cant find an article

[wallacewt]

one of the lads mention that with new line ,rods knots etc.
it might be time to rethink 25%/33% of breaking strain/drag.
use 50% and higher instead
anybody recall the article
thanks

[alantani]

did a quick search and didn't find anything.  the nice thing about the 33% drag setting is that you can get nearly spooled before hitting the theoretical breaking strength of the line. 

[Tightlines667]

did a quick search and didn't find anything.  the nice thing about the 33% drag setting is that you can get nearly spooled before hitting the theoretical breaking strength of the line. 

Exactly.  Though this may not have as large an impact on smaller reels spooled with thin diameter spectra. 

The other thing about the margin of error that many forget is the fact thst there is no drag at tye fish end if tye line and the more line, and larger the diameter of the line in the water the greater the drag, and hence the forces on the fish end of things.

Smaller diameter spools, lines, smoother drags, better knots/terminal tackle fished in situations where you can stop your quary before getting too much line in the water.. then yes 50% of breaking strength is certainly reasonable.  On tue other hand sometimes 33% is actually not a good enough margin, and gear will part if the drag is not backed off during the fight...it just depends. 

I am sticking with the 30% rule for my style of fishing.

John

[wallacewt]

for me personally i have never caught a fish big enough
to spool me.big tuna,marlin etc;dont exist in my world
spanish mackeral.samson.aj.s small tunas are my pelagics
when i go fishing,feed of fresh fish,quality,is the go
then i like to try different stuff.i dont charter fish
majority of fishermen are the same(i think)
so dropping right back to 20lb/10lb drag(braid)
has a lot of benefits,strong current, eg
if i get the chance its well worth a try

[philaroman]

well, I mostly use affordable thin solid braid which is intentionally underrated by the manufacturers -- whatever the rating on the box, the braid is actually 150-200% stronger (e.g., PowerPro marked 20# tests about 40#, 30# is closer to 50#, etc.)...  so setting the drag above 1/2 the line's rating, may well keep me below 1/3 of its actual strength

[mo65]

  I'm a believer in the 30% rule too. Using 30lb. line with a drag setting of 10lbs. works very well. The first time I put a scale on a reel and did a drag test I was amazed at how hard you have to pull to hit 10lbs. Setting any higher than 30% is getting into the danger zone for a weak knot. The knot is the weak link. I actually had a knot bust on 30lb. mono when the scale hit 17lbs...just about fell over backwards! 50% would be rolling the dice.

[boon]

Might be one of my 2c you found laying around the place? I'm a big fan of pushing way above 30%; with modern knots and lines you can achieve very, very close to 100% breaking strain so why not either make use of the pull you can put on a fish (assuming they're not soft-mouthed species) or just go way down in line rating and use lighter gear - the modern generation of super-powerful small lever drag reels (just look at the Makaira are a joy to fish.

As an example, I recently deployed a large livebait on a one of my heavy setups - 100lb braid tied with an FG knot to a short 80lb mono topshot; this was AG chained to a swivel with 100lb mono leader tied with a conventional uni-knot to the swivel (I was in a hurry)
The livebait got hit and almost immediately the fish wrapped me up in the reef - the reel was in a rod-holder on the clicker.

The pull I had to put on it to break it off was unbelievable; I would estimate easily in excess of 50lb (I took a couple of wraps and pulled, no way I'm doing that with a rod). The leader broke at the swivel, meaning the 100lb leader tied with an "old" but very well regarded knot was weaker than the 80lb topshot with AG chain + FG knot.
Based on this I would be more than happy to fish this setup at 40lb of drag = 50% of the top-shot's breaking strain.

Another thing I will add is that if you're not fishing either a harness, chair or rail rod you're not going to be getting within a country mile of your breaking strain anyway. The pull I put on to break the line in the previous example would have likely broken the rod; but this sets aside the human element.
If you're fishing a 7ft rod with 40lb of load over the tip, let's assume the load ends up effectively 5ft from the fulcrum (gimbal in use)
This gives you 200ft/lb of twist at the fulcrum. To oppose that, assuming you grab the rod approx. 2ft from the fulcrum, you have to exert 100lb of lift.
This is a bit of a simplification but the long and short of it is that even fishing at (only?) 40% of 100lb braid you're having to work insanely hard.
If you take a look at Alan's Makaira 10 report, at the end his friend Ed is pulling on a trailer hitch with 18lb at strike dialed in. Observations here is that the rod has a serious bend in it already, and Alan reported that his friend had to shift into Low to crank on it at that load. Good knots would let you run that drag on 30lb braid comfortably, either allowing huge capacity or maybe Okuma will make us a Makaira 5 as the ultimate 30lb reel (may I please be a tester if they do?!?!?), since the 8/10/15 can manage 27lb at Strike meaning it's only at 66% capacity.

Put it this way; instead of maxing out a 100lb setup at 33lb of drag I would much rather fish a 50lb setup at 30lb of drag and just use good knots.
I've been fishing a setup spooled with "20lb" braid (no doubt actually much higher) and a 30lb leader with 15lb drag at strike and I'm yet to bust off on a fish. I got a jig stuck recently and it broke the line at the jig.

As Alan said, you do have to be careful about the drag increasing as the diameter of the line remaining on the spool decreases, and consider the effects of the drag of the water on your line; however if you're fishing braid and not getting more than maybe 200yd of line wet it's not a huge consideration (and it's less of a consideration if you use lighter, thinner braid!)

The one place this is less applicable is big-game fishing, where you can reasonably expect to have huge amounts of line in the water and to be up and down in the spool... but in those circumstances you're probably fishing from a harness or chair anyway, and you can just use a 50W or 80W and have insane amounts of capacity anyway so the size and ergonomics of the reel are less important.

Get some light line and tie a few of these modern super-knots (AG chain, FG, PR) and pull them with scales until they break - I reckon you'll be blown away by the results. Then load your favorite small, light, powerful reel up with it and go have a great time catching fish all day.

Just my 2c, and worth less than that anyway

[Normslanding]

Boon pretty much covered it. For a long time my drag pressure has increased. It has depended on what I am fishing for. Grouper fishing here in Florida 60% works for me. The same applies to Calico Bass in the weeds or rocks. Recently on a trip to Guadalupe Island heavy drag, age, and a slight build kicked my butt. 40% = 24lbs. on 60 with a 8ft rod and a larger variety YFT that sat about 300+ yards from the boat did me in. A hour and forty five minutes did not help. 40lbs on 100 with a rail rod is just about my limit.
Testing drag pressure with long pulls of line off of reels proved to me that SOME of the new gear will take it. Most of you suspicions about what gear will not hold up are probably correct. My testing proved that drag pressure holds up when parts and mass of the reel are up to disbursing the heat. Lighter reels used for BIG fish don't do well. Two years ago fishing for Tuna in the 60 to 80lb range a 517 lb Black Marlin ate my bait. The line was 50lb on a Makaira 10. A hour and a half the fish was landed, the reel was flawless, I went into shock with heat stroke.
As someone with a lot of time testing knots, and gear my confidence level in the new technology is high. We should all thank Russ Izor for bringing Spectra/PE to the fishing world, it has changed every thing for the better. Balanced rods catching up to the line, reels, and terminal gear has taken some time. The new rods are truly a joy balancing the reels. Long gone are the days of soaking a bait holding a 50 wide reel with a heavy glass rod.
Knot strength has improved making down sizing line a big deal. If your line is smaller fishing Trout, Blue Gill, and other critters you just get more bites.
Welcome to the new era.

[wallacewt]

thank you,  boon
cheers