queensland Question For Reel Guru's

[ggg]

Hi all,

As some may know, I use a Penn International 975 for reef fishing. It's a solid reel and paired to my Wilson Live Fibre, makes a good reef combo. I would like to increase the max drag though as the reel can only pump out about 5-6kg of drag. Is there any way I can re-engineer my reel to do this. I am confident in pulling apart reels and have serviced many reels. Could adding extra tension washers under the star drag do anything? I am not experienced in increasing a reels drag so am new to this. The washers are already good quality (HT-100) and I grease all my washers.

[Drop Bear]

I don't think so mate. My opinion, get another reel if you need more pulling power. 

I hope I am wrong and someone tells me of something but I have not heard of it.

[ggg]

I can't get rid of it as it's sentimental and I am not selling a Made in The US $600 reel. You can't buy these anymore. I might just have to add extra pressure with my thumb.

[Junky]

I don't think you can.

Fit carbontex washers in. That's about it.

Things start breaking if they're not engineered to take the increased loads. 

How much more do you want?

IMO if you want more....buy a lever drag or a big spin reel. 

 

[ggg]

I might have to get a new set of washers. I only want a few more kilos of drag. I have a Fin Nor 9500, a Saragosa 8000 and a Saltist LD40h to cover me, but I really like this combo. I am building a jigging rod for the Saltist so that will be another combo to use. 

[Brodie_S]

Yeah try replacing the washers with carbon washers that will increase the max drag also don’t grease the carbon drag washers they don’t require grease to work properly and not greasing them also increases the max drag . But for small reels 1000-2500 you should grease the washers even if their carbon washers

[Ed.]

HT-100 drag washers are among the best and a change to carbonite washers most likely won't be worth the bother and probably will not give too much or any increase in drag. Changing to a new reel with decent drag to start off with is probably the  easiest way to get extra drag, I know what you mean about keeping and using a reel for sentimental value. I think most of us have that issue and keep and old reel or two for that reason, but it is a bit harder for you as that one is a small casting reel, if it was just for reef fishing and a little bit of casting then there are heaps out there.  Have a look at the Penn Fathom  FTH15LD or FTH15LD2 they do 9Kg and the FTH25LD2 has 15Kg  drag and all are lever drag and ally body and under the $270 mark.

A few years ago I picked up an Okuma Solterra SLR-10CS for not much money, mine was the lever drag, open top version and had the magnetic casting control on it, and did about 22lb drag, it had a graphite body, the new ones (SLX) don't have the magnetic cast control on them though, but for boat fishing I prefer the compact Fathom 2 speeds.

Come on, you know you want a new reel!

[Brodie_S]

Yeah if your looking for a new reel the shimano stradic FL and Stradic Vanford 5000 both have a max drag of 11kg. But then again your after overhead reels not spin reels. I don’t much about overheads but ED seems to know a bit about those okuma solterra,s overheads

[ggg]

Thanks but I am not after a new reel. I have hit double digits in combos and my parents would kill me if they found out I bought a new reel. I might just have to live with it.

[Ed.]

You could always sell it off and put the money towards another one with more drag which would suit you more, but having said that, your sentimental attachment to this reel would prevent you from doing that.

The only other thing would be to sand down the washers and try the carbonite ones but I think that it might be a loosing battle for all that work, you may gain some added drag but not sure if and how much. Give Pure fishing a call and ask to speak to their technical department or their parts department and explain what you are trying to do and see what they say.

I think their number is 02 43517740. Hope this helps.

Regards

Ed.

[Do$tylz]

Changing drag washers to carbontex isnt going to help you here. The ht100's are already carbon washers.

As already mentioned by most here, not much more you can do to increase drag. At least not safely. Most reels come with a max drag and that's what they are built to handle. Much more and you are going to wear it out faster - bent parts, stripped teeth/threads, melted parts etc.

[ggg]

Okay. I won't bother changing the washers. I might experiment with changing a few bits in the reel and see how it goes.

[Ed.]

Here is some info regarding the Drag washers from the web. You could try the Dura drag washers but again I don't think that you will gain any significant drag increase. Lapping or sanding the metal drag washers generally only improves the smoothness of the drag only in other words when the drag is up tight and the line is still being pulled off, it will prevent the drag from shuddering or jerking. If you have any grease on your HT-100 washers it might help if you remove it, but that's about it, your reel is only designed to put out so much drag and that's it. If you had Felt washers you could get better results by switching to carbon washers, but different brand of carbon will not do anything in my opinion.

[Ed.]

I have a similar situation, I bought a Daiwa PMF 55 about 40 years ago and it was the first reel I ever bought and "state of the art" at that time, and cost more than a weeks wages,  so I still have it for "sentimental reasons" and occasionally use it nowadays just for giggles. There is slop in the handles (single Dawg and no anti reverse bearings in those days) and it only has about 5.5kg of drag after modification. I changed the frame to a 57 size and also the Teflon washers to carbon based ones. Caught Trevally up to 20-25lb and lots of other fish. The only way I might be able to get more drag out of it would be mill out the main gear a bit and fit in larger washers. However at the end of the day it isn't worth it, as the cost and effort doing so out ways the tiny benefit gained (about 0.5 to 0.7kg extra from original) , there are much better reels out there at a quarter of the cost of what I paid, and designed with 3 times the drag pressure.

[ggg]

Thanks guys. I might just keep it as a light bottom bashing outfit. I have other reels which can put out 12kg+. I love the reel and it works like new. I have only ever been smoked once due to my patience. If a fish smokes me into the coral, I just grab my second combo or sit it out and wait for it to swim back out. 10 minutes waiting isn't a big deal. I have pulled many large fish out with this method. With this method, I can still use this reel. I was just hoping I could increase the drag to stop having to do this multiple times every trip.

[AUS-BNE-FISHO]

Hey Jaz44

I understand what you mean by sentimental value. I know my 1000 Sienna is cheap, but I have had it for yonks and could never get rid of it! 

I don't think it is possible to apply more drag to a reel. You should use your other reels for that if you want more drag. Like said above, if you try doing more and more things will fail.

Cheers Hamish