Newbass112

As soon as I release for the cast I don't touch the spool at all until right before it hits the water I lightly start feathering the line and stop the spool before impact...other than that I don't keep my thumb on it. It has to be something related to my motion of cast, I did try releasing earlier on casts and it didn't go far left like it usually does but it went the same distance if not maybe a bit shorter. Stren_g, From all of the videos it says to adjust until the lure falls about 50% of normal drop speed and to where when it hits the ground it doesn't nest up the line and that's where I've been adjusting the tension knob. Any looser and it does overrun some line but I'll try it a bit looser next time and see. The side arm cast is what I've been practicing exclusively. I actually had a fish go after my weight when practicing, wish I would've had a lure and hook on there!

Went back out to the lake today and still can't get anywhere with it. It casts maybe 15 feet but no further. I set it properly with the spool tension knob and then experimented with the brakes, and on the brakes I couldn't tell much of a casting difference whether full on brakes or no brakes at all, which in itself indicates something is up. I noticed no matter how I casted the tip of the rod kind of "whipped" most of the time, even when doing smooth casts. I played with different casts and motions but they all ended up the same not casting very far. Need to try and find someone to teach me in person so I can figure out what the problem is. I know accuracy is key and distance comes with practice but if I can't get it casting very far regardless of brakes or not something is wrong on my part. Even with 0 brakes I wasn't getting a birdsnest, just made sure to thumb down the spool before it hit the water.

I'm actually using mono which leads me to believe I'm just tying the knot incorrectly. From the sound of it I could weave the line inside of one of the holes if I wanted but I need to know how to properly tie a knot. Probably just poor knots on my end and I'm tying them wrong if it's supposed to be tight and stay tight.

We use the arbor knot to tie our line to the spool bar on our baitcast reels, however we can never get it tight..the center spool bar will rotate freely and not "grab" the line. We can get it spooled with some initial aid by holding some slack then reeling it but if while fishing we were ever to run out of spool (which I'm sure will never happen) it wouldn't grab the bar tightly and we would be unable to reel the line back in. With that I think we aren't tying it right? Is the line supposed to be tied tightly around the spool bar or is a loose hold normal? We've retied it over and over but can't get a nice tight hold. There are holes in the spool bar but I wasn't sure if those were to be used so we tied directly around the bar and not inside of the holes. Learning all these knots has been one of the biggest pains.

Thanks to everyone for the replys, I'm sure within the next few outings we'll at least be able to fish instead of casting weights. That explains why our casts didn't go anywhere, when I heard people saying to "feather" the spool on casts I assumed lightly put friction on it the entire cast right from the release..it looked that way in youtube videos as well, glenns casting how to video for example. I guess he is just keeping his thumb close to the spool but not actually touching it. I didn't try casting this way because I thought it would birdsnest up.

7-10 foot casts all day long! Haha....And they usually end up to the left instead of where we aim. Matter of fact there's no accuracy with our casts at ALL. We did figure out a few things, how to set them for the lures and set the brakes, etc. we've been setting our brakes at half. The star drag we couldn't set properly because we don't have a scale, so we did it by what felt normal...can always set it better when we get a fish hooked (if we ever are able to cast these things!). We also figured out how to fix birdsnests fairly easily, which was neccesary as we both got one within seconds of trying to set the brakes and adjustment knob....and many times after. So now we're stuck at trying to cast right. I've watched glenn and many others, but we can't seem to get it down - or maybe we just don't have a heavy enough weight on the end? (We tied weights to the end for practicing casting). No idea what size weight, they dont ever say on the boxes but it felt heavy enough and are the biggest ones we got. We both have med/hvy rods. Even then though people cast baitcasters all the time with light lures and get far, just takes more effort. Question we did have when feathering the line do you constantly keep your thumb slightly touching the spool while casting and then thumb down hard to stop the spool completely before it hits the water (this feels like it is what's causing the cast to not go far since your putting force on the spool line), or do you only put your thumb on the spool at the end of the cast to stop the line right before it hits the water? (This feels like it would birdsnest big time if we did this). Heading back out next week, tips welcome!

