# how many pounds of drag can a medium shark create?



## huntin4sharks (Aug 5, 2009)

10 pounds maybe even 20 from a 5'-6' shark


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## brandonmc (May 24, 2007)

20lbs is a lot more drag then you would think. Not saying a 5-6 ft shark couldn't pull it for very short distances, but you sure wouldn't get a long run with 20lbs, he'd probably stop REAL fast.


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## scout04 (Aug 6, 2009)

25-30# plus and will take line like crazy until you can get them turned.


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## kingfisherman23 (Dec 14, 2003)

From a medium shark? Not likely. 25# of pressure is a heck of a lot.

I believe someone on here hooked their OM12' and 525 to a bow scale and put as heavy a bend as possible into it. If I remember correctly, they found that 14# of drag was the absolute most they could put on the rod without it ripping out of their hands.

The Senator 114H is only rated to a max drag of 22# and I can stop a 5fter without cranking the drag down all the way.

Evan


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## Drumdum (Jan 6, 2003)

brandonmc said:


> 20lbs is a lot more drag then you would think. Not saying a 5-6 ft shark couldn't pull it for very short distances, but you sure wouldn't get a long run with 20lbs, he'd probably stop REAL fast.



Yeap... Tie a scale to the end of your line and try to pull 20lbs of drag off it.. It'll put a heck of a bow in a 130 class rod,let alone some of the rods rated for much less...


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## Sea2aeS (Jan 7, 2005)

Shorter rods allow more drag to be used from the beach. No need to cast a bait, yak it or fly it out.


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## beagle (Jun 9, 2009)

The bigger question is how much drag can you handle, from the beach, in the sand, and having to move left or right.
I know folks who don't go above 25# on their 130's for BFT in a chair, with a boat that can move around.
Try that for any time period in the sand and see if you can.
beagle


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## kingfisherman23 (Dec 14, 2003)

You put 20# of drag on a fish while standing in the sand and holding the rod without a harness, $10 says you and/or the rod is taking a swim. That is a huge amount of drag. I sat down with a bow scale today and hooked up my king/shark combo (Senator 114H/Shakespeare Tidewater 6' standup/65# PP) to it. I locked down the drag and leaned back on the rod and still only was able to produce 21# of drag. This was done with a shoulder harness to keep the rod from coming out of my hands.

I've never felt a fish that pulled as hard as that wall was pulling lol. 

Evan


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## Too Busy (Sep 7, 2007)

I've got my Penn 114H set at 10# on a 6 foot, 80 pound class rod for bottom fishing off shore. That's plenty of pull for me. Bump it up to 20# and the rod bends all the way into the butt.


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## jakuka (Oct 12, 2009)

*Question*

How do each of you measure drag? So that I can understand, which of these methods would be the accurate way to measure the drag setting.

1. Hold the bare reel and pull line straight off.
2. Hold the rod, with reel mounted, at a 45 degree angle and pull line down
off of the rod.


Could these measurements differ due to leverage-
(the pulley effect) even with the exact same drag setting? Can anyone confirm this? Using method #2, would a 6' rod have a different measurement than a 12' rod?


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## kingfisherman23 (Dec 14, 2003)

In measuring last night, I used the reel mounted on the rod and the line attached to the scale which was mounted to the wall with an eyebolt. The line was coming off the rod at the same angle a fish would create while running - about 30 degrees below the vertical. The drag was tightened down as hard as I could get it.

Now for measuring drag under fishing conditions - while hooked into my king rig, for example - I set my drag by feel, pulling the line straight off the reel with my hand.

To answer your second question, a longer rod would certainly produce more leverage than a shorter one, and therefore the actual drag felt by the fish would be greater given the same energy input from the fisherman.

Last semester I was working on a computer model to figure out the tension at different points on the line during a fight, but the programming became too complex for my moderate skills.


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## jakuka (Oct 12, 2009)

Thanks! I bet that research you were doing would have been very interesting to read.


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## gilly21 (Feb 15, 2006)

I set my avet at 13lbs of drag at the max setting and a medium, 4-6', shark will pull on average 40-100 yards on the first run at hook up. After that they might get 20-40 yards if I fight it like a candy ass and let it get a second wind. Usually it might get a few 10yrd runs here and there. I would rather have a fish pull a few yards of line off the reel at a lower setting then the reel will hold then see my rod go sky rocketing into the surf. This is on a casted rod 12'3" or 13'6"...


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## brandonmc (May 24, 2007)

If you want to see how much drag your reel will produce, lock it down and pull straight off the rod with no bend in the tip. If you want to determine the amount of drag you are actually fishing with you need to put some bend in the rod tip.

At higher drag settings you will see an increase from 10% on up depending on the action of the rod. At any rate, 20# of drag, with or without the rod even factored in, will stop a lot of fish. kingfisherman23 is dead on...a 6/0 is rated at 22# per the Penn catalog. Get a 6/0, stop any 5-6 foot shark in the ocean......FAST.

A lot of the above is based on figured performance per given specs for the equipment. A lot of it is personal experience. I've NEVER seen a 5-6ft shark go far on a locked down 6/0. A lot of guys where I live (Oak Island) king fish with 6/0 reels. If you've pin rigged you know very well that you catch a lot more sharks than kings over the course of a season.

The 6/0 is, IMHO overkill if you are targeting ONLY kings, but it is a welcome relief when you hook all the sharks inherent to pinrig fishing. It gets them in quick, and prevents you from wiping out all the rigs on the end of the pier.


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## kingfisherman23 (Dec 14, 2003)

OK, I brought out the scale again tonight to do some torture testing with my fighting rod(50# class), Penn 6/0 and 30# mono.

I found that my normal drag setting when king rigging is just over 3# without the clicker. My king fighting drag is generally about 4#. Off the beach, my shark drag runs about 6# for spiking and 8# for fighting. With the drag cranked down to the absolute maximum and the line running off the rod at an initial angle of 90 degrees I was able to generate 23 lbs 7 oz. This put a heavy bend in the rod, and I could feel the blank flexing all the way down past the reel seat. The torque on the rod at above 20# was enormous. It would be very difficult to fight a fish at this drag setting even with a full fighting belt/harness setup. Given a beach or pier situation without a fighting harness, I'd probably max out at 15# of drag during a fight.

I'd be willing to bet that you could generate a maximum 25-30# of drag with the reel when the line level was low. But I'd hate to come up against a fish that could take line out at more than 15# of drag.

Evan


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## Too Busy (Sep 7, 2007)

kingfisherman23 said:


> But I'd hate to come up against a fish that could take line out at more than 15# of drag.
> 
> Evan


I hooked a HUMONGOUS ray that spooled me out on a locked down 6/0. The only reason we saw it was we chased it with the boat while I took up line.

Cool to see, no fun to watch line peeling off when there's nothing you can do.


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## triple t (Nov 1, 2008)

Too Busy said:


> I hooked a HUMONGOUS ray that spooled me out on a locked down 6/0. The only reason we saw it was we chased it with the boat while I took up line.
> 
> Cool to see, no fun to watch line peeling off when there's nothing you can do.


Haha that's alot of fun, Brandon will tell you, I'm the only one on the pier to chase those things (Just a side note:I almost got ripped of the pier a couple of times). But I'm fishing 20lbs. of drag the WHOLE fight and land alot of Big rays...Never been stripped, knock on wood...


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## Mater Man (May 10, 2009)

*Triple T*

Ok Thomas, Go ahead and break Evan's heart and tell him about the Record Triple Tail You landed and your drag setting on that set up.

Happy New Year,
Inman


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