Freddy Krueger. Jason of Halloween fame. Dracula and Frankenstein way before them.
They were scary.
But you know what really chills some anglers? The thought of having to use a baitcasting reel.
Yeah, they’re frightening at first.
A lot of anglers who might like to try fishing with one never do because they’re worried byf how difficult it is, or at least potentially might be.
There’s no need to be intimidated, though, said Mike DelVisco, a bass fishing professional from Dandridge, Tenn. There are two tricks to making use of a baitcaster easier.
First, he said, it to learn to cast underhanded, or almost sidearm.
An overhand cast requires using the entire arm to fling a bait out. It’s almost like “clubbing” the water, he said.
An underhand cast – made by twisting the wrist 90 degrees to the outside, so that the palm faces up – allows him to be more accurate. It’s also easier on him physically over the course of a day.
If he doesn’t necessarily cast very far that way, that’s OK, too. Shorter casts keep his bait in productive water longer and mean less water to retrieve a fish through.
“I’d rather make 3,000 20-foot casts than 1,000 100-foot casts in a day. I’m just fishing unproductive water when I do that,” he said.
The second trick, he said, is to learn to control a baitcaster. He does so by keeping his thumb on the line at all times. He “feathers” the spool until his lure drops into the water.
“With a baitcasting reel, my thumb controls what the line does, where it goes, how far I cast, the accuracy I get. It’s all in your thumb,” DelVisco said.
And if – no, when – you get a backlash?
DelVisco offers this trick.
Pull out as much line by hand as you can, toward the rod tip. When you can’t pull any more, look on the reel for a “V-shaped” loop in the line, DelVisco said.
“If I grab that one and pull it out, it usually pulls the rest of my backlash out pretty easily,” he said. “It’s pretty easy to do once you know what you’re looking for.”
Now, here are a couple other fishing tips…
* To catch more fish, pay attention to just where you’ve hooked the first one.
If your bait or lure is deep in a fish’s mouth, that can be a sign you’re giving them just what they want. If that fish is hooked just in the lip, though – or if you’re getting hits but not hooking anything at all – you’re in the right neighborhood, but something just a bit off.
Try switching to a similar lure but of a different color, or vary your retrieve, speeding it up or slowing it down.
* Fish, it seems, sometimes get finicky if they see the same baits and lures all the time.
Here’s an idea for changing things up.
When you Texas rig a worm or other soft plastic, put a blade in front of the lure. It will rarely hang up, yet can add just a dash of flash and flutter to the bait. The setup works especially good as a flipping bait.
