Drag settings and tag-line usage

Q: When pulling lures for billfish on 80-pound tackle, what's the best drag setting and why? And should I use tag lines on my outriggers?

Peter,
Lydenburg, South Africa

A: To be totally honest, I don't know the answer to the first part of your question. No one, myself included, has ever done a good comparative study with statistically significant numbers. The best skippers I know vary widely in their preferred strike drag. Capt. John Cochrane reports good results with his own special line of lures that are designed to always ride with the hook point facing up. He uses 35 pounds of strike drag (on 130), which is doable on 80-pound if your angler knows enough to back off immediately if the fish gets anything more than 100 yards of line off the reel. Otherwise, you have a good chance of breaking the line with the reel's drag, plus the friction of that much line being pulled through the water.

I am, however, positive that tag lines are a bad idea when used with modern outriggers. Use good-quality clips with chaffing gear to keep from abrading your line when trolling heavy lures, or use rubber bands that break away on the strike. Just fasten them to the outrigger halyard with no tag line. Henry Chee (who will be inducted into the IGFA Hall of Fame this year) invented tag lines with rubber bands as a breakaway; however, his bamboo outriggers stuck straight up. If you're using vertical outriggers, which I suspect isn't the case, then tag lines would be OK.