South Florida Cam Installation

[SoCalAngler]

I wanted to smooth out the drag curve on my JX 6/3  when I pushed the lever past strike. On my reel the drag pressure jumped a bit over 20% by moving the lever just past strike barely toward the full setting. I called Avet and talked to Scott and he said a South Florida cam is what I needed. The installation is very simple.

Remove the drag adjustment knob and drag lever.


Remove the drag adjustment click plate from the front of the lever.


As you can see the lever is flanged holding the cam.


The cam is pressed in lightly and to remove it I took a dowel thin enough to press on the cam without touching the flanges on the lever. I then placed the lever onto a piece of wood and tapped out the old cam.


Old cam on the left new one on the right.


Flipped lever over and tapped in new cam. The cam's bottom is triangular shaped and can only fit into the lever the correct way.


It's a simple swap out and after finding a dowel in my garage it only took five minutes to change.

You would think I'd be happy right? Well not exactly, you see the new cam's drag curve is smooth and gradual from free to strike just like Avet says it is. The problem is now when I barely move the lever past strike I have a 40% jump in drag pressure, double what the stock cam offered. I called Scott and we played around with the belleville washers with no success and I slapped in the old cam and checked the drag again and sure enough the drag jump moved back to the 20% range. Scott thought maybe they had sent a cam for another reel as all the cam's are the same size but the Raptors are more aggressive. Avet sent me another cam and I'm finding the exact same thing with this cam also, a 40% jump. If your looking to do this swap watch out if you ever have to push the lever past strike . For me I'll be sending Avet back two cams.

[alantani]

break out a fine metal file and see if you can work the cam down by hand to get what you want.  i have to do that with accurates on occasion. 

[sydluxer]

Hi SoCalAngler, did you modify the cam in the end, or stick to the old ones?

I'm interested since I might be buying an LX 6.0 soon for 20lb and 10-60lb tuna we get inshore here in Australia.

Cheers,
Felix

[SoCalAngler]

Sorry I did not see your question sydluxer until now. I don't have small files and didn't want to get some then file the 3 locations on the new cam and hope I got it right. I just went back to the old cam as I could live with the 20% jump but I'd much rather see it 10% or less when I move the lever just past the strike detent barely into full.

[Keta]

Hi SoCalAngler, did you modify the cam in the end, or stick to the old ones?

I'm interested since I might be buying an LX 6.0 soon for 20lb and 10-60lb tuna we get inshore here in Australia.

Cheers,
Felix

Unless you prefer wide reels a JX will do the job, same gears and drag in a narrower reel.

[SoCalAngler]

For strait 20 lb mono I'd look at a MXJ or MXL depending on yardage you want. Spectra backed I'd look at SXJ or SX. Non Raptor reels from the SXJ to the MXL all have the same drags and stopping power.

[Keta]

The MX is an impressive reel.

[sydluxer]

Thanks for the responses and sorry for the very late reply, totally missed this thread.

In the meantime I got an LX Raptor with the light line cam (and a spare spool to swap between light and heavy line). Maybe Avet changed the drag cams, as I now have a smoother drag curve past strike. When I set strike at 3kg/6.6lb I get 4.8kg/10.6lb at full with a fairly smooth ramp up. This of course is still a little steep, but at least usable without snapping the line.

[SoCalAngler]

Thanks for your input in this older thread sydluxer but if you look at what your getting from strike to full thats a 62% ramp up jump. Thats too much for me and what I was talking about was the ramp up going from strike to just past the detent barly into full. The 20% I can live with but the 40% was/is way too much IMO.

[sydluxer]

You are right, it is still a strong increase and for some drag settings and applications not suitable. On my LX Raptor and SF cam 2 clicks past strike gave me ~1.7lb more drag or in other words ~26%. For the sake of it 1 click was roughly 0.4lb increase, but it's so close past strike, that in a real fishing situation, it would be hard to just go 1 click past strike. 2 clicks is the practical measure.
All measured with reel on rod and a fastish straight pull, with warmed up drag and the reel now fished in a little. I did NOT make it a wet drag yet, but doubt this will change the drag curve a lot.

Comparing these numbers with yours, it definitely seems like they have worked on their cams, although they are still far from perfect past the strike position.

[SoCalAngler]

It also is that I'm working with a non Raptor reel, so no clicks on the lever for me. The non Raptor reels don't have a lever click plate until you reach the HX models. On my JX, non Raptor, I like to fish 40lb test toppers. I set my drag at 10 lbs at strike and that is the strike detent on the non Raptor reels. Now if I move my lever barely past the detent at strike I get 12 lbs of drag, thats the 20% jump I'm talking about. The 20% is not bad but I'd like to see less of a jump, I may be being a bit anal here but I like to fish lighter lines and sometimes I'm bit by big fish. Say I'm fishing for 30-40 lb dorado 40 lb test with a 50-60 lb leader is good fun and you handle the fish fine. Now it is not uncommon to get picked up by a 90-100lb sailfish or even a 125-150lb striped marlin, even with the boat able to follow the fish your going to need more drag pressure to get the fish to the boat fast enough for a healthy release. I try to never kill billfish and with the propper gear, the right fisherman and good boat handleing skills, 40 lb test is fine but more drag than 10 lbs should be used. Now once in a while we get the "oh no" moment when a 225-250lb blue marlin takes your offering, with 40lb most likely your going to loose the fish but I don't want a marlin swimming around with 300- 400 yards of line behind it, so now its time to put the drag to its max. This is why I'm looking for a smooth drag curve past strike. I would not think it is that hard to lessin the the ramp up on the cam during the machining process, but then again what do I know not being a machinist?

[sydluxer]

Ah yes without the clicks...
I'm sure a different cam would be easy to machine. You could even file/grind it down yourself. You'd have to be quite precise and need the right tools, otherwise there's a good chance to mess it up. Not my cup of tea