How Much Drag Pressure Should I Use on My Reel?

If your drag settings are too heavy, you’re going to have a bad time fishing.

If Goldilocks was an angler, she would have a really hard time setting drag pressure on a fishing reel. This setting is too strong, this setting is too weak. If Goldilocks could only find a drag setting that is just right.

I am Goldilocks when it comes to adjusting the tension on my reel spool, I can’t get it right. Last fall, I pulled the hook on several bull red drum trying to horse them out of the pilings of the Chesapeake Bay Bridge Tunnel. Then, I turn around and lose the biggest seatrout of my life because I’m using light drag for the fang-tooth, paper-mouth fish. I can’t stand the pressure!