Drag settings?

[Kevin Li]

        Your thoughts please?

What drag settings would you recommend (pulled straight from the reel) for the smaller species below:

GT of 10kg and below
longnosed and Sprangled snapper of 8kg and below           

I have to dead stop the fish as I'll be fishing very very rough terrain with the fish feeding over  shallow rock crevasses! The fish are small for a 10000 Stella but dead stopping them without line pulling more than 1m is crucial.

[Jay Burgess]

Without line pulling more than 1m?? Might as well just fully lock it 

[Kevin Li]

Hopefully the PE4 that I'll be using won't break? I'll be using small poppers of 50g hence the PE4. Was just wondering what rod rating could stop fish of this class, I was thinking of 7.5kg pulled straight from the reel so that I can natch a lighr rod to it

[Nathan Tsao]

Agreed, a GT under 10kg and under should never pull drag, even on light drag settings. You should still be able to lock them on PE4, that line is still very strong, especially if matched with a softer rod. Maybe tie an extra long leader to give yourself a little bit more "spring" if a larger fish strikes.
 Do the different snappers have soft lips that you could pull the hooks out of? We dont have those fish here in Hawaii, so i have no idea if locking down on them is a good idea.

[Brandon Khoo]

Kevin, an 8kg spangled emperor in angry territory will destroy you on PE4.

[Jay Burgess]

Kevin, an 8kg spangled emperor in angry territory will destroy you on PE4.

Yeah you also need to consider line angles... in shallow water even with no line out still a really good chance it will reef you.

[Kevin Li]

Fishing LBG and the emperors are huge. I have been reefed a few times on PE4 but only the leaders have been broken on 6kg pulled straight from the reel. Therefore I know that the leader is being weaken by abrasion as the fish go straight in the cave like rocks a couple of metres below the surface.

I'll use PE5 or 6 as I see that I don't stand a chance on 7.5kg which I recon is the max I can go with PE4. With 10kg on the reel that will hopefully do.

I don't know if you guys have noticed this but when playing a fish on very rough terrain the old 10000FA has the edge on the new standard 10000SW. The higher gear just turns the fish and less snags from the runs when at iniyial take you crank the fish on the high gear.

[Nathan Tsao]

HI Kevin, since you're from the shore, maybe try and find some Ande brand leader material since it is highly abrasion resistant. One of my lighter shoreline rods is rigged with 80lb braid and 100lb Ande leader, and a VS275 reel. That combo will dead stop any GT 17-18kg and under, but that still doesn't prevent reefing from happening.
Unfortunately us shoreline guys are always fighting the with terrain and not the fish!!! Best of luck!

[Kevin Li]

Cheers.

We have ande locally, I'll try that. I usually get away with 80lb leaders on lighter 50g poppers using PE4

I'm using a 9ft surfcasting rod matched with a Stella 10000SW. What has surprised me is that I have landed Skipjack same range of weight easily without line going more than a metre on the same outfit. It took depth but easy to lift.

The rocky is the key thing otherwise it would be an easy job.