Baitcasting 101

I took this from some posts I made on a few different fishing forums with some basic guidelines to learning to cast with a baitcaster.  I am actually just getting lazy and running out of material.  This recycling is a common thing for me since my friends say I rcycle jokes...  As long as I find myself funny... I hate you all...

I got my buddy using a baitcaster this past weekend.


What I told him to do was tighten all of the brakes first as well as the cast control knob (the knob right under the handle).

Second, I told him to press the release button, and the line should not move (assuming a lure is tied on).

Slowly, loosen the cast control knob until the line starts to come out and the lure drops slowly to the floor. The knob should be loose enough that when the lure hits the floor, the spool does not do a full turn. Once you get the knob tightened to this point, it is set for the weight of lure you are using. You can loosen it further once you are more comfortable with casting and want the spool to spin more freely/quickly.

Now try some casts with all of the brakes on. When casting, your thumb must serve to slow the spool down and to stop the spool from spinning as the lure stop moving (i.e. - it hits the water/ground). Keep practicing until you are comfortable then reduce the brakes.

Repeat the previous step until you are comfortable with the timing of thumbing the spool and the distance you get.

The trick is to understand that the lure can only pull line out so fast. If the spool is spinning too quickly, and the line is not being pulled fast enough, then the line will tangle, resulting in the birdsnest. The brakes, your thumb, the spool tension knob all serve to control the rotation of the spool. You must learn to use all of these tools to control the rotation. Once you do, you will have accuracy and distance in your casts.

I have mine set so that I can launch the lure with only having to thumb the spool at the end of the cast and not during. Your comfort level may vary.

One thing I didn't mention because I was not sure what type of braking system you have and how it is adjusted is regarding centrifugal brakes. If you manually set the brakes, make sure that they are set up so the brakes apply pressure in a balanced fashion around the spool.

Typically there are 6 pins. With all 6 pins on, they apply braking pressure evenly. The rudimentary diagram below depicts 6 pins engaged.

  \ /
- o -
  / \

With 2 pins on, the pressure will depend on which 2 you engage. In this situation you would engage 2 pins opposite to each other such as below.


\
 o
   \

With 3 pins on, you would engage the following pins (This is the configuration that ----- described).

\
 o -
/

And so forth. This is to make sure that the balance is even on the spool as it spins. If the balance is off, this could affect the rotation of the spool, negatively affecting spool speed and casting distance.

If your brake controls are external (dials) then you don't have to worry about this.

Do what ----- said and cast in a park for some time to practice. Instead of a weight (because if that thing comes off it is like a bullet, lol), what I did was remove the hooks on a relatively heavier lure that I did not use as much and therefore did not care about the finish on it, and casted with that thing. You get a feel also for how the air resitance of a lure can affect the cast and how you may have to compensate with a baitcaster.

and finally, regarding the actual backswing with the rod...

The cast with a baitcaster is a whole different thing than on a spinning reel. With a spinning reel, you can simply cock back, let the rod load up (bend) and then sling shot it forward. This is not so with a baitcaster. If you do this with a baitcaster, what happens is that the rod loads, but as the lure slingshots forward, all tension on the line is lost. As the lure moves forward through the air, the line becomes taut again and the lure suddenly jerks the spool into motion. When this happens, the energy of the slingshot is lost in overcoming the inertia required to start the spool spinning. The lure then slows down almost immediately after the spool starts going at top speed, resulting in a backlash. This is true when pitching (underhand casting) as well, and probably more easily observed. If you pitch your lure on slack line, it will go as far as it can before the spool starts spinning then the lure will fall flat right there. If you keep taut line, the lure will fly further.

The trick I found to casting relatively consistently is to let around 6" of line plus the lure dangle from the tip of the rod. If you point the tip of the rod directly away from you, you should be holding the rod and reel so that the open face of the reel (spool side) is sideways, your hand should be palm down with your thumb directly out to the side. More than anything, this allows your wrist a greater range of motion as you bring the rod back and then follow through.

There is not as much of a snap in the wrist as much as a smooth follow through as you bring the casting hand back, bend the wrist (like a free throw in basketball), then initiate the cast by rotating your forearm forward at the elbow, then following through forward with your wrist (again, just as you would a free throw in basketball). What this motion does is make sure that the lure travels like a pendulum, using centrifugal motion to keep the lure pulling consistently on the line, and the line taut. You then release your thumb (you should have pressed the butten and been thumbing the spool during all of this) just before the end of your casting motion. This initiates the rotation of the spool to accelerate in sync with the acceleration of the lure, and avoids the loss of energy caused by the slack line using the slingshot effect.

The trick to remember is to try and keep the line taut at all times during the cast. At least that is what has worked for me. I hope that helped, although it may have just confused. Please let me know and I can try to explain it more clearly.

I hope this helped someone... anyone?