How much drag should i have set on a spinning reel when throwing poppers and skipping piper for kingfish?

That's a good question...I was wondering what drag settings everyone else had in these situations.

to add to PF's question , at what line strength? and would you/could you use the same on an OH reel?

If am using poppers i go for a lighter drag...seen heaps of people put too much drag on and pull the hooks.....When the kingi hits you can hook it anywhere,that hook could be in its face and will pull easily with too much drag...With a piper i would go for it as they inhale those..Just my two cents worth.....Plus i want my popper back,so i try not to piss the fish off 2 much....If in deeper water,you have more room to play with. I hooked a king at the barrier once on a popper(rocks) and he didnt even do a run....Just wound him in(not big though)....Laidback king!

Thanks some good advise there..also on the subject of poppers do you guys get rid of the trebles and go with a single hook i believe the trebles can do alot of damage to the fish which isnt good if you want to release them.

I also use livebait hooks. Usually 8/0 Owners which are very strong and with short shanks. You've gotta make sure that the hooks can't get caught around each other during the cast and landing which can happen with hooks with longer shanks. I usually also attach a ball bearing swivel to the front of the popper if I have replaced the hooks as I'm never 100% if the strength of the split rings has been undermined in the change over process (the gauge is pretty thick on those Owners).

Not a fan of trebles at all. just too much carnage for the fish that gets hooked up.

Have read up a bit on the use of freehanging assist hooks being used too. Same as you would on a jig. I expect they would work pretty damn well also.

Decent sized livebait style hooks would be the go. Though a strong gammy works well in piper skip baits.

You do replace the trebles with a single hook. 1 single hook for each treble (so 2 singles).

JK wrote: I prefer to run 2 up front and 1 down the back.  Has worked for me pretty well.   Also use smaller livebait hooks. My hooks do just touch thought and can hookup on casting - happens maybe 1 in 20 or 30 casts though so not too annoying really as long as ya dont miss a hookup which hasnt happened yet but always could.   I dont like to run heaps of drag when just casting and retrieving. Have it set only couple kg so they hit , turn and run a tiny bit and then crank it up and get in to em. Beauty of some reels is that they are pretty sensitive to relatively small turn of the drag knob. As long as ya know about how far to go it can work really well.

Do you tie those two hooks together with a cable tie jk?or free moving..you tie straight to the split ring is it? no solid ring?
I find the biggest problem with the trebles is if the fish gets the popper right down its gob! bloody hard work getting it out from there,especially if hooked in the roof of the mouth

Thanks for the tips there.