In April I bought a Quantum Catalyst casting reel (http://www.***.com/Quantum_Catalyst_Casting_Reels/descpage-QECC.html) to replace the notorious Twitchin bar Daiwa baitcaster. Honestly, the Daiwa worked perfectly fine for me up until my friend made me accidentally drop my rod and reel into the water... The Quantum reels smooth and everything seems to work fine, but every time I cast it it seems to want to backlash no matter what. Only time it doesn't backlash is if I cast VERY softly, which doesn't end up going very far. This is really frustrating when you know that the reel you bought has the potential to cast a lot further than that. I tried changing my fishing line to a slightly lighter fluorocarbon (15lb to 12lb) and the brand from the Trilene Professional grade to S eaguar Invisx. Apparently Seaguar casts better than the Trilene from online sources, which it did seem to help a little. Could my rod be a factor? I've always used Ugly Stiks and the Ugly Stik I have it rigged on is a 6'6" medium-heavy one. My theory is it's just that the Quantum is a much nicer reel so I'm not used to the spool spinning so fast. At the same time, I feel like it's not because I used to have no trouble at all with my Daiwa that I could cast as hard as I could with good distance and heavier line! I'm lost, help me out! 

You don't need to cast as hard as you can. A swift smooth cast should get u all the distance you need. Second it is it has dual breaks the knob on the outside set the mags, the pins on the inside set the ACS. Make sure you set those as well to get the best performance. Adjust how you thumb the during the cast. Switching from my ACS reel to a mag reel I have to adjust when I thumb. Hope it helps good luck.

Turn some centrifugal brakes on.  The non handle side plate comes off and hidden behind it is a dial with numbers on it.  Turn this dial to 4.  Over time you should be able to reduce the number of brakes to 2. 

Quantum has one of the best if not, the best braking system on the market, so i advise you to set and adjust the ACS and magnet brakes to fine tune your cast. Set the ACS system to 3 or 4 and then put the magnet brake on 5 and start from there, then by time you can keep adjusting it little by little.

Thanks a lot guys! 

Didn't know there was a inner braking system for this reel! 

I set it to 4 and hoping to try it out sometime soon.