Big Fish Small Reel Felt Drag Washers Not A Good Mix

[Brodie_S]

I’ve been going well with my Stradic fl .thing is super rigid super smooth and has survived sand and a dunk in the river and still feels the same as the day I bought it same goes with drag still smooth as the day I bought it. But wondering when I should take the drag system for a service as their only felt washers in a tiny reel when I got my 69cm queenfish as I hooked it .a boat went past and people got then lines tangled in the boat mine didn’t get tangled but people thought I had hooked the boat cause my drag was going so fast I kept telling them it was a fish because I hooked it just before the boat came past after the boat went past a fair bit . they believed me as my line started going the opposite direction of the boat and then the fish jumped out of the water a one point. I’ve had a lot of big runs with the little reel and then the queenfish I don’t know how the drag survived remember people thought it was the boat i had never got a run that big before it went for like a 50m run in 10 seconds. Drags still super smooth but when do you reckon I should take it to get serviced thinking once every 1-2 years for a full service

[Drop Bear]

1 minute ago, Breaming with bro said:

I’ve been going well with my Stradic fl .thing is super rigid super smooth and has survived sand and a dunk in the river and still feels the same as the day I bought it same goes with drag still smooth as the day I bought it. But wondering when I should take the drag system for a service as their only felt washers in a tiny reel when I got my 69cm queenfish as I hooked it .a boat went past and people got then lines tangled in the boat mine didn’t get tangled but people thought I had hooked the boat cause my drag was going so fast I kept telling them it was a fish because I hooked it just before the boat came past after the boat went past a fair bit . they believed me as my line started going the opposite direction of the boat and then the fish jumped out of the water a one point. I’ve had a lot of big runs with the little reel and then the queenfish I don’t know how the drag survived remember people thought it was the boat i had never got a run that big before it went for like a 50 run in 10 seconds. Drags still super smooth but when do you reckon I should take it to get serviced thinking once every 1-2 years for a full service

I have a stradic 6000. one day I hooked a large tuna and it was smoking me. The felt drag washers must have heated up and squished so much the knob on the top touched the spool and tightened itself up until it snapped the line. I needed pliers to undo the drag. 

I have now replaced it with carbon washers and have not had the same problem since. 

[Brodie_S]

Yeah might have to do that in the future replace when the felt washers with carbon washers but now all the new Stradics have carbon drag washers in reels 3000 and higher

[Drop Bear]

1 minute ago, Breaming with bro said:

Yeah might have to do that in the future replace when the felt washers with carbon washers but now all the new Stradics have carbon drag washers in reels 3000 and higher

Good to know thanks. 

[Junky]

But wondering when I should take the drag system for a service 

No need. Do it yourself. Piece of cake. 

 

Get onto erskins in Cairns. They have all the goodies. 

 

 

[AUS-BNE-FISHO]

Hey Breaming with bro

Sounds like you're having fun with that reel. I don't normally service my reels, unless they start playing up and I cannot fix it myself. A service is a lot of money wasted when you can do it yourself. I have the same drag washers on my Sienna 1000 from when I got it 7 or so years ago. It's caught many, many big fish and the drag still goes fine so I'd imagine your reel would last very well as well

Cheers Hamish

 

[Brodie_S]

Yeah im usually fine taking reels apart but the stradics are a different storie there’s way to many parts to remember 

[Junky]

9 hours ago, Breaming with bro said:

Yeah im usually fine taking reels apart but the stradics are a different storie there’s way to many parts to remember 

I've been pulling reels apart for over 30yrs.

Before camera phones it was a little tricky sometimes with knowing which way something goes in etc. but now you can simply take pictures of every step. 

Not only that, a lot of people make YouTube vids on this kind of thing.

Reels are not that tricky. Just take your time and keep pics of before and afters.

 

[Brodie_S]

Yeah I’ve seen people take Stradics apart before they look pretty tricky . The hardest reel I’ve ever taken apart was my aird lt 2000 it had this tiny clip that you had to get on the drive gear and took me like 10 minutes to put it back on . Then the drive gear started playing up and didn’t fit in after another 10 minutes I managed to get everything back in place and then put it back together 

[Junky]

54 minutes ago, Breaming with bro said:

Yeah I’ve seen people take Stradics apart before they look pretty tricky . The hardest reel I’ve ever taken apart was my aird lt 2000 it had this tiny clip that you had to get on the drive gear and took me like 10 minutes to put it back on . Then the drive gear started playing up and didn’t fit in after another 10 minutes I managed to get everything back in place and then put it back together 

Well done.

Take your time. Walk away for 10min if you start getting frustrated. 

And next time you do it you know what you're in for. 

[ggg]

Stradic's are fine to take apart. Just do it slowly and 'learn' the reel. If it's the first time you've done a Stradic, have a schematics on hand. I always have a schematics on me until I know how to do the reel off by heart. I would replace them as soon as possible. They drag washers are really horrible and compress really easily. CarbonTex is the way to go.

[Drop Bear]

17 hours ago, Jaz44 said:

Stradic's are fine to take apart. Just do it slowly and 'learn' the reel. If it's the first time you've done a Stradic, have a schematics on hand. I always have a schematics on me until I know how to do the reel off by heart. I would replace them as soon as possible. They drag washers are really horrible and compress really easily. CarbonTex is the way to go.

Pro tip thanks. I am about to do all my reels so will have the lap top handy.