Baitcaster Part Deux

Today I tried out my baitcaster for the first time!

I caught a duck.  I suppose I didn't actually "catch" a duck since she never was hooked; more like teased her with my lure.  I must have bought a really good looking musky crank bait, because this duck thought she hit the holy grail of fish!  She chased it everywhere I cast the dang thing until I put it away for fear of hurting her.

I never expected to catch anything.  Today was just about learning to tune my Revo, and putting a good sized lure on the line to help decrease the backlash.  I had some pretty good snarls, but it didn't take too long before I caught on.  It's really light, and feels natural in my hands.  I was afraid to try it, but now I think I will prefer my baitcaster over my spinning gear.  I just have to remember my thumb needs to stop the line when the bait hits the water.  If I remember that, everything else will be fine.

Thank goodness for YouTube videos that showed me techniques, like Bass Resource's reel camera recording his thumb feathering the line as it came off the spool.

Also, a BIG shout out to Italo Labignan whose video made the biggest difference in my success today.  This is the best informative video on YouTube when it comes to baitcasters.

Bill caught some blue gill and perch.  He caught an itty bitty perch that he didn't even realize was on his line.  I took a picture of him with the monstrous beast.  Bill is the most wonderful person in the world!

I had to give feedback to Cabela's.  Bill and I love that place!  We could spend hours there looking at the guns, fishing, hiking, and camping equipment.  It's a big playground!  Today we went because I am building tackle for largemouth bass, musky and pike.  I had a bunch of stuff in my hands, was hunting every frickin where for lead - free lures and sinkers, and could not find any pike spoons or musky-sized bucktails no matter where I looked.  I was a little frustrated at burning my fishing time trying to hunt down gear, but there were tons of people in the store.  I didn't think anything of not being asked if I needed assistance since they were packed, until I saw my husband get store help.  I asked him how many times he was approached by store employees, and he said 4 times.  4 TIMES!  I couldn't get anyone to assist me!

After we left the building, I called back to talk to a store manager.  I wasn't nasty, and explained what happened.  At first he must've thought I was trying to sue or get free stuff, but I simply said I was providing feedback and what he chose to do with it was up to him.  I didn't want to label it gender discrimination because it wasn't done deliberately.  I think it has more to do with employee awareness.  After he realized my intentions, he was very nice.  He will be discussing my feedback at their next employee meeting, and encouraging his staff to be more aware of all customers.  Good enough!  I thanked him for his time, and that was that.

I love fishing.  Tomorrow I'll discuss angling from a woman's perspective.

Baitcaster

For a few years I've only gone fishing with Bill to spend time with him, mainly because I couldn't cast for squat and became discouraged.  The only things I ever caught were trees, bushes, weeds, and water flotsam.  I once caught a catfish so small even my worm giggled.  Fishing ain't as easy as it seems!

This season I finally caught on to rigging, casting, retrieving, and I've been hauling up fish like crazy with my spinning outfit.  So far, I've caught nice sized panfish, catfish, white bass, large and smallmouth bass.  Ah bass.  It's that fish which has caught me.  After hooking a 3lb smallie at Lake Alum a few weeks ago, I've hit a fishing fever.  I want the big uns.  Bring on the largemouth, the musky, and the pike!

I researched how to entice these species to bite, and what equipment to use.  Turns out the classic dropshot method I use with drifting is a pro technique for bass tournaments, although they call it Powershotting (eyeroll).  It's the first rig that Bill showed me, and it's the one I like the most.  I've also used hardbaits and Powerbait, so that's nothing new to learn.  A side note, Bill swears by Powerbait, but I can't stand it.  I've caught jack, and we've used it quite a bit.  He talks about "the big one that got away" using Powerbait, but that's one damned fish out of the hundreds of casts!  One is a pretty bad track record.  Maybe we need to make it stinkier.

Some things I didn't have is a baitcaster set up.  I read that this is the most advanced of fishing equipment, and bad casts result in a backlash, or a big line snarl in the reel.  These rods and reels do not run cheap, and some of them are over $500 so as not to cause fatigue during all day fishing.  FATIGUE!  For $500 it better give me a mani / pedi and a glass of Belle Epoque Rose while I wait for my fish!

Speaking of, Bill gave me a baitcaster rod, reel, braid line, and a shad for my birthday present!  My beautiful reel is a black and red Abu Garcia Revo SX.

Isn't it a thing of beauty?  Gear ratio is 6.4:1, weighs 6.7 oz, is smooooooth with 1 roller and 9 stainless steel bearings, has MagTrax breaking system for precision casting, and can handle up to 12 lb test (mono).  He paired it with a 7 ft medium / heavy Ugly Stik.  He did a great job because it's everything and more that I wanted!  The outfit barely weighs anything, and the low profile teardrop shape Revo fits perfectly into my hand.

We're going fishing this weekend. Before we do, I want to get this rigged up with a weight so I can practice casting in the backyard.  It's touchy, and I need to get a feel for it so I don't spend my whole fishing day cutting snarls of expensive braid line off my reel.

If I catch anything good, I'll definitely report back!