adventures of a spinner fisherman trying out his first baitcaster

[Edward Lea.]

Ok time for the up date on my attempt to try out Baitcasters. I tried out several that my father in law has and found the BPS Bionic worked great and would not cost me an arm and a leg to start out with. I didn't want to invest hundreds of dollars and really hate a baitcaster. So off I go to BPS and get the real and a 6 foot MH rod. Very nice rod good backbone and a fast tip.



We go over to the lake at 5:00 am and launch the boat in the dark. I back the boat in while my son holds the bow rope. Boat floats off and I pull up into the parking lot. As I head to the dock my Sons yells "the rope broke". I look and there the boat is 10 feet from the dock and headed out to sea without us in the wind. So I look around and it dark and this is a small country lake so I strip to my "tidy whites" and swim out and retrive the boat. Nice start to the day.



Now we are on the lake and get to start fishing. My son sticks a 16 inch bass on his first cast with a topwater so I am ready. I grab the new rod with the same lure that was on my father-in laws rods when I tried it out. Set the settings the same as it was on his and make my first cast.



The lure goes 18 feet and the reel makes a wierd noise( one I am sure you all have heard). The noise is one my son and I started calling the birdnest noise after the 5th occurance in 5 casts. It Also came to be followed by the noise of my son laughing.



Ok I say this will happen and get it straightned out. I make many adjustments over the next several hours with pretty much the same results. By now my son has boated and released many nice bass on topwaters and stopped laughing. I think he was now sorry for me.



I finally get the perfect cast, the lure went where I wanted it and no overrun. Who hoo. A bass even hit then. Yessssss. I set the hook and realize that in all the adjustments I had made I never checked the drag!!!! Birdsnest sounds followed by a bad sound from me, followed by fish swimming off.:angry:



25 casts later and 25 birdsnests later while I am straightening out yet another mess of line a nice 17 inch bass catches it's self on my new rod and that is how I caught my first bass. :lol:



It has been three days now and 457 birds nests. I respooled the reel on day three as I had ran out of line already. I steped up to 12 pound test at the advice of my father in-law. He is correct that it is easier to straighten out than 10 pound test. It also appears that heavier lures work better than lighter lures. I find I can toss a 1/2 oz jig or a big wally diver better than a Texas worm with a 1/16 oz weight on it.



I can see that there are situations where it has it's advantages but tossing light worm rigs while fighting a 20 MPH wind is not one of them.

 

[Berry Lindley]

The 1/16 oz weighted worm into the wind is gonna take a little time, I do it all the time but it does take more attention. One pointer while you are learning is when you cast, turn your wrist sideways a little so the when the lure is going out, the spool is vertical and not horizontal. It will birds nest on you just a little less. And you may want to turn the brake up just a notch more until you get the hang of it. I keep just about off now, but it is your friend now.

 

[Jim in VA]

:lol::lol::lol:



GREAT post Ed! Sounds like my first time with a baitcaster, only without all the fish. Heck, sounds like me this past weekend trying out the new Pflueger President baitcaster I bought earlier this week!!



Seriously, your technique will improve with practice and playing around with the settings. To me, each brand, heck each REEL, has its own quirks and its all a matter of finding the right setting that works for you and dialing it in. With the Pflueger, I finally got it to stop birds nesting so much after all the magnets were engaged and I cranked the brake to a tighter setting. As I get used to it, I will likely be able to back off on the brake and then the magnets. You may find the same technique working for you.



Thanks for the great report!

 

[Edward Lea.]

It appears that reels are like people all right. My set-up is identicle to my father in-laws. His reel is a couple of months old now. I got the same reel, rod, lure and set the settings the same. I can cast his fine and mine is a bear. The only difference was the line size and age of reel. Evidently they all have thier own quirks. It really hurt when a couple of 13 year olds on the shore line were two handed power casting with baitcasters when we went past them and my son pointed out they seemed to be getting off nice casts.



Thanks for the tips guys.

 

[fatrap]

Keep after it Ed it gets a lot easier.

fatrap

 

[Mike Taft2]

You mean they aren't supposed to birdsnest every cast?? :unsure:



keep with it, you'll figure it out and hate to go to any other type. Set you

brake pretty tight for now and ease off as you get used to it. Keep your thumb

lightly on the spool the entire time for now, putting pressure on when the lure

gets to where you want it to be. Also, get closer to your targets, for now. Last

bit of advice - don't cast into the wind!!

