I picked up a bait caster around December, and I've been practicing with the damn thing all spring and still have problems with casting and backlashes. It's a Daiwa Megaforce 100TSH. I've spooled it with 10 lb braid and 10 lb mono and just can't seem to get the thing to work like I expect it to. Any tips that anyone could give me would be greatly appreciated. Thanks!

1st i most ask have you learned how to set the brake?

Not quite. I was reading up on some tips, and they said a general setting is around 6 or 7, but if I have to tweak it some for different lures, I don't know which way to go!

best rule of thumb that i can say is hold your rod straight out with the bait/lure that you are going to use.
---turn the break knob so that the lure starts to free fall very slowly, if it falls fast turn the knob to tighten it or if it doesn't fall turn to loosen it
---put thumb on spool of line in the reel to hold bait in place
---cock back arm to make a cast
---as you snap the rod forward left thumb enough to let line fly
---just before bait/lure is going to hit the water, put thumb back onto the spool to slow it down. so when the bait isn't flying any more, the spool will not be still spinning.

that is a basic motion for casting a bait casting rig.

Brandenburg pier Wednesday AM

I have a Ugly Stick and Shakespear combo. It's works like a charm. If the problem keeps happening even with help of fellow member, you should probably choose a better reel.
TIGHT LINES!

The brake isnt what you are setting when holding the rod out and letting the lure fall. That is the spool tension which is what should be adjusted with every lure you put on your line. I have a Daiwa megaforce and the spool tension is a cilver knob by the crank and drag control. it should be adjusted so that the lure slowly falls to the water and doesnt back lash when the lure hits the water. After you have this properly set I would set the brake to somewhere between 8-6. After two years of using my megaforce When making long cast I set the magnetic brake at 4 or 5 and if im pitching or flipping baits under docks or into weeds i have the brake off. A tip for you to get backlashes out easy. Pull line till the line catches in the backlash. Put your thumb on the spot where the line is tangled and turn ur crank with the drag full on. Put heavy force down with your thumb when doing this. some times it comes out on the first try and if not just keep doing and pull the line fairly hard when pulling it out. When I learned this tip it made learning how to cast my baitcaster much easier. I now will even let my friends try and cast it. Hope this helps
Travis.

thanks laver for the correction. your right about that being a tension set not the brake.

I still remember my first few baitcaster disaster.

Some of the problems was my casting form.  I had to learn to steady the rod much more compared to spinning rods.  In addition I use more of my arm in my casting instead of a wrist flick that I do with my spinning rods.  This also helps to prevent the tuning fork rod vibrations that sometimes contribute to birdnesting, but mostly it prevented the quick spool start up speed from backlashing on me.   I also like to somewhat follow my lure in midair flight with the rod tip.  It kind of puts me in sync to when to thumb down on the spool.  I like to also put the levelwind line guide in the middle of the spool.  It makes for a smoother feel on the cast.

Those things helped me.  Hope it will help you too.

I've still been fiddling around with the baitcaster. Thanks to everyone for all of the tips, they truly are helping out a lot. Landed a 28 inch pike on it yesterday on a Mepps Yellow Fury I think the main problem that I had was that I started off with spiderwire braid on the reel, and it was just a little harder to get a hang of the thing. I re-spooled it with 6 pound mono for practice, and now I've graduated into 12 pound mono now. Thanks again for all the tips, everyone. Anyone interested in having a club GT soon? I was thinking late July/early August. I'm boatless, so it will have to be from shore unless we can arrange something else.

hey broooo, start a new thread asking for a gt and see what happens.

i wish i could swing it and go with ya.....to bad big dave is on the mind after a bit of surgery, because i bet he would love to go...but he won't be ready yet or should i say his doc will say he not ready yet.

get that reel figgered out yet, Mikey?

I've been tinkering around with a baitcaster too - I think I'm going to send the whole damn reel in to the magazine
and tell them to use it for Knot Wars.... that way somoene else would untangle it for me!

I've decided my baitcasters are only going to be used for vertical jigging blade baits!

Bill

didn't know how to really use mine until Canepole showed me at the Gwinn meet a few years back

I was definitely gettin a hang of it last summer, but I was only using it for skirted jigs because they had the weight to em. Whenever I used em with anything else, it's just too hard to be an accurate caster on such an inexpensive model, or at least that's what I'm telling myself, haha. It was really nice using em with the jigs, though. It seemed like I could cast further, and thumb the bait to land exactly where I wanted it. I'll get more practice when spring rolls in.

Good luck with it, Mike.  I tried one once last year and couldn't get the timing right.  Spent all my time trying to untangle it.  I ended up getting a new spincast reel instead.  It was invented to solve the baitcaster problems.  Also, there doesn't seem to be a great deal of difference in how far I can cast with one vs. a regular spinning reel.  I figured the lack of frustration and wasted time was worth the trade-off!  Anyway, let us know how you do with it this year.

When i first started i was using a pflueger echelon(cheap reel) it back lashed no matter what i did. I switched to a johnny morris gold series and it was like night and day. Not familiar with the daiwa mega force. The johnny morris was so much smoother and easier to cast. Listen to all the suggestions I know for me it was not trying to cast to hard and starting with a heavier lure. The better reel made all the difference for me starting off. No matter how good u get always going to backlash a gust of wind or u hit something. The thumb trick worked great for me remember not to pull hard when u feel resistance your just tightening the noose. Buying a more expensive model shouldnt be the answer but it ended up being cheaper in the long run with the echelon i cut out 50 dollars in line. good luck( dont give up)