Sam has been watching YouTube videos of largemouth bass for a quite a while now and has asked quite a few times why haven't we got a baitcaster reel ? Where can we go to catch them by the way, they look a wicked fish to catch.
To be honest I've never really felt the need to get one, but then out of the blue an offer from Temu meant I could get one for the price of a pint of beer. So missing a trick ?
Well 7 days later, hopefully we'd find you !!!
After it arrive Sam had been pestering me to take him after exhausting the new lego he'd been bought to give him a break from playing online on the PS5 with his mates. When the reel arrived it looked pretty easy to put some line on and we found the spool release pretty easily, but the other controls ?, well I needed to consult YouTube for that
Well you have a spool tension knob which is effectively a drag for the spool when it's in free spool, then you have the star drag nex to the handle which is self explanatory, then the brake system on the end of the reel controls the speed of the spool when it is unlocked. It helps prevents backlash, which would result in knots. It is located internally but can be controlled by the dial on the side plate of the baitcaster
Now the dreaded backlash seems to be huge bird nest tangles that can be a nightmare, however the spool tension knob controls how easily your spool spins, and apparently to avoid backlash largely depends on ensuring your spool and your line spin at the same rate, controlled via the spool tension knob. Backlash occurs when the spool spins faster than the line coming through the guide.
You can loosen the spool tension knob off and use your thumb when you cast to limit that happening, or tighten it up and get the reel to do the tensioning.
Anyway to the fishing we decided to drive up to an area that it open and wide and where I've had some nice Zander and Pike in the past and give it a go. It seems heavier lures are the way to go, so I rigged up a 50g crankbait which dives to a decent depth, because it's quite deep here.
So with the settings tweaked to those we'd found online we got casting !!!. Sam got the hang of it pretty easily to be honest, probably because he's watched so many videos of people using them I suppose and he we doing well until the first backlash happened. It came after 30 casts maybe where all of a sudden the lure stopped mid flight and dive-bombed into the drink. 😁
Hmmm ok, need to learn what happened there then. Luckily it was sorted pretty quickly but the fact that the lure was a decent weight meant that the braid really dug into the spooled line, however on this occasion it wasn't too bad.
Anyway we decided to move to the weir where on my first cast nearing the staging a decent pike came from our right out of the blue for an aborted take, making us both jump at the same time. It looked a decent fish as well, definitely well worth catching. A good 30 plus casts between us and it was looking good on the baitcasting front as we both got the hang of it
"Daddy, I'm liking this, seems to be more accurate to me, what do you think ?"
"I don't see what the fuss is about !! 😆!
We'd loosened off the spool tension knob slightly and used out thumb to caress the line when the lure was launched, however we'd spook too soon, because the next cast we were looking at the world's biggest backlash tangle where even the top Krypton Factor contestants would be scratching their heads !!!
I certainly couldn't sort it there and then, so we retraced out steps to get the float rod and maggots out of the car where we managed to catch quite a few maggot munchers that were queuing up to get the grubs, till the fish stamp and the choppy surface called time. Ok the first outing didn't go that well admittedly, however it's a steep learning curve with a new reel like this, practice is the key, so we will give it another go soon hopefully.
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