What would be the proper drag setting be at STRIKE for Penn 30TW's and 30 GLD's with 40# mono and 30' of 80# wind on leader? These are the largest rigs that I have at this time. Thank's Barry

Depends on the quarry.
Conventional wisdom is to set the drag at 20 to 25 percent of the line test at the strike position. There are considerable technique differences of opinion regarding the sets for white marilin and sails. We set our marlin rigs up at 6 lbs at strike and troll the reel in free-spool with the clicker on.
The theory on this is that if a white, that you do not see, picks up the bait he will feed himself and not feel the pressure of the drag. In actual practice, we have caught several whites on 50 wide's with 20 lbs of drag, either because the fish hooked themselves or my mate -Randy (Earlytimes on this site) saw the fish behind the bait, free-spooled it manually and hooked him. I must say Randy is quite skilled at this, but it is very easy to miss a fish, if you are not good at this technique (it is not easy to master without practice), so the light drag approach is often a good option, particularly this time of year when billfish will certainly figure in the target options.
On meat fish, we go with the 20 percent (16lbs at strike on 80 lb test). This has proved entirely adequate to sink a sharpened hook in any yellowfin, wahoo or blue marlin.
I know you asked what time it was and I told you how to make a watch, but I hope it provides some insight, anyway.

Good luck.

Kent

Hey, Gradyman, I appreciate the info!! You just keep on building watches. Great answer to a great question!!!

This is a subject that I just wing, and hope im lucky enough to have the drag setting right.

I use mostly star drags, and that makes setting up with a drag scale kind of laborous since you probably change it during the fight.

Since Im going to specifically target marlin, I need to come up with a better plan than the calibrated elbow test I use for meat fish.

Ive listened to the 2 schools of having the drag loose or heavy while trolling.

What does anyone suggest for star drags if you target WM. take the reel out of gear and just let the clicker apply tention, then flip the gear and set the hook?

Kent you guys alway have it in strike for BM? Freespool for WM?

We are always in strike on big reels (Penn 50's and 80's) - we use the free-spool technique on TLD's which we have just tranistioned to. But as you know - it's just a guess --we had a 40 lb wahoo take a TLD bait (a white marlin set-up) last Sat -the clicker went off like a stuck doorbell buzzer.
I do know the high-powered marlin boats out of Oregon Inlet and Pirate's Cove run the TLD's in free spool all of the time when they are fishing for the one's with big points on their nose. I taken a couple of marlin lesson charters from the boats down there, when they do nothing but fish for whites and sails and instruct you,. That's how I was taught to do it.

Thanks for the replies. I haven't started to target billfish since I'm just getting started fishing offshore on my own. I'll be happy with anything that takes my line but will be targeting dolphin, wahoo and tuna for starters. At 20% my drag setting would be 8# at strike(40# mono). Is that correct? Can I use an 8# downrigger ball with my rod in a rodholder? Thanks again, Barry

Barry, I would go to 10 lbs on the 40 mono.I think 8 is just a tad light to put a firm set on the fish at strike. That is at strike, not full up.
The downrigger ball is another question entirely.
I hate them because they are a pain the neck to work with offshore. Remember it is seldom flat calm and they are banging around when you have them up-out of the water (which is sometimes frequently, because there is a lot of grass out there right now and it is going to get fouled often- it is imperative to check it and clear it often - as a grassed-up deep rig will really chase fish out of your spread) it is also good way to screw-up your boat, but I confess, I don't have much experience with them- we use planers, (as most all serious offshore boats do) which if used properly are simple and deadly on deep fish, esp now - when you have a very hot top water layer. I would say running a planer on 40 lb test might not work out too well because its too light duty to handle the pressure, but maybe some other guys have a view on this. We run a dedicated planer rod with 200lb braid on it to get deep and we really pull it - 6-8 knots. This bad boy will whack the hell out of wahoos near a weed mat.

Kent

[quote=gradyman,Aug 10 2007, 03:56 PM][quote=Barrycuda,Aug 10 2007, 12:14 PM]Thanks for the replies. I haven't started to target billfish since I'm just getting started fishing offshore on my own. I'll be happy with anything that takes my line but will be targeting dolphin, wahoo and tuna for starters. At 20% my drag setting would be 8# at strike(40# mono). Is that correct? Can I use an 8# downrigger ball with my rod in a rodholder? Thanks again, Barry
[/quote]
Barry, I would go to 10 lbs on the 40 mono.I think 8 is just a tad light to put a firm set on the fish at strike. That is at strike, not full up.
The downrigger ball is another question entirely.
I hate them because they are a pain the neck to work with offshore. Remember it is seldom flat calm and they are banging around when you have them up-out of the water (which is sometimes frequently, because there is a lot of grass out there right now and it is going to get fouled often- it is imperative to check it and clear it often - as a grassed-up deep rig will really chase fish out of your spread) it is also good way to screw-up your boat, but I confess, I don't have much experience with them- we use planers, (as most all serious offshore boats do) which if used properly are simple and deadly on deep fish, esp now - when you have a very hot top water layer. I would say running a planer on 40 lb test might not work out too well because its too light duty to handle the pressure, but maybe some other guys have a view on this. We run a dedicated planer rod with 200lb braid on it to get deep and we really pull it - 6-8 knots. This bad boy will whack the hell out of wahoos near a weed mat.