What would you guys recommend using as a standard just for tying hooks/lures to your line? Or tying swivels/weights on to your line? What about line to line? I use mono most of the time but sometimes use fluoro as a leader. It looks like the improved clinch is what most of you are using for everything?

I meant to say reeling it (the bottom bouncer setup) in from the boat instead of trolling with the motor running. If it's a vertical presentation there's no casting, just drop it in.....but if your trolling in a boat your still moving, I was unsure if I could just reel it in slowly from the boat without trolling the motor. I guess the effect of holding your rod steady with the moving boat is different than just reeling it in slowly huh? From the sound of everything these can be a challenge to catch and sounds pretty fun ; )

Perfect response thank you for that. I assume the fast 7.1:1 baitcast reel I have with the MH fast rod wont be a problem then for walleye. I don't guess instead of trolling in the boat with a bottom bouncer and my rod I could just reel a bottom bouncer in slowly instead?

I use 14lb and 17lb mono exclusively. When I looked around at bass pro it looked like everything was too small or way too heavy in weight for my rods spec. I couldn't find any bottom bouncing setups in my rods weight suggestions. Bottom bouncers are just things you add on to spinnerbaits right?

My only Setup is a 7.1:1 baitcast reel and a 7foot medium/heavy fast action rod. I cant afford another setup right now and was wondering if I have a decent enough setup to catch walleye with? If I do I need to know What types of lures/hooks to get with my setup if its possible for Walleye? Would love to catch some walleye, Thanks

Thanks again everyone who has threw their input out, it has been an immense help. After all of the responses in this thread and after having a few gentleman help me out through private messaging I think we have a really good understanding of everything to get us going. Now it's time to take it to the water and practice, have fun, and catch some fish!

Well we both came from cheap spinning setups, nearly every person I have talked with said baitcasters are worth learning. We've spent the money on good baitcasting setups, whether it was a poor choice or not it's done. For the type fishing we are going to be doing we were recommended medium heavy rods from a lot of places and people so that's what we went with. Learning to use baitcasters should be worth it and we look to see it through. The help we have received on here is great. We do have a friend who might be able to come out with us and help out with learning these casters too

Thanks, that's what I needed to know. Reason I asked is some of the bags are too big to fit in the sleeve. Better to not risk the lures getting ruined though.

I didn't think we did that bad. I think another pack or two of some 4/0 and 5/0 ewg offset hooks, some more weights when I figure out which ones I need and I'll be good to go unless I missed something.My wife though we need to find out what hooks and weights she needs for her swimbaits and help figuring out what to do since she mainly got 1/4oz lures which are under her rods specs...a minimum of 3/8oz. Unless she would be fine fishing lower weights. Other than that, hey it was our first buy

I picked up a worm binder and was wondering if it is ok to take soft plastics of the same brand/model but of different color and put them in the same sleeve together? Would this be ok or will colors start mixing and end up a mess? I know not to mix brands because of some chemicals but I have a ton of big hammer salt shaker worms for example I was just going to put in one sleeve, some 4" some 5", some greens, some browns, and so on. Also have some rage tail smokin roosters, lizards, and craws I was going to put in there together.

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Well, we just got back. Talk about a headache, and nobdy there was of much help. I am going to post everything we got, photos included on here sometime soon in the next day or so in this thread...And from there I can determine if we came out alright or if it was a bust. I think we did o.k. Some things we could not get assistance on so we may have to make a trip to walmart or something when we find out if we need anything else.

Wow thanks for all of the responses. I didn't plan on many at bps knowing much which is why I asked everything here first. Now on line, it was suggested I get fluoro and my wife mono. What poundage should we get? I was thinking 14 or 17 lb for myself. She doesn't know what she wants yet and we don't have her rod yet so we don't know the capacity. Again I will be fishing worms, a lot of soft plastics, lipless cranks, possibly jigs, and so on. I love plastics. I was leaning more tword 14lb since my rod capacity maxes out at 20, I don't want to snag, break the 20lb poundage limit and then have the rod possibly break if that makes sense.? Would rather have the line break before the rod. On the fluoro suggestion, I really don't like the fact fluoro holds line memory..it seems like that would be very irritating. Is fluoro really the best bet for my setup? Or would mono or braided also be good? Have heard mono also holds memory, and braided line sounds like it would tear up your rod guides?

