Drags???

[Jack_Lives_Here]

As a few know I'm looking to upgrade to a new reel for my 10wt. There seems to many and varied drag options on the various brands - Cork, teflon hybrid type, conical type drags etc etc.
Obviously all have pros and cons.
Is there any one that shines above the rest??

[Wesley_Pang]

Dave,

I prefer cork drags. Check out an article on Dan Blantons site about cork drags http://www.danblanton.com/dragsyou.html

The majority of my reels have cork drags. I grease them once or twice a year. They are so easy to service.

I hate reels that you can not service. My Ross Canyon 6 has space age drag material that I could not service. I had to send it back to the importer. The drag got tighter and tighter and all it need was to have the drag plates cleaned. This reel is a good reel and I've caught some good fish one it, but I've relegated it to a backup reel. My 1st choice reel is cork drag Abel Super 11.

I had a problem with my Loomis Syncrotech 11-12-13. The cork came off the drag plate. I glued it back on. I would not recommend the Loomis. They are not solid enough, and flex. I'd recommend Tibor, Fin-nor and Abels.

One reel with synthetic drag I'd like to try would be the Charlton.

Wes

[shawn]

G'day Dave,
It would be hard to go past the Orvis Vortex. They have the largest drag of any reel on the market, and it's very smooth. 8)
Check out there web site www.orvis.com
A few of the tuna boys use them.
Hope this helps...Shawn.

[swflyfish]

My advice is to look past all the others and choose an Australian made reel. In my opinion you can not go past the Hayden Reels and Terry Hayden is more than happy to talk to you about the pros and cons of reels and drags- do yourself a favour and give him a call.

Watch that the drag is not too big as this is not always an advantage.

Don't get caught up in the hype that all too often surrounds flyfishing.

[Maxg]

I think it's pretty well established that MOST people plug for cork drags because they have compressability, which gives a much greater and smoother adjustment range. And the best cork drags are usually associated with materials like rulon or teflon and are lubricated. But in saying that you should realise that it isn't necessary to have a drag that goes from absolute free spool to lock up.
In any case the two most important things about drags are low inertia, which means very low resistance to spool rotation from a standing start, and is related to drag washer diameter vs spool diameter. Which in the case of the Orvis Vortex is about 1:1 and is what you might call pretty radical in design.
The reel with the least inertia is a Steelfin XFR, which is measured at zero inertia, which has a very small teflon drag that you just cannot lock up. It really isn't a drag, its just a sort of bit of pressure to stop spool overrrun.
Next is smooth operation from none to maximum, ie not a sudden sort of application.
Drag shudder is a big no no, that it gives shudders as you remove line from the reel.
Reels these days have rim control, which is the most useful drag because hand pressure is normally a more precise application.
One of the reasons behind the LA style of fly reel is that the line plug area, that bit of the spool that holds line is right on the spool perifery and is wide enough that it holds a lot of line, usually GsP, and there is very little diameter change between full and empty spool which means very little drag variation as line is removed. This allows for a constant drag setting and allows the angler to do very fine adjustments with the hand control rim.
There have been a lot of new type drags, with multi disc small diameter drags but the most expensive reels seem to stick to cork basically because it performs better than most others. Max

[Steve_Ooi]

One could argue until a tuna evolved legs about the pro's and cons of different materials.
But like any mechanical system no matter what materials are used (cork, teflon ,carbon fibre) they only function as good as the mechanical design of it.
Stick with a proven reel that has a good track record in the field and on the service bench, and it will give you a life time of pleasure. I would say most of reels mentioned above fit that bill.
one other reel really worth considering is the felty

Steve Ooi

[thunnus]

Speaking of tuna growing legs - have any of you seen the new sportfising mag (one from the states)? It has a pic of a three headed redfish? do you reacon its for real or are they pulling our leg. The caption reads something like " a three headed redfish pulled from near a nuclear power station"

cheers, Justin

[Wesley_Pang]

Justin,

Was the the Mag the April edition??

Remember "Blinky the 3-eyed fish" from the Simpsons.

Wes

[thunnus]

wes - i dunno mate i was just being a cheap arse and checking it out in the newsagent. And yes it did remind me of blinky - what was even worse was when i went home that exact episode was on - very freaky [smiley=freak.gif]

[Quinny69]

There is a Nucular Power station in Florada Keys that has a warm water cannal running into the "Keys"propper.Ive seen it on Inshore Angler, they got reds and some Jacks/Trevors from the place.All the fish were standard single heads though,,,,,,,,,,

[Wesley_Pang]

Abel Super 12(DiscoReel) that will be mine next month.

Wes - The reel scavenger

P.S. Anyone want to sell a Super 8?

[mackmauler]

hahahaha what the

[Jack_Lives_Here]

You'll be right for night fishing there Wes. Just hold the new reel up and all will see you???

[thunnus]

you ganna paint cherman the same colour wes?

cheers, Justin

[Quinny69]

Lookin good for Sat guys, perfect conditions for Peel/goat fish.10-15 NW winds, High Tide at 8.45am,,,,Anyone need a fishin buddy? Pay day so Ill bring the Boags.Have to buy a Striper Line tommorow, found a split in my running line today,Not sure if I should get Int. or IV ,,,,,,MQ