Need a reel with more drag

After many years of using equipment that is barely adequate, I’ve decided that I want to start adding some decent reels to my catfishing arsenal. I’ve been using Ambassadeur 5500 reels for 30 years or so, and while they’re not bad, I’ve had some heartbreaking losses due to not enough drag to control the fish. I run 50-80 lb braid, and have no problems with break offs, even with the drag cranked down tight, so I need some suggestions on reels with a more powerful drag that will allow me to turn fish before they get into snags. I am also aware that there is a way to upgrade the drag on the Ambassadeur reels, so I may try that as well, but I want to upgrade at least a couple reels to completely new – I do tend to neglect my catfishing equipment more than other fishing equipment, so some of my equipment deserves to be retired. I keep at least 6 rods on hand for cats because I often have guests that fish with me and they typically don’t have reliable equipment for large cats, so I need to keep my equipment on the less expensive side.
I have never used anything but baitcasting equipment, plus I hate the look of the huge spinning reels, and most importantly, I need my reels to have a clicker. I don’t need a huge line capacity at all, but typically the larger framed baitcasters have a larger drag, which is very important to me.
I’m open to any suggestions, especially since I haven’t even looked at new equipment for at least 20 years, so by all means, enlighten me as to any new brands, techniques or equipment.
I’ll probably start to replace rods eventually, but rods are not as critical as the reel, so those will have to wait.

look at picking up some used Diawa Saltist Reels. They were sort of popular as a big blade reel for muskies before the Shimano Tranx 500’s hit the market. You may be able to pick up the 20 and 30 Silver ones for $80 to $100 and the newer Black ones for a little more. They have a Lever for disengaging the spool. Great drag and loud clicker. Sold a 20 for $80 a few years back and thinking of buying it back from the guy. I use mine for sturgeon fishing and trolling applications now. I have a 30 Still.

Steve

For flatheads I used the old workhorse the Garcia 7000’s. For channels and sturgeon I’ve used the 6500’s.

I can’t find a channel/sturgeon/flathead reel that I like. They either have a good drag but too large (heavy) or the right size and not a very good drag.

IMHO

Look into reels designed for saltwater applications. I’m sure you will find the drag specs more to your liking.

I used this out west.
Amazing drags for the size.

Accurate Reels – I do not know who would sell the out here.

I think they are sort of spendy but it is a saltwater application.

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That looks like a nice reel John but it is $550. I have never used this reel but the Shimano Charter Special has a max drag of 33 lb vs the 15 lb on the 5600 and are around $100.

You turn a fish with your thumb on the spool. Or get bigger reels too, and still thumb it when you really wanna goose em into turning.

Ambassadors are total garbage. But, thumbing the spool is unlimited drag… they’re just wussies with cranking power.

If your rod isn’t big enough to turn a fish by thumbing the spool, then larger reel won’t help.

Now with that said…I run Abu Garcia revo Toro winch 50’s or diawa lexa 400’s.
Winches are obsolete, replaced by ‘beast’

Either of those have excellent cranking power while having the correct drag to boot.

Im also a big fan of shimano Corvallis or cardiff each in 400. They’re bullet proof. And half the price of the others.

If your a clicker man, which im not 95% of the time, those might not be the best. .. however I tend to back my drag off to the desired ‘clicker’ strength, and when I want to give the onion… just thumb the star drag and give er.

I have two Cardiff’s in the mail right now to replace some worn out BPS reels.

I’ve got 2 Penn 310 GTi that I’ve been happy with. They don’t get as much use as the gear of some of the guys here, but I like them.

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Rodwork wrote:

That looks like a nice reel John but it is $550. I have never used this reel but the Shimano Charter Special has a max drag of 33 lb vs the 15 lb on the 5600 and are around $100.

I have two charter specials lever drags will handle real large live baits, made for big fish, but a little tricky to cast with! Plus the Garcia 7000/6500 S the Penn reels are good choice also.

