Baitcasting Reel Question

[alwaysfishin]

I'm new to using a baitcasting reel. I just picked up a rod and a great reel at a great price. It's a Pinnacle XL reel, and has a inertia brake system. I'm using 50lb tuf line, it works great most of the time but i get nasty backlash every few casts without doing any thing different than the other good casts. The brake tension is set so the lure barely drops when I push down. I also have three of the six caps pushed out on the inertia brake. I know the concepts of stopping the spool before the lure hits the water but I'll have the mess before it hits the water. I snag my lure on some grass and walk it back until i get to untouched line and reel it in tight so there are no knots in the line but after a few casts I'll end up with the same mess. Any tips on dialing it in would be appreciated.

[prov1900]

Is Tuf line a braid? If so, that might be your problem. I have been fishing baitcasters for approximately 30 years or more and have never been happy with braided/superlines on baitcasters, although many people swear by them. It seems that they kink up or something, then just lock up during the casts. Another tip would be to maybe speed up your "drop rate" just a tinge. Play with it. Lot of factors come into play with baitcasters. Wind, rod flex, line, spool speed, lure shape/weight, and just bad luck are some of them. When you cast, especially when you are getting used to baitcasters, you want to end the cast with your cranking handles pointed to the sky. I dont know why exactly this is, but it works. Once you catch on to your reel, you'll wonder why you didnt fish those your whole life. More accurate, more powerful, farther casts, and much, much less line twists. Backlashes are the only downfall and those become greatly less over time. Keep fishing them.

[alwaysfishin]

its a superline, and thats exactly what seems to be happening is it kinks up and gets stuck. when it casts well i love it, it's the bad ones that get to me. i imagine like you said with time it gets better and i'll get tuned in. any tips on the inertia brake and how many pins to be pushed in or out to help. it seems that when i increase my drop rate is when i get the bigger messes. is that my thumb or what?

thank you

[8-Ball]

Try loosening your "brake" a little more.. you may be trying to whip that lure out there and there is too much resistance/tension with your brake being set maybe a touch too tight. Remember to always apply pressure w/ your thumb if the baitcasting reel you have allows you to do so-some don't. Keep tinkering with it-you will get the hang of it!

[hanson]

I would set the tension so it "slowly" drops when you release the spool.

You honestly shouldn't be having a problem with a braid, its mono that I hate with a passion. I run 80lb PowerPro on five of my Garcia 6500 & 7000 reels and I rarely, if ever backlash once I've have the adjustment right.

The reason that I always backlashed when setting up the spool tension was it was too light. The spool ends up spinning faster than the line can get out of the reel and you end up with a backlash. "Lightly" thumbing, and I mean "lightly" thumbing the spool during the cast will help along with "stopping" it when your lure is hitting the water. Sounds like you've got that part down. A spool that has too much tension shouldn't be able to cast very far, and you shouldn't backlash either, even without thumbing the spool.

Keep fooling around with it, sounds like your close.

[zepman]

If your superline is getting kinks or has a catching point I would recommend letting out as much line as possible like you were trolling. Then just simply reel it back in with a little resistance and this should take care of this. Superlines have very little memory so if you take care of the problem area you should be fine.

[SpecialK]

A few things I like to do when casting with these is to start thumbing the reel before it hits the water, I usually start when the lure is about 3/4's of the way to where it's going. Also when fan casting, I'll keep some tension on the line with my fingers (thumb and fore finger) as I am reeling in. I still get backlashes but a lot less than I would.

[Ralph Wiggum]

Try pulling all the interia weights out (so it gives you the most braking). This will shorten your cating distancea little, but it will help you get used to it. To learn, use a heavy lure (spinnerbait works good) and a heavy thumb. You'll start with short casts, then as you get better, you can lighten up thumb pressure to get longer casts. With heavy lures, a lot of times my thumb never breaks contact with the spool unless I'm really trying to get it out there. You just have to condition your thumb. Each cast your thumb goes through a progression--holding the spool before the cast, lighten up a bit while you're casting, then even lighter or no thumb while the lure is in the air, and then more thumb when you're lure is going to hit the water.

I like braids on mine but have used mono, too. It's personal preference.

Another thing that will lead to sure backlashes, especially for a newbie, is casting into the wind. Avoid this at all costs until you get comfortable with your reel.

[alwaysfishin]

Thanks for all the pointers fellas. One thing i did do was tighten down the drop rate a lot, it helped for no backlash but obviously shortened the cast. Every few casts I'd give it a little less tension, then all a sudden with the lure in the air I'd here a big whizzing sound only look down and see a mess. Would that be from the wind, I was casting into a cross wind that was pretty gusty at times. Or could I be trying to cast too far?

[Ralph Wiggum]

A crosswind shouldn't cause that, it's just when the wind is coming at you. Think of it this way, when you cast, you impart a certain amount of force on your lure, which will pull on your spool at a certain force. Now, if you're casting into the wind, you're still imparting that smae force to the spool, but the lure gets slowed down by the headwind, so the spool spins faster than the lure is pulling line out. Makes sense, I hope.

It's really tough to judge how to fix it without seeing you cast and seeing the resulting backlash.

[alwaysfishin]

I get what your saying about the wind. Basically it's coming down to trial and error. I know IT works, its just me that needs work!!

[iffwalleyes]

I just takes time getting used to them. Practice Practice is all you can do till you get really familiar with how it works. I remember my dad bought me one when I was like 10 because that is what he liked. I learned what a bird nest looked like pretty fast . I also got pretty good and getting the bird nest out . This was a reel that did have all the inertia braking that you can get on today’s models.