A huge number of posters here have fished with my gear here in AK... We need drags.
Sealed drags are absolutely needed in salt... a real good idea everywhere.
Very few upper end reels are not to be found in my kit. Riley thought it was child abuse to be forced to fish with a Hardy reel. Too loud, tough on knuckles, and uncool
Ross, including the newest are jokes, IME&O. Burned out drags on the first run on a lightly used reel.
TFO has been a huge, positive surprise. The BVK series (four examples) has been beaten brutally and came out grinning.
Sage, SA, some Hardy are good.
Lamson reels use the same drag, top to bottom models, and they work!
Bauer is a proven reel, period! Hatch is also a solid choice.
Overall, good advice here ^^^
The TFO BVK reels are the steal of the day right now with a great drag with good startup characteristics.
The Sage Spectrum series is too light on drag to be considered viable, IMHO; the new Enforcer is OK.
Never had any problems with the better Ross reels with salmon or steelhead................CLA's, Gunnison's & Momentums; haven't tried any of their new, current stuff, so maybe they are lacking.
Add Galvan to the list of great reels, especially the Torque series; Lamson is also very good for the money & better than it should be.
Bauer & Hatch are solid as is Nautilus , Tibor & Abel if you can afford them............best real I've ever had was an Abel, 2nd best a Tibor.
Talking about Bogdan is a flat out joke as a practical matter.............next to laughable, really.
A good drag on big fish is just a must if you really intend to land fish.
MM