I did a fair amount of searching today, and not seeing anything that really stands out in my price range. I was hoping to keep it in the same neighborhood as the 5500 – prefer under $80.
I may order a few sets of carbon drag washers for my existing 5500’s and give each of them an overhaul. They are not anything special, but they work, and if I could get them running smooth and improve the drag a bit, they should be sufficient for a few more seasons while I wait for something better to come out in my price range.
Have any of you upgraded your drag to carbon washers? They claim a 20-30% increase in drag power, along with reduced heat and a much smoother drag – no more surging. For $10 per reel, I think it could be a cost-effective way to improve my catfishing rigs.

FishBlood&RiverMud wrote:

You turn a fish with your thumb on the spool. Or get bigger reels too, and still thumb it when you really wanna goose em into turning.

Ambassadors are total garbage. But, thumbing the spool is unlimited drag… they’re just wussies with cranking power.

If your rod isn’t big enough to turn a fish by thumbing the spool, then larger reel won’t help.

Now with that said…I run Abu Garcia revo Toro winch 50’s or diawa lexa 400’s.
Winches are obsolete, replaced by ‘beast’

Either of those have excellent cranking power while having the correct drag to boot.

Im also a big fan of shimano Corvallis or cardiff each in 400. They’re bullet proof. And half the price of the others.

If your a clicker man, which im not 95% of the time, those might not be the best. .. however I tend to back my drag off to the desired ‘clicker’ strength, and when I want to give the onion… just thumb the star drag and give er.

I have two Cardiff’s in the mail right now to replace some worn out BPS reels.

I share the same sentiment. Just thumb the spool down.

In that price range you may consider:
Zero big cat xt
Or
Shakespeare ats trolling reel.

They have more than an ambassador. They don’t make them like they used to, but they do have good bang for the buck.

Also. Corvallis is $80 and they are bulletproof. Pulled in many fish exceeding 40# with all the above.

mojo wrote:

Have any of you upgraded your drag to carbon washers? They claim a 20-30% increase in drag power, along with reduced heat and a much smoother drag – no more surging. For $10 per reel, I think it could be a cost-effective way to improve my catfishing rigs.

You can increase drag, but you cannot increase cranking power. Ambassador is a good one for having half the cranking power compared to the drag setting. As you go up in price, you’ll find they balance out more.

While they don’t have crp on their site today, keep on eye on fishermen factory outlet for good prices on refurbished reels. You can go to their store for more deals too.

I once bought two of the Shakespeare reels for $5 each… and used them HARD for 10 yrs.

Check out akios reels i have the 651 ctm and i think they are sweet. I believe it has 27 lbs of drag. It casts better than my ambassador thats upgraded with 6 ceramic ball bearings. I think they go for about $ 140-160

Have any of you upgraded your drag to carbon washers? They claim a 20-30% increase in drag power, along with reduced heat and a much smoother drag – no more surging. For $10 per reel, I think it could be a cost-effective way to improve my catfishing rigs.

Trumar put the carbon drags in my 6500’s. To be honest the only thing I noticed was they didn’t surge nearly as much. The rest of their claims maybe true, I just didn’t notice it.

True on the 7000 cranking power. It’s only as good as the drag.
Easy fix though, lift up…reel down…smile…repeat.

I fish heavy cover too but I don’t horse fish. I fish Abu 6500’s and they have all the drag I need.I have lost too many nice fish by pulling the hooks out of their mouths. I am big fan of a good drag and I seldom horse a fish unless it is absolutely necessary. In those situations I thumb the reel as much as I need to to turn him. I only fish circle hooks and I never set a hook. I tight line from a rod holder most of the time and just reel down if I need a hook set. Pulling a hook on a fish just tears out my heart. I wait a long time to hook up with a big fish and I am going to get him in the boat by taking my time and giving a little when needed.

