Proper way to set drags

[Chris_K.]

I'm new to bill fishing and i'm wanting to absorb as much knowledge as possible.my question is, What is the proper way to get the drags set correctly on Shimano 50lrsa? They are spooled with 60lb Suffix hi vis. How much drag at strike how much at full and etc. Thanks for any help.

[Warren_G._Brantley]

Look under the title "Marlin Mouths" in this forum. Drag varies from location to location in the world but this will give you some guidelines. Kona seems to have the most effective manner of bringing in fish timely. If you will read stories in "Hawaii Fishing News" (in their magazine) they write how to go from 18 up to 50 or 75 pounds of pressure on 130s and to get a fish in quickly. They do similar changes on 80 wides; starting out around 18 to 20 pounds of pressure and kicking it up to 35 pounds once the fish stops its initial greyhouding. The game plan seems to get the hook set good, kick plenty of pressure onto the fish and then back down or chase it down to get it to the boat for a quick release. You do not accomplish this by being gentle. And you do not do this by having a captain that basically parks the boat and makes you haul the fish in 400 yards to you. And there are too many of them out there that do that; especially with novices.

Huge fish can be brought boatside easily in 30 minutes to an hour. A white marlin or a sail on a 30 wide should take up no more than 10 minutes of your time. Your Shimano should easily accomplish the same. They do a fine job on swordfish also. We've caught several off Fort Lauderdale with Capt. Kevin Kates using Shimanos.

You want to be smarter than the billfish and to have your game plan secure, ready to deliver a knock out, before the fish sounds on you. Don't figure out your strategy once you are hooked up. You'll lose most of them.

On your Shimano tackle you would use the same settings as a Penn Gold 50. You need to learn your reel, your line, rod, test your drag pressures yourself, determine at what point the line breaks and do so, and be aware of weaknesses that knots cause in the scheme of things. Use red tape to mark the settings on the reel. You can make incremental changes as you fight a fish, depending on if you hooked up with a spearfish or small white versus a "rat" blue, or a blue of some size. If you catch 50% of those that take the bait you are doing as good or better than the pros.

Remember, the quicker you can get the first one in and released the sooner you can move onto the second one. And in this sport, in the right locations, at the right time of the year, you can catch 2 to 5 billfish a day; though I believe the record on blues is actually 22 caught in one day. Tight lines. WGB