Well...I finally joined the dark side and picked up my first bait caster. I got an Abu Garcia revo winch.
I intend on using this reel to throw big pike swimbaits/cranks around but also to pitch/punch for bass in the slop (on a different rod). I'm planning on spooling up with a bit of 10lb mono backing then filling the reel with 50lb braided line, as I intend on fishing heavy cover for bass, and there are musky in my pike waters (st lawrence river).
I'm a bit confused about setting the contrifugal brakes and the magnetic adjustment. Obviously I understand more braking=less casting distance and I've heard you should set your brakes so your lure falls slowly to the ground on free spool, then maybe turns once after the lure hits the ground?
Do you mostly set the magnetic brake?
Is there a general starting point for the centrifugal brakes?
Is it really neccessary to open the side of the reel and mess around with the brakes every time I make a lure change, or can I just set it approximately with the centrifugal brake (i.e. heavy lure/light lure) then fine tune on lure changes with the external dial?
I really don't want to waste fishing time with backlashes and intend on practicing in the yard a bit, but I'm hoping some of you might have some tips to save me some argrevations with overuns