I thought I might try to explain how to use that Baitcaster that you have just bought, or are thinking about buying here on ebay... I know from firsthand experience that it can be a little frustrating using one of these reels for the first time, but if you give it a little time and patience, it's one of the best types of reels to use...

The casting reel (aka baitcaster) has been around for ages. It's one of the first types of reel and one of the most versatile... Nowdays there are two main types. The large open faced round baitcaster, designed for casting live bait in freshwater and saltwater, or the "low profile" casting reel, designed for casting artificial baits... I will discuss both types. although I only use the low profile models...

The open faced round style baitcaster, designed for live bait is the one that has been around for a long time. It is the hardest for a new fisherman to use and will take the most patience. Most all of these baitcasters involve the "thumbing technique". This is when you place the thumb of the hand holding the reel against the spool of line and use thumb pressure to control how much line goes out.

Before I go any farther, let me talk a little about how all this works. There's a lot happening when you cast. You have a reel and a rod, with a bait tied on the end. When you cast, the force of your cast sets the bait in motion. The line is pulled off the spool by the force of the bait travelling through the air. The faster the bait travels, the more line goes out, but there's a lot of principles at work here, such as trajectory, velocity, gravity, inertia, drag coefficient, etc... You don't necessarily need to know all of that, but just remember that the perfect cast, involves releasing at the right angle, with the right force and with the right drag on the spool...

Now let's go back to the open faced round baitcaster. These reels usually have one brake adjustment on them. This adjustment is a cap that tightens against the end of the shaft of the spool. It's a friction brake. If set too tight, the cast will be very short. If set too loose, the spool will accelerate faster than the line feeding out and the result is a "birdnest", or the spool overrunning the line and pulling it back in on itself... Here's where your thumb comes in. Since the inventors didn't have an easy answer for the problem of the spool increasing speed faster than the line going out, the idea of using your thumb as the second brake, was the best and easiest solution... You place your thumb over the spool and use pressure on the spool, to keep it from increasing speed too much.