Fish-Hawk.Net

So when I bought my first baitacaster did someone forget to give me the secret password into the baitcaster club on how to use the darn thing?

I have managed to get it to cast about 30 feet sidearm but can not cast overhead like I the club members on TV.

I put a big 1/2 oz. lead weight on to practice. The little manual said to tighten the knob until the lure drops about 10 inches and stops. In order to do this I would have to use a pair of plyres to tighten it up since I can not turn it that tight with my fingers. When I do manage to tighten it up like they say the lure goes out about 10 feet and that is about it. No matter how I adjust it if I try to cast overhand the plug just spikes into the ground about 2 feet in front of me with. Needless to say I used about 1000 yards of practice line in the last week. I have tried putting my thumb on the spool as I cast and tried with out, same result.

HELP I want to join, can someone give me the password.

Oh man do I know what your talking about, bought one last year and I'm on my fourth spooling and swear I'm only going to use this thing for trolling. Your right, side arm I can put that lure out and out but overhead, well I have say now that I'm laughing so hard I have tears in my eyes, if all fish were within 4 feet of this damn rod I'd have it made. One of the things I was told is that I was using 8lb test, the guy I asked laughed and said go to at least 14lb for one of these reels, I did, it's spooled but I haven't tried it as yet, the reel I have is an Abu G. Torno, 6 bearings, he was impressed, we went to his back parking lot and put right to the other side, give me that thing I said, went for the overhead, went two feet, I'm sure he's still laughing, I don't know about you but I'm sticking to the side cast, it's the one I use all the time anyway. It's all in that 10" fall adjustment and the magnetic brake, you may have the little brake pins in as well, the pros put them in to free spool and rely on their sight and thum.
Thanks for the chuckle, I don't feel so bad now.

what type of reel is it? how many bearings are there? Don't tighten it to much! Hold the rod out in front of you and release the spool adjust it so that the weight slowly falls to the ground! If the spool keeps letting out line it means you'll have to tighten it a littlie more. One more thing, try to keep the wind at your back for starters, casting is easier, and you won't get as many birds nests. They take a little bit of time to get used to but once you do you really start to enjoy fishig with them!

Another tip to avoid birdnests is a piece of tape. Let out as much line as you want to cast, then put a piece of tape across the spool and reel it back in. Once you're comforatable with that distance, remove the tape and pull out more line. Put the tape back on and keep practicing.

This might save you a bit of time and fishing line.

Sorry fo the double posts but i forgot to address the over-head casting! It sound's to me that you are letting go of the spool to late with your thumb. Pay attention to the release point when you cast side arm and apply it to the over-head cast! " Pick your target" on the water, if your casting side arm and swing it from right to left. I f the bait misses to the left it means you have released it to late, and to the right to early! now over hand if you release to early the cast will go really high in the air, and to late and it will go straight down! hope this helps!

Rex,

I noticed you are posting from Kanata. It would be a pleasure teaching you how to use your casting outfit. Just send me a pm and we'll get you casting like a pro

Slop.

Rex

There are 2 settings. The first one is the knob for setting the tension, for when the lure hits the water, you set this by having the lure drop as you say. The other is the spool break. When you cast look at the spool with the line being pulled off, if the spool is over spinning and you see the line loosening, use more breaking. This Could be weights or magnets depending on the reel.

Last year was my first year working baitcasters..... about seven serious nests.... frustrating but hey a little clip here and a little clip there and presto you are back in business and that thumb learned that it had to be hitting the spool the moment the bait hits the water.....

I now swear by baitcasters ..... for bass angling anyway! My accuracy is deadly now... drop it right beside the hole... rarely in the tree anymore... and the retrieve rate on baitcasters is generally faster so you can really get some nice action off of lures with little effort compared to the way we have to really reel fast with spinning outfits.

I still have spinning outfits that I use with walleye and muskie .... can`t throw them out for sure..... they hold more line also .... except for the monster baitcasters. I know the years I spent fishing spinning equipment were great but I think the baitcaster helped me to pick up the amount of fish being caught by an easy 40-50 percent... amazing.

I found certain lines were better than others and I will PM you with my line of choice that I use. Check around and ask many and you will find that overall there are two schools on line for baitcasters and depending on what presentation you are throwing you will maybe want to get a couple of different reels set-up and try a few out.

Hang in there you will get it is all I can say!

Rex, When learning make sure to use heavy line.

SSHHHHH - Don't tell Rex about the Baitcasting club.

I will say this again, throwing a baitcaster into the wind can be a VERY humbling experience. You'll get the hang of it.

Good luck.

M.T. Livewell

Hey Guys, To cast overhand, you have to have the spool facing you when it is near your head. As you throw rotate your wrist to the normal position. This works for me.

Dave

The two best tips that I've read are the tape trick (I used this one when I was learning) and the rotate your wrist so that the spool is pointing to 9 o'clock (for a right hander). Every article I've ever read on baitcasting has quoted this tip.

Karack

PS - I have a video on how to use your baitcaster that came with one of my reels. I'd be willing to share if you want to give it a view. PM me if you're interested.

PSS - the password that your looking for is @#^@ @#&#$!

That's why they make spincasters

But I like the wrist tip ...first I've heard of that one