So I've been watching a lot of videos about handlining, tenkara, and pole fishing for carp. I have always operated under the impression that the purpose of the reel drag was to not only take stress off the line and tire out the fish, but to eliminate the danger of tearing the hook out of a carps soft mouth. However these systems are not present on tenkara or poles. So is the drag for protection of the fish's delicate mouth or is it just to help not break lighter lines? Thanks!

good question. i have no idea. i just use my bass gear. never hear of tenkara. would love to hear an experienced option as well

The drag serves both purposes. Carp have soft mouths and with too much drag you can tear the hook out. Even a medium sized carp can pull hard enough to break surprisingly strong line.

Pole fishing uses the flex of the pole to act as a form of drag.

Ok, cool, I guess I'll give it a try!

Thanks for the best question from somebody who cares about carp!The drag is to not only help eliminate tear on the soft tissues but also will help broken lines and bank more of our lil' buddies. Whole videos could and are made about it but it takes careful search and I havnt the time to produce a link today.

Yeah at this point I've decided I'm not really comfortable catching them on a fixed line system unless it is super long and can be trusted to be springy enough to act as a buffer. Some of those initial runs are real doozys!

In the UK & Europe pole anglers use elastic run through the top 3 sections of the pole,the bigger the fish the stronger the elastic,to act as a buffer,both for the fish safety and the anglers chances of landing the fish

I don't know ... I guess I would call a carp's mouth-lips kind of rubbery. Not nearly as delicate as sand bass or bass IMO. For example, I rarely have a through-the-lip hookup where there's a lot of work to get the hook out. I think when a hook comes out, it's because it wasn't set to begin with, or it set in the rubbery sidewall of the inner mouth.