 

[Troy Murphy]

Ed,

Stay with it and you'll get the hang of it. Practice at home, a 5 gal bucket is a good target.



Also, to get a tight nest out:

Tighten the drag, hold a thumb hard on the spool, reel a turn or two. This helps push some of the tight loops out.



Good luck,

Troy

 

[Terry Hutchison]

Ed, you never mentioned getting redressed, so I'm assuming your son, not wishing to swim home, saw the wisdom in not continuing to laugh at a man sitting in a boat in his underwear with his 457th backlash of the day!

It'll get better, I hope! Hutch

 

[Texas Transplant]

Again, practice in the yard first. Set the drag so that the lure just barely drops by itself (at first), and when it reaches the ground, no overrun. Practice with that setting for awhile. Then ease up slightly.



Tex

 

[Edward Lea.]

Hutch I did get dressed afterIi got back to the dock. Scared to death a car full of girls would drive up and report a perv at the lake. My son found the stripping part funny also. It is funny now that I look back at it.

 

[Bruce Freeman]

Ed L. I must say that I spent two days of casting and picking out the birdnest before I ever tried it on the water and I must say it made me a better picker....LOL I will share this with you, like they said tighten everything up and learn to cast, 2nd don't freak out, place your thumb on the spool and reel the line back in. Then pull it back out , it will help (most of the time) On the waer time is not the time to learn, it's the time to catch....



BF

 

[Larry Harp]

Funny....I'm as bad with a spinning reel as you are with the baitcaster. I can't get an accurate cast with one of those upsidedown so and so's to save my life and I'm always getting the line tangles up behind the bail or the crank handle. :wacko:

 

[William H. (Bill) Barham]

Do what Toxic told me to do and PRACTICE, PRACTICE, PRACTICE!!!! B.P.S. also has a Gizmo for a couple of bucks that helps me immensely in getting the tangles out.



Uncle Billy
http://www.basspro.com/webapp/wcs/s...1_13376_100004001_100000000_100004000_100-4-1

 

[TOMMY RICH]

One thing to remember when pulling out a nest.

NEVER NEVER pull on the line hard out of the reel...never.

Take your thumb and back up the reel one or two revolutions and only pull lightly on the loops that are sticking out from the spool. Now continue to pull lightly on the line coming out of the reel.

9 out of 10 times..this works.

If it doesn't work the first time...back it up and try again.

Unless the line is dug iin really hard into the spool...I never have to pick out a nest with any tool.

 

[Larry Harp]

Hey Bill, that little line picker gizmo works okay but try a crochet needle...works a lot better.

 

[Edward Lea.]

I was able to get most of the nests out without too much trouble. Like you said TEE I just pulled easy like. The worst one was when the first fish hit and I had neglected to set the drag. Setting the hook hard without any drag on is a very bad thing. I was so focused on the other adjustments I forgot about the drag. I ended up cutting alot of line out on that one.



Thanks for all the tips folks. They are all helpful. Isn't this a great site.

 

[Bill McElroy]

Ed, practice with a heavier weight.....get a "3/8 oz practice plug" and use that until you get good with it,...THEN back off on the spool tension knob and use lighter weights. Trying to learn to use a Btcst reel with a 1/16 oz weight is just asking for an eagles nest!!:blink:



Keep practicing...you'll get to the point (eventually) where you'll wonder how you ever fished without a baitcaster!!



BTW,....great story...I had to swim for my boat one morning many years ago....and like your situation atleast it was 80deg and 530am!!....I was by myself and FORGOT to tie my bow line to my trailer wench.....ohwell...the dip did feel pretty good and I had on a pair of swim shorts and a t-shirt anyway....the only thing i was missing was a towel!!!!

 

[fatrap]

Ed

Years ago I launched at Lake Anita and my bow line wasn't attached and the boat drifted out and started down the lake, I took my clothes off and swam out and retrieved it and tied it to the pontoons that were tied up there. I got my clothes off the rip rap and found out I threw my cutoffs and t shirt on someone's cheese bait stick left there. I started fishing in my tighties w/the pants and shirt in the livewell washing off. When I was kneeling wringing the clothes off I unwittedly kneeled on a crankbait embedding it deep into the knee tendon. Some guy fishing for crappies with his teen aged daughter tried to do the Bill Dance removal method, me in my undies. Couldn't get the hook out so I fished with it wrapped to my knee with duct tape.

