Know your Drag

The drag is the clutch that lets line slip off the spool under a set amount of pressure, so a running fish takes line instead of breaking it. On a spinning reel you set it with the dial on the front of the spool.

The headline number on the spec sheet is maximum drag, and for lure fishing it's mostly irrelevant: you'll fish at a fraction of it. Set the drag relative to the weakest link in your setup, usually the leader, so it gives line well before the breaking point. A common-sense check is to pull line off by hand after setting it; it should slip smoothly with firm pressure, not lock up.

What separates a good drag from a poor one isn't the maximum, it's smoothness: the drag starting to give without a jolt. That start-up jolt is what costs fish on light lines, and it's where better reels quietly earn their money.