The drag on my 6500 at max is fine and pretty strong. But recently I started changing how fish by playing the fish more. I noticed the drag on that reel is extremely inconsistent. In order for the drag to come out while the fish is pulling I have to lower until the drag finally gives. Or it won't give when a fish is pulling but when I turn the handle it gives. sometimes I can lift up on the rod and it won't give. Then it'll suddenly give and almost over run.

Could I remedy this with some cals grease or even a carbenetix washers upgrade? Or could there be another issue going on.

I have had a similar issue with abu round reels. My fix is taking the reel apart getting the drag washers out, wipe them clean with a paper towel apply a thin film of grease and re assemble how you took it apart, has always smoothed mine right out. I use some shiamno drag grease I got at academy.

I'll give that a try before buying stuff for it. But I actually wouldn't mind upgrading it because I've been seeing lots of stuff about hotrodding the round reels haha

All depends on what you want out of it. They can surely be made better. For the most part I use mine chunking chunks of cutbait with an adequate weight and 65lb braid and I don't need to cast a country mile so they suit me fine just as they are.

I agree on taking the drag washer out cleaning them up and applying a grease like cal's or the shimano stuff made for washers. Will be smooth as butter after that!

So I watched some videos of a guy using cals grease to grease the drag on a 6500 and I read some post on why you use drag grease instead of regular reel grease. It said because drag grease handles the higher temps that drags go through. So after reading that and seeing what the grease looks like on the video, why not use my tub of high temp wheel bearing grease in my garage ?