Heritage Laker drag

[Poorboy]

Have one HL that lost the wing nut on the reel drag.  Bought some new ones and put one on, but this trap has lost 2 fish for me because the drag won't stay adjusted.  It tends to tighten up as the fish takes out line, resulting in me setting it looser and then having the line spill over the side when a fish runs and stops.  Yesterday this happened and then the line wrapped around the star nut and the fish broke the hook and was gone. Anyone had drag problems with these?

[billditrite]

poor by..is the little red washer that goes between the star nut and the spool still there? if that is missing it will get stuck

[Poorboy]

Yeah, it's there.  Threads look a little dinged up, though, now that I look closer.  Could be that last year the toggle from a toggle bolt(all I could find in the truck) was different thread.  Oops.  I only have 2 Lakers and just wondered what other people's experiences had been...read the threads here and saw that they are well liked, but wanted to ask specifically about the drag.  By the way, Rite-Aid in Brewer has 10 older metal spool Heritage Lakers on the shelf still(tells you how much ice fishing stuff they sell).  They are 23 bucks and if I can buy them for 18 at WM the metal spool ain't worth 5 bucks to me. 

[Gamalot]

I would offer the Rite Aide manager $20 each and buy what you need.
The HL graphite spool is every bit as nice as the older metal ones and I don't honestly know if they ever made a cheeper model with plain plastic spools.
If the choice is between metal or graphite, I would go with the graphite.

[Bob_D]

Are you tightening the wing nut against the star nut? If not, you need to. That will keep things from getting lose. I have 30 of them and have never had a problem.

[Poorboy]

Yes, am tightening it securely.  If I have dinged the threads up as I described, that could cause the tiny bit of movement needed to change the drag.  I'll just chalk this trap up to experience and move on.  I'm not soured on the Lakers, just wanted to see if anyone had lost wing nuts and see if it is a common problem.

[Gamalot]

Don't give up on the trap, if you think the shaft is dinged then replace it with a new one. They are available and this may be the only problem.
The nice part about buying good quality stuff is the parts are available.