Adding drag pressure to a baitcast reel

[Phatbass54]

I have a reel with 4lb of drag pressure if I add a second drag washer from a reel rated at 7lbs, will this effectively increase the pounds of pressure? 

[Tennessee Boy]

What kind of reel are we talking about?

[F14A-B]

A baitcast reel with a max of 4 pounds of drag? I mean what company would make such a reel? 

[little giant]

Spinning or casting??

Are ya sure it's not 4kg??

[FishTank]

57 minutes ago, F14A-B said:

A baitcast reel with a max of 4 pounds of drag? I mean what company would make such a reel? 

 

It's possible.  Some older reels,  like the Daiwa Pixy, only had about 3-4lbs but replacing the drag washer closest to the main gear frame with a Carbontex one would double the attainable pressure.  

[WRB]

4 lbs of drag is about right for MH bass rods, it’s what I use.

Contact Smooth Drags for carbontex drag disk for your specific reel, about $3.

Tom

[Bigbox99]

It's also possible that the spring washers have deformed over time and you have lost the ability to apply high drag pressures.  I have a Steez LTD that did this from not using it for a few years with the drag set to a medium setting.  I now have to max the drag to get an acceptable light drag for jerkbaits.  It just needs new spring washers.  

 

Here is a fun fact: you can remove the spring washers and replace them with a stack flat washers (or one thick one) and your drag will be on or off with on being max drag pressure on lockdown. 

 

The advantage here is that most issues that stem from drags on baitcast reels that get weaker over time is from the deformation of the spring washers.  Most people don't back the drag off after every trip and experience a loss of max drag pressure over time.  If you lock down your drag you would benefit from replacing the washers with flat washers.  Some reels have even been made from the factory like this such as the Deps DR-100ZX Zillion and recently some sort of Kastking thing but you can do this with any reel.

https://jdmfishing.com/vault/deps-dr-100zx-limited-edition/