Max drag needed?

I plan on doing quite a bit of fishing in Washington next year and was going to by an avet reel. The one I am looking at is max drag 14 or should I step it up and get a max drag of 20? I have friends that catch up to 80 lb halibut and am wondering if a 14 lb max drag is enough to yank one off the bottom and still also be able to do some salmon fishing on the same reel. Any thoughts?

Max of 14# means that you can safely use it around 10#.  14# if you absolutely need to land that fish and didn't mind possibly damaging the reel.  Around our norcal waters, that should be plenty for hali, rockfish, and salmon.  For any other larger species, it can be done with 10# of drag, but I'd opt for the G2 and take the extra drag. 

Catch tackle jgx3000 lever drag. 45 kg of drag. And that's alot of drag. I've used it for cali Hali up to big lingcod. Never fails. I can get you in contact with the guy to get it from

Max of 14# means that you can safely use it around 10#.  14# if you absolutely need to land that fish and didn't mind possibly damaging the reel.  Around our norcal waters, that should be plenty for hali, rockfish, and salmon.  For any other larger species, it can be done with 10# of drag, but I'd opt for the G2 and take the extra drag.

How did you know what I was looking at lol. Was looking at the MXL 5.8 or upgrading to the mxl 5.8 G2. Not much of a price difference just was not sure of performance difference. Still will be fishing this area for the most part but wanted to still be able to handle some Pacific Halibut and some big salmon

Max of 14# means that you can safely use it around 10#.  14# if you absolutely need to land that fish and didn't mind possibly damaging the reel.  Around our norcal waters, that should be plenty for hali, rockfish, and salmon.  For any other larger species, it can be done with 10# of drag, but I'd opt for the G2 and take the extra drag.

How did you know what I was looking at lol. Was looking at the MXL 5.8 or upgrading to the mxl 5.8 G2. Not much of a price difference just was not sure of performance difference. Still will be fishing this area for the most part but wanted to still be able to handle some Pacific Halibut and some big salmon

The Mx series has been recognized as too much reel for some, the sx series should not be discounted, the g2, but you might know the line capacity you desire more than me.  Just a lil’ brainstormin’

I caught a 50+# rooster on my little avet sx. That thing doesn't have hardly any drag, and it worked fine.
In a yak you need less drag, as your basically adding to drag as the boat gets pulled around.

Pulling 20# drag is super tiring after not that long. Of course, I've got arms like a fly so ymmv

In a yak you need less drag...

This!

Max of 14# means that you can safely use it around 10#.  14# if you absolutely need to land that fish and didn't mind possibly damaging the reel.  Around our norcal waters, that should be plenty for hali, rockfish, and salmon.  For any other larger species, it can be done with 10# of drag, but I'd opt for the G2 and take the extra drag.

How did you know what I was looking at lol. Was looking at the MXL 5.8 or upgrading to the mxl 5.8 G2. Not much of a price difference just was not sure of performance difference. Still will be fishing this area for the most part but wanted to still be able to handle some Pacific Halibut and some big salmon

Lol...I can read your mind!   

If the price difference isn't a big issue, I'd definitely go with the G2 version.  Also, you can have the drag set to 15# at strike, and 20# at full, but you can always use less since its a lever drag.  Just use a scale to check how much drag you have when the lever is at half and go from there.

Of course, I've got arms like a fly so ymmv