I use the thumb drag technique when I can’t turn a fish that needs to be turned, but it’s not near as consistent as having a good drag, also I prefer to keep my hand on the handle, because I’ve had fish turn and run straight at me lots of times, and if they’re just mouth hooked, a little slack is all they need to get free, keeping constant pressure on the handle allows me to take up that slack much quicker and keep the line tight. I fish in some spots with trees and docks sometimes and other times near very dense weeds that are very difficult to pull a decent cat out of once they burrow down into them, so being able to horse a fish is a necessity at times. I always do my very best to return the fish to the water in the best condition possible, I don’t keep catfish, so they all go back to be caught another day. I have one that I did catch twice, it had a very odd jaw, bottom jaw was pointed sideways and didn’t match up with the upper jaw, it was probably broken at one time. I caught him in the same spot two years after the first time and I don’t think he was eating well because he had gone from over 23 lbs the first time I caught him, down to just a hair over 21 two years later, but he was about an inch and a half longer.
I have a couple things to try now, I’ll post results once I get some time on the water.

https://tinyurl.com/uyxl2au
It looks like an updated version of the penn GTI reels. The drag washers in a 5500 are so small. Yes the upgrade is a little better. And the bigger handle is a little better. But all of it costs $ and you can’t buy a real 5500 for $80 anymore. Things just cost more. The best part of a bigger reel is being able to use mono.

I like 6500 C3s myself, but a cheaper option might be the Okuma Classic Pro. I don’t have much experience catching big fish with this one, but it is on one of my backup rods and it feels pretty solid.

https://www.okumafishing.com/en/product/classic-Pro-star-drag-reel.html

I use use abu 6500s on all my flathead rods , never had a drag issue. I realize there are better reels out there , but price wise they work for me . I will say this though , I bough a new one last year and it is complete garbage. Would not buy another new one , but snap up any older ones you run across.

I know you said you didn’t like the look of spinning reels, but if you buy a quality one they have great drags with lots of max power, plus much easier to “palm” if need be. I was always a baitcaster guy, but since going to spinning, I have not missed them a bit. An added bonus is that a spinning reel is a little more convenient when you need to break off on a snag.

The reel I use has almost 34lbs of max drag. Any more than than and you might risk getting pulled out of the boat.

I was wondering when spinning reels would come up. I have an Okuma Avenger ABF50 baitfeeder reel and paired with the right rod, I would put that thing up against any fish in MN.

I have noticed that spinning reels are now getting very strong drag systems, that is a welcome development. It would be just too much of an investment for me to switch over both reels and rods right now. I need a couple new reels for this season, and I will be in good shape.
I’m sure there will be some criticism, but I went ahead and ordered two of the KastKing rover reels from amazon. First one arrived Thursday, and feels very good considering the price, I’ll take it apart and clean/lube it when the other arrives, and should have better idea what to expect once I hook it into some cats. It has thicker hard anodized aluminum side plates, CNC machined spool, precision cut brass gears, all alloy flawless level wind, industry-first stainless steel worm gear, patented metal idle gear, stainless steel shaft, and a carbon fiber drag. I am also ordering three sets of the Carbontex drag washers to improve my current Ambassadeur reels.
I’m not familiar with baitfeeding reels, can they be made to free spool with an audible clicker to indicate bites and prevent overrun? Maybe next season, I can start rebuilding the arsenal, and could add a spinning rig occasionally.

Late to the party but if you want to stick with conventional reels take a look at the Penn Fathom. The smaller sizes (12 ad 15) without the levelwind are very comparable in size to the 6000 series abus but with better line capacity, #25 to #30 drag and a power handle. Absolute winch compared to most freshwater reels and can be had for about $200.

There are other reels out there of that same style (star drag casting reels with or without a levelwind) but I went with the Fathom because it’s one of the cheaper ones that will get to that #25 advertised drag mark. You can get a cheaper one with less drag or spend $500 on a Trinidad too if that’s more your speed.

There are also premium saltwater spinning reels out there that can get to that #25 drag mark, I just don’t have any personal experience with them.