Smooth Drags

[iank]

A lot of people here have stated that the daiwa eggbeaters have a beter and SMOOTHER drag than any other make, I would like to know how they came to this conclusion. This should make for some interesting replys.
Cheers Ian

[Jeremy]

how about Shakespeare? Not many people talk about them, but I used to love my 'sigma' spinning reel. I now have an 'Intrepid' which has a 7 metal and 6 fibre washers in the drag. Unfortunately both are no longer made.

Jeremy

[craftycarp]

Depends on what Daiwa you are talking about and that pretty much goes for any make of reel. Even the high end saltigas aren't as smooth as people would like you to believe. Part of the problem with the little saltigas breaking at the stem was because the pressure of the drag would spike to alot higher than it was set to, from time to time. Of course it wasn't helped that the saltigas in question were being tested to the max by monster tuna and the braid higher than rated.

Incidently having higher breaking strain braid on your reel is only really a problem if your reel drag pressure spikes. Ie if you have a 4500 saltiga that is rated to take 20pound and you put 50 pound braid on it. Everything is fine while your drag is humming along smoothly because you have set the drag to a low enough pressure. However when the drag spikes to 25-35 pound for a split second (you dont even notice its that quick) and does this every now and then it puts big forces on the reel stem and over time a fracture occurs and as we have seen in the videos on the net the little saltiga breaks. I was talking to a daiwa rep and he kept saying well they where running higher rated braid and I kept saying so what if the drag is set correctly, eventually he admitted to the spiking but said its because the drag was put under alot of pressure for alot of trips. However having said that it happens to all reels not just daiwas and not just saltigas. We all know about the saltigas because they are expensive and they break very dramatically. With most other reels its the internals that go first and usually alot earlier than the saltigas.

We all know that after a bit of use all things dont work like they did when they have come out of the box the same goes with drags. No matter what the big companies tell you, these things need servicing, especially if you are maxing these reels out every trip. You dont need to service every trip but you will need to service them eventually as the constant micro second jarring of the drag is causing stress inside the reel.

The smoothest drags I have experienced are as follows van staals, saltigas, certates, stradics,stellas and okuma epix. believe it or not epix drag is really nice while its young but ages alot faster than the others. Van Staals are in a league of their own. I dont own one but a mate of mine does and he uses for jigging kingies and samsons and for casting poppers at tuna and gts, its awesome but it has other annoying idiosyncrasies.

[Jonli]

CraftyCarp ,

I have changed the drag washers on all of the Saltiga Z4500s to carbontex drag washers , let's see what happen then in the next YFT season . Drag spike in Saltigas are more apparent than in Stellas , I have relegated my Saltiga Z4500 to lesser duty .

Jon .

[Kevin_B]

Please forgive my stupidity, you say 'the drag spikes to 25-35lbs so quickly it can't even be felt, but puts big forces on the reel....'

Why does the spike put big forces on the reel, but i can't even feel it with my hand on the rod? Where does the extra force (pulling the rod down) go if im not taking the weight?

Not trying to be a wise guy, just interested as im a saltiga user and those carbon washers sound like a good idea.

[craftycarp]

Sorry I didn't say that right.. you do feel them but in the action you don't notice them, usually. My mates saltiga has seen some use now and on his the jarring is pronounced, however initially its just like a slight jerk every so often and yes get the carbontex washers they make a big difference. Especially when jigging.

[Kingo]

Having seen the Penn Applause 7000 in action I went straight out and bought one, I watched my uncle bring in a 15lb queenfish and the reel was superb(the reel was 18 months old at the time and had seen plenty of action)there was no jerking of the rod as the drag worked, it was all as smooth as silk.

[nabs12]

Hey
My Daiwa SOL got a bit of a work out yesterday.. silky smooth drag..

Cheers

[Kiktz]

I have just ordered a Certate so I will let you know as soon as I get it.............

I have heard the same about the Diawa Sol reels that they are really smooth and have plenty to offer.
I currently have a lil 2500 stradic which I had a washer up grade/ change on and that
has improved it to a nive lil reel as well

Aj