Marketing 'Lies'?

[peakoverload]

Few would doubt the importance of the reel in our fishing and we all want a reel that will stand us the best chance of landing that 'fish of a lifetime'. However, are we being sold a bit of a 'lie' or an embellished truth when it comes to the drag systems employed on fixed spool reels?

What I mean is when I first started fishing many, many years ago as a kid the only kind of drag/clutch was front drag. Then some clever so and so invented rear drag and suddenly this was the form of drag that everyone wanted. Back then rear drag was marketed as being easier to adjust when fighting a fish as you didn't have to go near where the line was and was more accurate because generally they used a notched gearing system.

Many years later and now we are being told that front drag is once again the best and yet again similar arguments are being used to sell it. I've seen the following arguments to describe why it's supposedly better:

1. It's stronger than rear drag
2. It's smoother than rear drag
3. It's safer to adjust than rear drag

Stronger than rear drag
I can understand the science behind this argument, front drag uses larger washers and gears so therefore has to be stronger than rear drag which uses smaller. However I've owned many, many rear drag reels and front drag reels for that matter and have never had one that was too weak, has anyone else? After all the point of the drag is to slip so you don't want it too strong and I've never had one slip too much.

Smoother than rear drag
Again I can understand the science that larger gears will slip more smoothly than smaller ones but I've never felt that any of my rear drag reels have been rough and I can honestly say that I've never lost a fish because the clutch didn't slip enough, slipped too much or slipped in a jerky fashion. So just how smooth can front drag be?

Safer to adjust than rear drag
This is the one I really don't get. You hook into something big, the clutch goes and line starts screaming off the front of your reel. With front drag you have to reach around the front of your reel whilst avoiding catching your arm/shirt/coat on the line, you can't see the front of the reel so you have to go by touch and try and estimate how much to tighten up by all the while the rod is banging up and down as the fish surges off. Sorry but give me rear drag any day of the week!

I really can't see the benefit in front drag other than allowing manufacturers to charge more for something they say is 'better'.

Am I wrong?

[dave fish]

no probalby not but is that whats going trough your mind when you buy a new peice of kit ?of cousre not all you think about is getting it on the bank at the weekend only then does it really sink in that the old kit you have does exactly the same job.but until anglers wise up and realise they could potentialy be being ripped off its to late because they already bought one

[NICK R]

Never found a problem with the clutch ,or baitrunner being at the front of the reel ,in fact i think it is better ,

using the clutch on the front of the spool was in use well before all these baitrunner idea,s

[Maddison_Twatter]

I kind of get why they say front drag is safer, in my opinion the front drag is more sensitive therefore you can slowly adjust the drag without over doing it, but with the rear it seems to be more coarse as in one click could be five clicks on the front drag, I may be totally wrong but thats how it seems to me .

[BoldBear]

I don't seem to have any problem with a good rear drag, possibly because I seem to have got used to them. Although I acknowlege the reasons why some prefer a front drag.
I am nearly always using a reel with a rear drag these days without too many problems (famous last words ).

I rarely need to adjust the drag whilst playing a fish however I quite often use my hand on the front of the spool to prevent the spool from turning and giving line during the fight if I suddenly need to clamp down and prevent a Barbel or Carp from reaching a snag but the rear drag hasn't caused me many problems so far (fingers crossed).

But I don't have any problems with front drags either.

[carp-catcha]

I find both types of drag are fine and I'm used to using them.
If you grow up just using one type of drag then its easy to get stuck in your ways a bit and that second nature instinct might cause you to struggle if the drag position is in a different position to what your used to. Once you familiarise yourself though I don't think either method causes a problem if the reel is half decent.

[barbelblanker]

Never any bother with either. I guess rear is eaisier to use and the fighting drag on one of my shimanos is excellent. Only trouble is it is not a bait runner type and I am paranoid about get my gear dragged in. Great for stalk, hit and hold sessions though.