can someone help me understand drag?

[shootermcbob]

I know that each reel has a drag setting. I know how to set it on my reels. I am not sure the purpose of having the drag? if a fish is hooked and pulling line from your reel, does this damage the reel? can you still crank the reel if the fish is pulling line??? how do measure how much drag you have??? how do you know how much drag you need???? I use a baitcaster with 10 and 12 lb. mono line. Thanks for the help guys.

[Raul]

I am not sure the purpose of having the drag?

To protect the line, the gearing and the rod from breaking under stress transfering the energy to a place where it 's dissipated by friction.

if a fish is hooked and pulling line from your reel, does this damage the reel?

No

can you still crank the reel if the fish is pulling line???

Yes, but that doesn 't mean your reel picks up line, the same way the energy is dissipated from the line being pulled it 's dissipated when uder stress you crank the handle.

how do measure how much drag you have???

By tying your line to a scale and pulling, the moment the line slips you take the reading, the scale will tell you under how many pounds of pull the drag slipped.

how do you know how much drag you need????

To protect the line, rod & reel you set the drag to 1/3 of the breaking strength of the line, then you still have 2/3 of the breaking strenght of the line as a reserve in case you need to tighten.

I use a baitcaster with 10 and 12 lb. mono line.

Then 10 lb = 3.3 lbs of drag setting, 12 lbs = 4 pounds of drag setting.

This does 1/3 "rule" of breaking strength does not apply directly to braid, since braid has no stretch you have to treat braided drag settings like if it was mono of the same diameter, otherwise the drag would be too tight and you could break the rod or damage your reel.

[Jig Man]

Another job well done by Raul.

[Maxximus Redneckus]

I woudlnt Crank while fighting a fish on spinning gear ,let the drag do its job with out crankin it will twist ur line even worse.Do the pump method let it take line then reel down to the line like fishing salterwater fish then pull towards ya without reeling then down again then up use the reel to pull in slack line

[Crestliner2008]

I agree with TCR. Cranking while the fish is taking drag is about the worse thing you can do while fighting a fish. Better alternative is to slowly increase the drag while the fish is taking it out, but do NOT crank!  Your next cast will convince you as to "why" not to crank while a fish is taking line out, as you throw a heck of a birds nest (due to line twist)!  Even better than relying on your drag is to crank the adjustment down tight and turn the switch lever to the off position - this is called "back reeling" and gives you much better control over your fight. This is especially true when dealing with large fish and light line. I back reel alot, but when fishing for smallmouth, I just love to hear the drag buzzzzing away as the crazy fish runs  

[shootermcbob]

Thanks so much to all who answered. Raul, thanks for the "play by play" which answered everything and in a manner even a newbie could understand. Thanks again

[ABC123]

I know that each reel has a drag setting. I know how to set it on my reels. I am not sure the purpose of having the drag? if a fish is hooked and pulling line from your reel, does this damage the reel? can you still crank the reel if the fish is pulling line??? how do measure how much drag you have??? how do you know how much drag you need???? I use a baitcaster with 10 and 12 lb. mono line. Thanks for the help guys.

When discussing the landing/boating of fish and using drag....

Reel: A place to put your line while bringing a lure or fish back to you.

Rod: The item used to pull fish towords you as you put line back on the reel.

Line: The only thing between you and the lure/fish.

You can catch a fish with a broken rod, you can catch a fish with a broken reel, you can't catch a fish with broken line!

The drag protects your line from being broken when a fish charges away from you or gets hung up on structure. It is the single most important item. You really shouldn't ever reel against the drag. Besides being a moot point becouse you are doing nothing to get the fish closer to you, you are also heating the drag and breaking down the function of the drag.

The rest of your questions have been answers, so I'll skip them.