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Thanks for the suggestions. I was going to get the 7771 and just take all my soft plastics out of their original bags and organize them in the plano boxes the 7771 comes with. But I'm not sure if I want to do that as they mix scent, certain chemicals take the coloring off and melt the lures by being in the same box so I'm told, and they rust hooks. I then thought of getting a little flambeau t4 or similar and just getting a worm binder for all my soft plastics, but then again that's still taking the plastics out of their original packaging so why not just store them in the plano boxes. Plus I'm not all that sure a binder would hold all my plastics...maybe the brownell goliath would. I like being able to carry all my tackle with me at once even though not neccesary. So the big storage is a plus. Ideally though keeping the soft plastics in their original bags is what I'm told is best.

The standard 3 rack tacklebox I have now just does not carry what I need it to. I've been looking at the plano 7771 but there aren't a lot of good photos or videos out there showing a size comparison. I will be carrying it with us in our 14/36 jon boat. For those of you that own one do you like it? Too big? My main baits are soft plastics. I really like having all of the space it has, just don't want something that's going to be way too big to haul around. I can't tell if it's a good size or not. Thanks

Think I am going to stick with the 7.1:1 then. Now is there any downfalls on the torque issue? Bigger fish can still be reeled in on a 7.1:1 right? and it doesn't break the reel..so on and so forth? My rod is a medium/heavy

So just to be sure, a 7.1:1 reel can be used idealy for swimbaits from big hammer lures (with the hammer heads, NOT the buzz hammers), worms, soft plastics, jigs, etc? I''m liking the idea of being able to fish slow swimbaits and then switch right to a quick retrieve for a quick hookset with the 7 ratio, though I'm afraid it may be too fast a ratio for those swimbaits. How easy is it really to slow down on a 7? If I'm not mistaken all you do is turn the handle very slow, unless I'm missing something is it really that hard to do?I searched all over youtube for demonstrations of a 7.1:1 vs a 6.4:1 and also a demo of slowing down your retrieve on a 7.1:1, haven't found anything. Just getting into fishing as a sport and never knew anything about ratios until last month. I don't plan on having more than 1 rod and reel, just looking for a nice quality setup. I don't have preferred methods of fishing baits yet as I'm new to this, but I know what types of baits I plan on using as posted above, the big hammer swimbaits/hammer heads, worms, soft plastics, jigs, tube baits, and when I get more experienced maybe I'll delve into buzzbaits and the such...setup permitting. I'm thinking the best thing would be to keep the 7.1:1 and just not use swimbaits if it won't work well. My favorite bait is worms, soft plastics, and jigs anyway. With a low gear ratio sure I can do swimbaits but then I won't be able to do my favorites being worms, soft plastics and jigs. Guess you give a little and take what you can get! Thanks for all the help with this. It's a real headache at first - I'm trying to figure out what size/weight/type of hooks/weights to buy and I'm completely lost there in correlation to the baits I'm using. How and where are you even supposed to find that information out?

After the advice it sounds like a 6.4:1 might be the better choice for a general purpose reel. I'm going to do a little more reading to make sure so further suggestions are appreciated. Are there any other pros/cons of the 6.4:1 vs the 7.1:1? The idea here is all purpose as my tackle box has a lot of different lures, tube baits, swimbaits, worms, jigs and so on. A 7.1:1 can be slowed down for regular baits, can a 6.4:1 be sped up for buzzbaits if I ever decide to try those? It sounds like most people can't even tell a difference between a 6 and 7 ratio. I like the idea of a fast hookset, but if I can't fish the baits/lures I mainly want to use efficiently with a 7 then maybe I need to return it for a 6.. Since I do fish with worms alot texas rigged, would a 6.4:1 still be good for this? I know it was said the 7.1:1 was better for these. Thanks guys