Kent

[/quote]


Anyone ever run a planer on a downrigger instead of a weight?

Hey Kent, Thanks for elaborateing, not everybody builds watches the same way. its nice to hear from a Captain who has been on the water a good long time, how they build them.

Jack

What size planer do you normally pull for wahoo? I like the notion of a dedicated planer rod.

[quote=Donna Sea,Aug 10 2007, 04:02 PM][quote=gradyman,Aug 10 2007, 03:56 PM][quote=Barrycuda,Aug 10 2007, 12:14 PM]Thanks for the replies. I haven't started to target billfish since I'm just getting started fishing offshore on my own. I'll be happy with anything that takes my line but will be targeting dolphin, wahoo and tuna for starters. At 20% my drag setting would be 8# at strike(40# mono). Is that correct? Can I use an 8# downrigger ball with my rod in a rodholder? Thanks again, Barry
[/quote]
Barry, I would go to 10 lbs on the 40 mono.I think 8 is just a tad light to put a firm set on the fish at strike. That is at strike, not full up.
The downrigger ball is another question entirely.
I hate them because they are a pain the neck to work with offshore. Remember it is seldom flat calm and they are banging around when you have them up-out of the water (which is sometimes frequently, because there is a lot of grass out there right now and it is going to get fouled often- it is imperative to check it and clear it often - as a grassed-up deep rig will really chase fish out of your spread) it is also good way to screw-up your boat, but I confess, I don't have much experience with them- we use planers, (as most all serious offshore boats do) which if used properly are simple and deadly on deep fish, esp now - when you have a very hot top water layer. I would say running a planer on 40 lb test might not work out too well because its too light duty to handle the pressure, but maybe some other guys have a view on this. We run a dedicated planer rod with 200lb braid on it to get deep and we really pull it - 6-8 knots. This bad boy will whack the hell out of wahoos near a weed mat.

Kent

[/quote]


Anyone ever run a planer on a downrigger instead of a weight?

[/quote]

I know guys that do. but you still rubberband the line to it, it's just one step above the poor mans cleated planer, and you have to deal with the downrigger being in the way all day. You just have to take the boat out of gear to pull the cleated planer up without the downrigger..

I was on the Mega Bite and they had what I think is refered to as a bridal rig. It is a dedicated planer rig on what is similar to a deep drop rod with a Penn 9/0. It had a planer that snapped on and off the leader. That way you did not have to hand line the long leader in after the planer and have the planer coming out of the cockpit at Mach 2 if the fish ran. We did not catch anything on it that day, I suppose it would require some care disconneting the planer if you had a big fish on.

I've heard of running it off a downrigger. Some people just tie the planer line off to a cleat also - but it is a mess on the deck when you have to get it up. I can't emphasize that enough - if you run it any length of time -its going to grass up esp in Aug when its like a hay field out there - so you need something that is easy to get it up -clear it and get it reset so you can resume fishing.
Kent

We use 3 number 64 rubber bands and a double snap. I like that -keeps things simple because its easy to rig when its rough and you can use any rod on the boat as your planer bait. We run it way back -200 -300 feet behind the planer. Two weeks ago it went off and Randy and I were looking at the rod -wondering "what happened?" 'cause it was howling that beautiful sound- when I saw a white marlin tailwalking 500 hundred feet hehind the boat. He had took the planer bait and swam under the whole spread and was jumping behind the shotgun baits.
We have some pretty good electronics on Water Dog (they ought to be for what they cost) and I can see bait and fish --they are all deep - in the cooler water. The planer is a must have now --I think Sunday we might run two of them

Kent

I didn't mean to start two topics. What I wanted to do is use the downrigger ball to set my drag. I have 8# & 10# weights. I hate using the bastards for fishing so maybe I can put the weights to good use setting my drags. Since we are on the subject, what size planers do you use offshore and what type of rod and reel? Thanks, Barry

No Barry. You want to use a drag scale.They are not expensive and are the only way to set the drag accurately. Go to Long Bay tackle or PA Distributers and ask one the guys to show you how to use the scale - its quite easy to do and if you are going to get proficient offshore -you need to learn to use it.
We use a #12 planer - its about 3" by 6" - but I don't think the exact size is too very critical just get a good sized one that will get the line down there.

Only reel i set the drag on with a scale is my 50tw..... when i hook a big toothy on the 9/0 i just lock the drag down.... i dont think star drag reels are worth setting the drag on with a scale. I set strike at 18, and full at the max. only use full when the 100yd topshot of 150 is on the reel then i push it to full and the heat goes on....

when checking the drag tension, warm the reel up first before testing with 3 - 4 good pulls on the drag by a buddy to get some heat into the washers... Then check to see what it registers at.... do it a few times at the setting and average the numbers to get a good idea and see for sure what its set at... seems most times the first few pulls on a drag are harder and slightly higher than after a few warm ups.....

it takes more energy to pull the line off and get the spool spinning than it does to maintain pulling line off and keep the spool spinning.

planer has produced well for us. #8 you can keep a big planer as shallow as ya want, but ya can't make a small planer go as deep as ya want......GL