Teaching my son to cast

[Buzz Wing]

I agree with the Daiwa Sol. Although expensive, the upper-end Daiwa's are small as heck and cast like a dream. I have a Daiwa Fuego and I'd say it is about 1/3 the size of my Citica. The Citica is short and squatty, the Daiwa is squatty and skinny.

-Buzz

[cassidyta]

I just realized I hadn't updated with what he picked. He chose the BPS Pro Qualifier 6.4:1 that we put on an American Rodsmith 6'6" MH. Picked up a few packs of plastics and some terminal tackle for it.
Dad got a few goodies too, but this was really about him.
We got home late that night, and the next day he had a "learning experience" regarding putting line on the reel, but he is now set up and working out the kinks. I put 30 lbs power pro on it for now because of how much easier I believe braid to be when trying to pick out the bird nests.
We went to the pond the other night and I realized after two casts that I just needed to put my gear down. He kept trying to match me on distance and as you can imagine, it did not go well.

[pig_n_jig]

I really like the pro qualifier reel.I don't like the new swept handle on the '09 models but the reel impressed me.A friend of mine has 2 of them 4 sale on Bfhp.They are better than new. Mutt put some of his magic into those reels.They cast as well as any high dollar reel will.I want them but I just bought 7 reels and the honey has about had it with more fishing stuff entering the house for a while. P N J

[bamabassman]

so ya got a sone that wants to be like pop huh? yep, it happens buddy. he'll learn though and ya'll have a fantastic time together. nice outfit he got there too.

[islandbass]

Originally Posted by cassidyta

My son has interest in learning to fish with a bait caster. Now I torn on whcih way to go about it.
I believe that he will develop confidence in his own abilites faster if I teach him with the revo, but I feel that learning on the older Bantam will force him to master thumb control a lot better.
I learned on the Bantam and while it was a real (no pun intended) pain in the arse, I now know that there is not a reel out there I won't be able to cast effectively.
Currently I am leaning towards the Bantam, but wondered what you all thought.

He is 14 so I am not worried about destroying his young impressionable feelings.....

Just don't over teach. Kids learn quickly. This is what I told my daughter when she was six. She is now nine:

1) See this button? Push it down with your thumb and place your thumb on the spool. Put enough pressure to stop the spool from moving, okay?

Remember how you make a cast with a spinning reel and your pointing finger comes off the rod to let the line go? Well, you going to do something almost like that. Make your cast like normal. At about the same time you would have let your finger off the spinning rod to make the line go, you will take your thumb off of the spool. The line will come off.

2) This is the only other thing I will tell you. BEFORE your lure hits the ANYTHING... The ground, the water, or even a tree, you have to STOP the spool from SPINNING with your THUMB. NO MATTERWHAT HAPPENS, you must stop the spool from spinning. It doesn't matter how you stop the spool. Stop it cold turkey, or feather it to a stop. Just STOP IT, or else papi is going to spend the rest of the afternoon untangling something very ugly.

My daughter learned with the Curado BSF. 8 of her first 10 casts were flawless and the 2 "bad" ones with minor overruns. Every time she stopped the spool before the lure landed yielded a good result.

For the time being you should adjust the reel's settings. If their focus is to learn to cast, then let that be the only thing for them to worry about.

This also worked for a buddy who never ever held a BC reel in his life. During about a 4 hour period of fishing, he didn't encounter a single overrun.

Oh yeah. Don't forget to have them use something at least 1/2 oz with no hooks, like a bass casting weight.

If the learning with a quality reel, they, like us will learn more quickly.

[cassidyta]

Thanks Island. Great advice.

[woody]

That's some great advise Islandbass, and Cass thanks for starting this one, my 12 year old daughter has showed some interest in using a baitcaster, so I think I'll let her try it out this summer.


Mark

[MarcBorger]

When I was first learning to throw a baitcaster the best advice I received was "DO NOT SNAP CAST!" I was told to use a smooth and slow (at first) casting motion with no hiccups or twitches. AFter 50 casts like this I was throwing baits out with no backlashes. From there I worked on feathering the spool and soon was chucking baits a country mile. This same advice really helped my wife learn to cast.