Non-Fly Drag Slippage

[jasmillo]

Hello all. Quick question for you gear guys on what might be causing drag slippage on one of my reels used for jigging. I have flipped to almost 100% fly at this point but get out a few times a year jigging for salmon. I am not all that familiar with reels outside of spinning and fly so am perplexed by what’s causing the drag to slip on this reel.





The odd thing is it goes back and forth between working and not working. I’ll use it for 30 minutes, drag is working fine. Then it just fails. Put down for a day and the next day it is working again. I checked to make sure it was not slipping as I did tie braid directly to the spool but that is not what’s happening. Am I missing something obvious or do I just need to send this guy back to be looked at. My worry is they’ll send it back to me untouched because the drag will work fine when they test it .

 

[Scudley Do Right]

Did you store it with the drag cranked down? You might try aftermarket drag washers and swap them out?

Okuma carbontex drag washers COLD WATER LINE COUNTER CW-354D, CW-354DLX | eBay

Carbontex Drag kit - Includes:(2) Carbon drag washers. Impressive zero start-up inertia regardless of how much you try to suppress the drag. Quick translation, no more broken lines or lost trophy fish due to a sticky drag….

www.ebay.com

 

[CRO]

if there is a flat stainless spring washer between the handle and the face of the drag star, it could use a little more bend to stop the star from turning.

 

[jasmillo]

Did you store it with the drag cranked down? You might try aftermarket drag washers and swap them out?

Okuma carbontex drag washers COLD WATER LINE COUNTER CW-354D, CW-354DLX | eBay

Carbontex Drag kit - Includes:(2) Carbon drag washers. Impressive zero start-up inertia regardless of how much you try to suppress the drag. Quick translation, no more broken lines or lost trophy fish due to a sticky drag….

www.ebay.com

Not that I am aware. If I did, wouldn’t the drag not work at all versus sometimes working and sometimes not?

if there is a flat stainless spring washer between the handle and the face of the drag star, it could use a little more bend to stop the star from turning.

I’ll look at that.

Otherwise, I think I’ll send it back. As much as I’d like to fix myself, I watched a replace drag disc video on these reels on YouTube and since I’ve not had a 14 year apprenticeship on watch making in Switzerland, I’ll pass. How come reels like this cost $150 bucks, and a simple fly reel even someone like me can fix costs 5 times as much

 

[Scudley Do Right]

Hard to say but if you're gonna fish the salt often I would learn to tear it apart. It might have old grease in there that hardened or something. Salt is hard on reels and it's best to tear them down before they cost you a fish. I don't use a disc drag for salmon, I like a reel like a 5000d or something similar. It might be worth a try grabbing an old reel. I feel like I have more control using my thumb and they are simple to breakdown.

 

[Chucker]

Might be some water in there between the drag discs. Whatever it is, a tear down and rebuild with new washers is almost always the answer. I have done it on lots of reels, and it’s not that hard so long as you keep track of what goes where. However, it does take quite a bit of time the first few times you do it, and you might want to go fishing instead!

 

[ThatGuyRyRy]

I had that problem when I tied the braid directly to the spool. I actually use a mono backing now. It saves on the amount of braid that I need to use for respooling. Another tip is just to wrap a piece of electrical tape of the spool. But I prefer the mono

One also hack that I have is you can flip the braid and respool it since the that end of the line doesn't seem the water nearly as much as the top.