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Are you a Backwinder or a Drag-artist?

Richard Garbett

Richard Garbett

Senior Member
I've never used the drag system when fishing for Barbel and Chub, but everyone these days that I come across, seems to be the opposite. I must admit to a few knocks and bruises from spinning handles but I just can't convince myself that I'd be better off using the drag.
What do you prefer and why?
 
My barbel fishing experience is minimal. For chub I am a Shimano fighting drag user. I am used to the nuances of fighting drag as I have been using it for 35 plus years. Moreover, I feel much more comfortable with my left hand at the back of the reel. Controlling the drag from the front simply feels awkward for me. Ultimately, when conditions allow it using a centrepin is my preferred way of fishing. Although I forget to set the ratchet more often than not - as I do a baitrunner. I would most certainly forget to reset the anti reverse. I have caught one barbel with a centrepin and that's most definitely the way I would like to catch them.
 
I set my clutches so there is just a bit of resistance when the fish takes the bait and then the other setting as a safety if the fish lunges when I a playing it. I then play the fish using back winding if the fish is pulling strongly and not near any hazards. I do suppose I would use the drag more if I were fishing at any distance but I mainly fish small rivers / streams.
 
The earliest reels I used had dismal drags, I learned to backwind. However, it wasn't too long before I got to buy reels with far superior drags. At that point, I learned to mix and match. Nearly forty years on, I tend to fish with centrepins an awful lot, but the fixed spool reels I own invariably have superb drags. Whilst it's perfectly effective to use these fixed spool reels with the anti-reverse permanently engaged, I still tend to mix and match as I see fit. I have had one reel that featured no anti-reverse switch. It's not something that I would choose in the future, but using it was no great challenge. The fact that the drag was excellent helped immensely.

However, the one thing I sometimes do, that rarely gets mentioned, is set a drag a bit lower than the maximum appropriate for the line being used. I then control the spool rotation with my finger tips. It's quite similar to the way a centrepin user might play a fish.
 
Clutch nearly always.

I do backwind when using light lines for chub, e.g. 2.8 - 3lb hooklengths and size 18 hooks on a dink-dink.
 
Both depending on species but I always engage the backwind when the fish is under the rod tip and about to be netted, holding the rotor with my index finger. A sudden lunge can be better dealt with like this than off the clutch.
 
Chris Jones said:
The earliest reels I used had dismal drags, I learned to backwind. However, it wasn't too long before I got to buy reels with far superior drags. At that point, I learned to mix and match. Nearly forty years on, I tend to fish with centrepins an awful lot, but the fixed spool reels I own invariably have superb drags. Whilst it's perfectly effective to use these fixed spool reels with the anti-reverse permanently engaged, I still tend to mix and match as I see fit. I have had one reel that featured no anti-reverse switch. It's not something that I would choose in the future, but using it was no great challenge. The fact that the drag was excellent helped immensely.

However, the one thing I sometimes do, that rarely gets mentioned, is set a drag a bit lower than the maximum appropriate for the line being used. I then control the spool rotation with my finger tips. It's quite similar to the way a centrepin user might play a fish.
Click to expand...
Late great Dick Walker once wrote a good article about how to play fish on a fixed spool reel, also recommended setting the clutch light and using finger pressure on the spool when necessary.
Also highlighted how winding in against a slipping clutch results in massive line twist.
 
Always use the drag myself, seems silly to ignore something that is designed to take the strain from the reel when a fish is pulling . I know that many prefer to backwind, but to me its just awkward and unbalancing.

I greatly prefer front drag reels , they seem so much more immediate and exact in the pressure you "dial in " to the drag, I do have a couple pf rear drags, but TBH they get left in the tackle drawer on most occasions. the drag and baitrunner facility are next to each other on matching knurled collars to adjust, and I always get them mixed up making playing a fish a confusing issue if I need to give a bit more line on the drag by adjusting it mid fight .

I have a Daiwa fixed spool beach reel that will not backwind as there is no facility for it at all, it is in forward wind mode only , and you have to dial in the drag on the drag knob on the spool, I bought it cheap from a shop in Orkney as it seems everybody ignored it because it would not "backwind" at all , its a fantastic reel, and one that I can really get on with.

I suppose I could say that when I use my "pins, I have to backwind, but again thats not the case at all, I let the fish take line against thumb pressure on the edge of the spool, and wind in when the fish "lets" me.

So all in all for me there is no contest. I was fishing the Wye this Autumn with a friend, we were using cane rods and Mitchell 300's ,he always backwinds ( recovering ex Carp angler ) and when he had an 8 pounder on I have never seen anything as awkward as it looked when he was frantically giving line by backwinding. I have silky smooth drags on my Mitchells, which are equally as good as any of the currently available fixed spools on the market , amd a lot better than some. I have no argument with anybody that chooses to use their reels by backwinding, for me its a no go and wll stay that way .

David
 
I feel that I should add to my original post, that where I say 'backwind' i mean let the reel reverse and slow the spinning with my fingers behind the bail arm.
As someone alluded to earlier, in my earlier fishing years there was a lot of talk about line twist whilst using the drag system, hence why I avoided it somewhat.
Perhaps it wasn't as much of a problem as I thought it was, otherwise nobody would be doing it now. 🤔🙂
 
clutch when im feeder fishing but back wind when float fishing
 
Old habits etc, I always back wind, it's just old school I suppose, on the rare occasions I have 'played off the clutch' I admit to it being a rather enjoyable experience, although I must say a tad a 'lazy' way to play a fish. I don't mean that in a disparaging way, I feel that I am not sensing altogether what is happening at the other end, the thud thud through the rod to the handle allows me to adjust when to give slack.or when to wind when playing off the handle.
I am the same with casting, not for me the 'Carpy' way of behind the head in an arc, I could not bear the thought of how the rig would land, much prefer the side cast, probably down to old school again when there was a lack of good fixed spool reels when I was a kid, and we all sort of managed some kind of 'Wallace' cast without even knowing it. :oops:
 
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