What's a pawl drag?? New to flyfishing!

[fishpez]

Im looking to buy a new reel and i'm familiar with the disc drag, but what's a pawl drag??

Any help is appreciated.

Thanks :help:
JC

[drbfish]

it is a click drag. They can range from very good drag systems to worthless. For 75% of fishing they are just fine.

[FeeshNurd]

Hi JC,

I'm assuming you mean a palm drag.
Palming is used as a manual method of drag as opposed to a disc drag system.
Basically, most reels nowadays have the outer rim of the spool exposed for easy access to put your palm around it when a fish is pulling line. To be honest, I used the palming method more than any other drag system. But that was strictly for trout.
If you are after steelhead/salmon, you will be better off with a cork based disc drag.

One suggestion on buying a reel: Buy one which have continually manufactured spools. The last thing you want is to find out the reel you buy is no longer being manufactured and almost impossible to find extra spools.
Either that, or loop all your lines for easy changing. I guess it depends on the type of fishing you're doing.

Ian

[chromeseeker]

Actually, you'll be fine with a pawl (click) type drag for salmon and steelies--as long as you buy a quality manufacturer (ie., Hardy). Usually you can palm the spool rim or reel face for increased drag and that really helps. If you do any salt water fishing for salmon, you are probably better of with a sealed cork drag 1. because the fish have more room to run and can really take off but, more importantly 2. because many of the pawl-drag reels will corrode if used in the salt. A quality sealed cork drag reel will be bullet proof in the salt and maintenance-free, for the most part. Still a good idea to rinse the reel (and the rest of your gear) off with fresh H20 after fishing the salt, however.

CS

[Mark Vickers]

Click and pawl is a mechanical drag system using a spring and a little triangular piece of metal. As the spool turns, resistance is applied as the spring pushes against the little triangle that is pushed over a series of teeth. (About now I wish I had a digital photo of the inside of a reel). The name comes from the fact that this type of reel makes a clicking sound as line is stripped from it, much like the clicker setting on a conventional fishing reel.

My opinion only: I've found that click and pawl drags aren't quite as good as washer or disk drag systems, but in most cases it doesn't really matter, especially on light gear as you'll be fighting the fish by hand rather than on the reel. Click and pawl is generally cheaper, but not always (Hardy for instance). For battling bruisers (steelhead or salmon or bonefish or the like) go with a disk drag.

[lilnorthfork]

Another feature you might want to consider is the sound the reel makes when peeling line. When a hot fish makes the reel sing we all want it to be as loud as our first rock concert, but what about all the quiet moments on the water when the only sound is you stripping line from the reel. Though a perfectly adaquate reel, my Scientific Anglers System 1 had a way of ruining that moment. lnf

[TheCamel]

I found the "click" sound to be annoying, which is one of the reasons why I chose the Scientific Anglers System 2L reels. While it does have a disc drag, I have found "palming" the rim to be the most effective drag system when landing large fish.