Bait caster help

[Saltwater60]

I bought my son a bait caster rod and reel because that’s what he wanted but I know nothing of them. He claimed to have used his cousins and liked it so I bought him a shimano SLX combo. I spoiled it with 20 lbs braid forst and the line got imbedded into the line on the spool terribly. I read about it and they said 20 lbs is boarder line and that’s the issue then the line frays and breaks. I went last night and bought him 40 lbs braid and it’s still happening to a much lesser extent. He also claims to not get much castability out of the rod. We have only 0-1 or maybe two of the brakes in use. He also claims to be adjusting the spool tensioner properly and regularly as you’re supposed to. He’s not getting birds nest so much just not great performance. I don’t know and any advice would be helpful.

 

[stokes]

I havent used mine in many years, dont even remember the brand, but it was one of the first with the magnetic spool damper back in the 80's. It took some getting used to setting the brake, had to balance it with lure changes if the weight of the lure was different. took very fine adjustments to get spool to spin right from the rod load. Never used braided, just 10lb mono.

 

[GTN]

First things first. Unspool the braid and save for later.
Go buy Trilene Big Game 15lb. It’s good but cheap $ line and spoil it to within 1/4” of top edge of spool.
Tie on your lure of choice but not to light of weight. 1/4-3/8 oz range.
The little knob under the reel handle is your spool tension knob. Loosely tighten it.
Reel the lure up to the rod tip and hold rod horizontal.
Loosen off tension knob until lure falls to the ground without the reel continuing to spin.
That will get you started. After you get more proficient, you can back off the tension knob more and learn to use your thumb to control the overspend on the spool for more accurate casting

 

[GTN]

Oh, and set the magnetic brake on the opposite side from the real handle to about 7 or 70.
some reels are marked 1 through 10 and others are marked. 0 through 100.

 

[Saltwater60]

Oh, and set the magnetic brake on the opposite side from the real handle to about 7 or 70.
some reels are marked 1 through 10 and others are marked. 0 through 100.

Thank you. This one doesn’t have a manual brake and is variable braking so it has sort of like dip switches 1-6 for the spool braking. It does have the spool tensioner thing and he says he’s adjusting it but I doubt he is. We are going fishing in a bit here and I may mess with it. It’s a good set up but I saw a YouTube video that the variable braking isn’t the best for beginners because the brakes are centrifugal and if the lure stops because of the wind or something the spool can keep spinning. Kids bummed so I’m trying to help him out. Thanks.

 

[togmaster]

Did you back the braid with mono? Did you apply a little tension on the braid while spooling? Sounds like you don't know how to spool a reel.

 

[GTN]

Thank you. This one doesn’t have a manual brake and is variable braking so it has sort of like dip switches 1-6 for the spool braking. It does have the spool tensioner thing and he says he’s adjusting it but I doubt he is. We are going fishing in a bit here and I may mess with it. It’s a good set up but I saw a YouTube video that the variable braking isn’t the best for beginners because the brakes are centrifugal and if the lure stops because of the wind or something the spool can keep spinning. Kids bummed so I’m trying to help him out. Thanks.

I forgot you said Shimano. Throw 3 or 4 of the switches.

 

[Saltwater60]

Did you back the braid with mono? Did you apply a little tension on the braid while spooling? Sounds like you don't know how to spool a reel.

I didn’t back it with mono because I used electrical tape and what we read said you could do either. I did put tension on the line while spoiling it and I watched a bunch of videos on how to spool a bait caster in particular because I didn’t know how to spool one. I’ve spooled many spin casters and never had issues and that’s what I use is a spinning rod. I know bait casters are an entirely different animal hence the post here.
I did buy a spooler so I can put more tension on the line incase that’s the issue.
I personally think the kid just needs to use mono until he gets used to the reel and then switch back to braid after he’s more comfortable as suggested above. I’ll also have the spooling tool tomorrow. His biggest complaint now is that he can’t cast super far and he can’t explain the last backlash but he had no dip switches set or just one I can’t remember anymore.

 

[SomeSoldier]

 

[GTN]

Mono is much easier to pick out backlashes than braid.

 

[Saltwater60]

So here is what we did and I think we’re headed in the right direction.
I felt like there was more spool dig in than I thought there should be so I had my son walk down the street and I reeled it in much tighter and there is very little spool dog in now.
We then took it to the river and tried it out and I said to my son I think you should be able to cast farther are you sure you have the breaking set up right? He assured me he did but I said let’s just try them the other way incase you have 5 brakes on and one off. We switched them out and it went farther so dad was right. He likes it much more and only had a few small backlashes.
Our plan going forward is got get rid of the super thick 40 pins braid and get thinner 30 or 40 pound braid and spoil it nice and tight. The braid he has on there now is super fat, the braid is coarse and it’s sucking up a lot of water. The spool was literally leaking water out the bottom and it’s spraying him in the face when he casts.
We fished tonight with minnows and we both caught a bunch of nice large mouth and he caught a nice crappy. We had a blast and many laughs tonight as fishing should be. I caught more but he caught the biggest.
Thanks for all the input and I think something from everyone helped out!!

 

[stokes]

Just curious, why are you using such heavy braided? Why not mono?

 

[Acer-m14]

i hated them fucking reels growing up .. Dad had a few ..

just get a spinning reel

or a push button reel if you want to bow cast with it .. ( do not do with a bass plug with 2 treble hooks .. yep berried the hook into my thumb )

 

[Saltwater60]

Just curious, why are you using such heavy braided? Why not mono?

We started with 20# braid and it was too skinny and dug into the spool horribly. He uses this rod and reel for trolling on a few boats he gets rides in semi regularly and mono is not great for trolling with catching toothy fish. We catch a lot of walleye, some northern pike, some spotty muskies and the bass get into the weeds. We caught as much bass tonight as we did weeds and pulling those large mouth out of weeds is tough work.

 

[GTN]

We had a blast and many laughs tonight as fishing should be. I caught more but he caught the biggest.

And that’s what fishing with your kid is all about!!
I miss fishing with my son so much

 

[Acer-m14]

the last time i was actually fishing i was in South Carolina with friends Cain pole fishing ..

i just had this .. and a hook and sinker and bait .. and no license .. all was a-ok SC dec showed up ..

all i need to go fishing .. just a spool of line ( my spinning reel ) and hook and sinker and bait ..

in Fucking NYS .. i need a license for this simple fishing set up that works ..