Makaira 10 Drag Curve

[Mr GreenJeans]

Just got a new Makaira 10 so, of course, I am playing around with it to get the feel for it.  I have noticed that the drag curve is pretty steep and wondered if this is typical for the Makairas.  With the strike drag set at 10#, most of the drag change occurs between the 11:00 and 12:00 position.  When I back the drag lever down five clicks, the drag decreases by about five pounds.  Back off 10 clicks, and the drag is reduced to almost nothing.  The net effect is that when I engage the drag lever, I have to move it over half way to strike drag before it really comes out of free spool.

My 2-speed reels by other manufacturers engage right when you push the drag lever, and drag increases (somewhat) uniformly all the way up to strike drag.  Is the steep drag curve for my Makaira typical for the brand, or do I need to give Okuma a call?  Thanks.

FYI, I broke the reel down and did a pre-use service, but the drag curve was unchanged before and after.

Thanks.

David

[JGB]

David,

The drag curve on the Makiara is a progressive curve. This is that the curve is shallow in the beginning  (positions 0-2.5) and gets steep above the strike position. This a result of the belleville combinations and the ramp of the cam. This is intentional to eliminate the on/off of most high drag lever drags. This gives a lot of control of very low to low drag settings to allow possibilities of letting a fish run from sharky  or bait presentations. It also makes it very easy to use postion 1-2 after your fish is on gaff and not getting back lashes. In the engineering lingo the Makiara drag offers extended dynamic range that gives a larger usable drag range for a given preset.

Enjoy it you'll like it,
Jim N.

[Mr GreenJeans]

Thanks, I'll give it a try.

[locknut]

Here in NZ we get two drag cams with our Makaira reels. The standard one is too savage for use with mono so a 10 II you would probably use 8kg mono but the steps in the cam jump by up to as much as 1kg so setting 1/3 at the strike button is all but impossibe this cam is great for braid though when you want plenty of grunt.

So a second more progressive cam marked TDC (Tournament Drag Cam) is provided that dosen't have the brutal mid and top end  but is more gradual.

If you don't have enough drag dialed up it will tale a long time before the cam engages the spool. Check how much you have at the strike button and increase it to say 1/3 of the line being used.