How much have you thought about how your drags are set on your rods when trolling for salmon? Probably not too much. Well, you should. How well you set and maintain your drags on your reels can have as much impact or more on your success as what lure choices you make. Especially when it comes to big Kings!

I learned this the hard way a few years ago on my first trip up to Frankfort Michigan in August. Fishing southern Lake Michigan I was not used to consistently tying into big King Salmon. In 3 days of fishing Frankfort, we lost 15 fish and only boated 1. As quick as these big aggressive Kings were on, they were off again and we either lost a lure, broke a hook, broke a leader and in one case even lost a length of 200 feet of copper line.

It was easy to get stuck in the mind set that we needed heavier leaders, stronger line, stronger hooks but in looking back at this now, I realize that one of the biggest culprits on that trip were my reels and the drags on the reels. At that time I used the venerable Penn 209’s on several of my rods. They were used when I got them and to be honest were not in top notch shape. For smaller fish I was catching in southern Lake Michigan they definitely did the job. No disrespect for the classic Penn 209 but when you started putting them up against hard hitting monster kings, the drags were set too tight and just were not up to the job.

To help put this into perspective a bit, a King salmon can swim at up to 24-25 miles per hour. Your lure is only going between 2-3 miles per hour. If you have a 25lb King hit your lure at top speed, your drag has to go from standing still to 24-25 miles per hour in the blink of an eye. The force with which that 25lb King hits with could be somewhere in the range of 300-500 foot pounds of force at impact. That’s the equivalent of someone suddenly hanging motor cycle on end of your line. With that kind of energy, the best 50lb test line will snap in an instant, good quality hooks will break and you can burn up reels drag in no time flat.

As a result of that trip and many conversations with experienced fishermen since, I have made it a point to pay much more attention to both the condition of my reels and drags and how I set them. I want my equipment to be able to survive the initial impact of a big King hitting my lure so I have half a chance of getting that fish in.

Now when I put my lines out, I always make sure I set the drags as light as I can and still manage that line. With my dipsies and planer lines, the drags will be set light enough that the motion of the boat will cause a little bit of line to feed out occasionally. I want to hear those reels click. With downriggers you have to set your drag just tight enough that line doesn’t feed out with the motion of the boat. Anytime I reset my lines, I recheck the drag to make sure it is still set as loose as I can get away with.

One other word of advice, for those just getting started. In my opinion its better to buy the best quality reel you can afford than spending that money on more expensive rods, lines and lures. In the long run you will be money ahead. Take it from someone who had to learn the hard way.