When I went to recover my boat later I sat on a wasp that was lounging on my Van's seat. I was stung in the butt. I drove straight to the emergency room in Council Bluffs where the openly gay ER Doc kept patting me on the leg while laughing his ass off at my story. Taking off the duct tape removed most of the hair from my leg.

Upon arriving home my wife chewed my butt for being late for some function.

I was glad that it was warm (summer) and I did catch some nice fish.

fatrap

 

[Jim in VA]

Okay, have to add my swimming story. Last November, I was fooling around on the boat lift we have on Lake Anna when I brushed up against the side of the boat on the lift. I felt something give on my belt and heard a splash!! Crap - it was the new cell phone! I could see it in about 4 feet of water on the bottom with a stream of bubbles coming out. Having no choice (and not wanting to shell out the $200 for a replacement), I stripped to the skivvies and dove in. Remember, it was November so it was about 45F air temp and 65F water temp on the hot side! I dove, got the phone and jumped out. Crap again! No towel!! Wife had to run to the house to get me a towel while I stood shivering in my white skivvies hoping the neighbors and/or boats would see me! My wife still laughs about it to this day.



ps: the phone still works!

 

[Edward Lea.]

Fatrap that is one bad day.



Jim C. I believe I would have figured the phone was a lost cause. Can't believe it still worked.



Anyone else got a swimming after the boat story?

 

[fatrap]

Cell phone underwater? Mine bit the dust(er mud). My main deal for ice baths is soaking myself and camcorder in semifrozen creeks durning bird hunts. I've ruined two so far. I go way back to High School with cold water submersions.

fatrap

 

[Gene B]

I took a friend and his son fishing once. I told my friend to hold the rope. He was talking to his son and let the rope just slip through his hands. I parked the truck and saw the 2 of them looking at the boat drifting away. My friend looks at his son and says "What are you looking at? Go get it!" :lol:



Gene

 

[Larry Harp]

I had the opposite of a boat drifting away from me one time. Back before I bought my first boat my boss at that time had a place on the lake. He invited me to use his little front tiller boat to take my son fishing and camping so we took him up on it. We fished all day and then found a sandy beach and beached the boat and set up a campsite. (Probably illegally on private property but I didn't know any better.) The next morning the dang boat was sitting almost completely on dry ground. I had never heard of "draw-down" either.:wacko: My son was only around 10 or 11 at the time so he wasn't much help in the hefting department. He did scrounge up a good size rock and a tree limb that we were able to fashion into a lever to work the boat back into the water. Eventually, we got the prop in the water deep enough to put the engine in reverse while I pushed. It was fall so the water was cool.



From then on whenever we camped with the boat in the water I would throw the anchor way off the back side and then give it a long rope tied to a tree on the bow eye and let it float at night.

 

[Edward Lea.]

Ok stupid question here, What's a front tiller boat?

 

[Larry Harp]

It's a boat where the driver sits in the front and steers with a stick. Push forward to go left and pull back to go right. The one in my story was a real old fiberglass rig with the old red gas cans. I have no idea what brand it was.

 

[William H. (Bill) Barham]

My brother had a stick-steering boat and when I sold my Rebel fiberglass boat I was going to get a stick-steering Tracker. My brother's boat was a fiberglass Quachita (made by Terry I think) and I thought it was great. You didn't have to get up to move to another spot, you just said "hold on" and started the motor and moved. Then I remembered one day on Lake Anna when it got of rough:huh: and while stick steering is nice it would have made me have both of my back surgery's much sooner. It's about as rough a ride as you can have...



Uncle Billy

 

[Edward Lea.]

OK I have seen those type of boats but hadn't heard them refered to a front tillers. Makes sense.

 

[Larry Harp]

I probably didn't use the right terminology...just the first thing that came out of my brain at the time.

 

[Roy Cody]

My first bass boat was a 14' "Stick Steering" boat when I lived in Virginia some years ago and fished the waters around Hopewell and Pertersburg.



RoyC

 

[Greg Meyer]

Interesting sidenote... Most tourney circuits have banned them... Safety reasons...

 

[Larry Harp]

Interesting sidenote... Most tourney circuits have banned them... Safety reasons...

I understand why. There's a guy that works in the boat dept at the OKC BPS that was thrown out of one that was driving. The prop ran over his arm and hand. Very nasty scar.