a kind of simple drag question

[trickbag]

Ive been fishing for about 50 years, and usually operate on principles I learned over that time ,but I have a question about drag. I usually set up my gear with a drag of about 30% of the line rating as do most others I know. my question is this;
lets say we are fishing 30# leader and running 10# of drag. that gives a cushion of 20lbs. given that knots arent 100% so lets say the actual breaking strength is 25# . its still a 15# cushion. Now on my 60# setup ,running 20# drag and call it actual breaking strength of 50#, the cushion or difference between the drag slipping and line breaking,is 30#.  finally the question part; couldnt I set the drag at35# resulting in the same 15# cushion as the lighter rod? or run 40# line?  I think about this kind of stuff often,and wonder what some of the other guys, and gals, think

[Bill B]

Myself I wouldn't want to hold onto that much drag.  KISS, stay at 1\3 the line strength and remember this is supposed to be fun.  But I do measure at the rod tip for tha 1/3 measure. Bill

[trickbag]

I tend to keep to the traditional 1/3 setting myself ,so its more in the interest of using lighter line.

[Bryan Young]

For star drags I set at 1/3 the line/leader, which ever is lower. I can always bump up a little if necessary.

On lever drags, I set strike at 1/3 and hopefully full will be at 1/2. Usually 5# less than half but that's close enough.

[alantani]

i go 30% from the reel, figuring that the guides will add an additional 3%.

[oc1]

Gee whiz.  All this time I thought it was supposed to be 25%
-steve

[akfish]

One complication: The drag increases dramatically as the spool dumps line. Because of this, I tend to set the drag a little lighter -- and I'm sure not going to set it at 30% if I'm fishing 130# line. I just can't fish it...

[trickbag]

well the drag increasing as the spool diameter decreases is one thing I forget from time to time.And drag settings over 20# are tough to fish with for an extended fight without a harness, belt,or rail to lever against.For me ,at least ,and though I am a smaller sized guy,I have powerlifted for 20 years .My question wasnt clearly put forth I suppose. Another way to look at it is lets say the maximum drag I can fish with comfortably is 35#. using traditional drag settings  ,I might be using 100 or 135# line. is it really necessary to have a cushion of 100lbs?I would think that a well made line would be able to handle a continuous stress a lot closer to its breaking strength. I just wonder if 30% is something that has been passed down and accepted since the dacron days , and maybe should be reassessed. if we are fishing 60# we typically have a 40# cushion at strike and around 30# at full.why would a heavier line like 130 require more of a cushion ?Or why couldnt someone fish 35# of drag on 80 or even 60# line, it still has a pretty big cushion?
Really this is just for discussion as I know I dont want to risk losing a good fish and will be running my drag at 30%. Im just thinking if my line is slipping at 35# ,is it really necessary to have a line testing over 80#?Ive never been out for tuna yet,so I know im going to get an education there. But to me it seems like having a couple hundred more yards of 80 would be better than the bigger cushion 135#would provide

[Bill B]

The cushion gets eaten up when you factor in the knots which rarely ever test at 100% breaking strength of the line, most test well below the 100 % around 75%, then with larger fish pulling out long lengths of line on screaming runs, the bow in the line also eats up some of that cushion. Also as the spool runs low the drag increases even more.  So the perceived cushion gets drastically reduced.  There is a pretty extensive thread somewhere that really dives into the whole drag thing.  Bill

[philaroman]

I think the 1/3 rule dates back to when Berkley & Stren (still made by DuPont) were pretty much it for running line
decent products, but hundreds of continuous affordable yards could not have the same quality/uniformity
as a short section of dedicated leader/tippet material that could be effectively examined for micro-damage

considering that what I use is intentionally underrated by the manufacturers (industry standard:
thin, solid, mid-price braid is 150-200% stronger than what the box says...  300%+ for the fused crap)
I have no problem setting my drag up to 50% of my weakest link when my set-up is "fresh"
& ease back toward 1/3 when I'm too lazy to examine/re-tie my terminal end frequently/promptly

[trickbag]

that makes sense. Ive never just tested the breaking strength of my line ,without any knots,but I do assume its over its rated strength . I just wondered why 10# line only needs a 6# cushion and 100# needs 60.doesnt make sense.

[philaroman]

consider "the cushion" as a percentage of the total, rather than a set number