's they had a front drag that was in general so pants that a whole new method of playing fish was developed,back winding! The first rear drags (all though best called "stern drag" as they work slightly differently to a conventional rear drag) that I experienced was on the ABU Cardinal C5 reel (the 55's had a normal rear drag but I hadn't used them at the time).It was very smooth and actually usable! Didn't stick with them a great deal at the time though because the line lay was so pants! but yes a definite improvement drag wise over the Mitchell's.

 

First of the "modern" rear drags I used was on an Aero Baitrunner (6010) Excellent! Trouble was I was so used to back winding I stuck with it! But that had shown me that rear drags were far superior to front drags.

 

Only time I didn't back wind was when I started fishing for Catfish,simply because they ran to fast to back wind efficiently.By the time I started fishing abroad for them using the front drag on a Shimano Sea Spin Bait Runner 4500 was the norm.They were usable and certainly better than any front drag on a Mitchell but still not as smooth as the Aero rear drags. When I later uprated my catfish reels to modern 6500 Shimanos I noticed there had been a big improvement in the drag....but possibly still not as smooth as the rear drag but its difficult for me to compare as the catting is a bit extreme!

 

As such I have been quite suprised recently to read people saying how poor rear drags are compared to front drags. I still back wind for most species (just what Im used to after all these years) so only have the experience Ive listed to go on.

 

So I ask the question- Are front drags so much more advanced than the ones I was/am used to and have "over taken" the rear drag? or what?

[Rob Ward]

No Idea, have a look at my Okky's next season at Wingham and see what you think!

[BoldBear]

I agree that front drags can be more sensitive if you keep them set but like a lot of others on this forum I tend to change my drag setting as the fight progresses and find this far quicker and easier to do with a rear drag.

[tincatinca]

The basic principle of a clutch is very simple ie using a a friction plate to create a dring force as in a car, or any other bit of machinery that requires a clutch. The difference with a reel is that you want to introduce controlled slippage that builds in a safety margin relative to the line used therefore unlike in a car where you want it to want it to work constantly you now want to be able to vary the load on the friction plates/washers which is done by creating a mechanical means to vary the compressive force applied to the friction plates/washers unless an entirely different arrangement is used ie abraking mechanism on the shaft. In the main this compressive force is created either through a spring and/or compressable material. In many reels you have a combination set of both friction washers and compression washers. Whatever the make up is the quality of materials used will dictate how efficient the mechanism is with regard to frictional properties, adjustment capability, parrallelism and rigidity. As the clutch assembly will normally be mounted on a shaft then positioning close to a bearing support will also be important to maintain both regidity and parrallellism under load. Much will depend both on the design of the reel and materials used which will also reflect in the cost. I think that these latter issues are very relevant as manufacturing costs generally increase and which I feel is the main reason for example that Shimano reels do not appear to be as robust as they once were plus the accuracy and machining technology may now be different. Getting back to clutches, the front clutch is a much simpler mechanism than the rear clutch and in principle bigger is better shearly for the fact that they produce less stress in the components. Budgie for example has had a lot of experience with large cats the reels for which I would imagine have all had a front clutch. I think that if they had used a rear clutch you would have needed a spanner to tighten them up. This would have put enormous stress onto the component parts with the likelehood that they would have failed very rapidly. I can appreciate why there is a preference by many for a rear clutch and the good ones such as in the Shimano GTE range work well but my own opinion is that mechanically a front clutch is a much better design and particularly where bigger fish are the quarry.

[Tigger]

Paul, what do you think of the abu suveran centre drag ?

[Andy Macfarlane]

I have some rear drag reels but given the option now, I'd go for front drags every time. Smoother than any rear drag I've handled and far less to go wong.

 

Rear drags are convenient but that's all they are. If yiu can back-wind or have no problem adjusting a front-drag mid-fight, there's no competition.

[tincatinca]

Paul, what do you think of the abu suveran centre drag ?

 

 

Can't really comment on the Suveran Ian as I have never had one or had a good look inside one. A couple of my mates in Cumbria have them and use them for worming for Salmon. Looking at the site below http://www.realsreels.com/reviews/suveran.htm

they appear to be very well made and use carbon in the drag assembly probably similar to that used in the brakes of plane and high powered cars. The interesting bit is that they are using large dia friction discs than would be found on the internal rear assemblies which makes for a more efficient set up.. From the pictures it looks as the clutch assembly contains a combination of both captive and free discs. Quite complex and I think would be a bit of a job to strip down and re build. It does show however that the quality of the clutch component material can make a considerable differerence.

 

Another thing I have noticed is that the drag is very tightly controlled as it appears that turning drag wheel is limited by a cut out and stop.

Edited November 22, 2011 by tincatinca