ALLCAPS

Thank you for the tips everyone, it's really good advice. I guess I was cutting the baits down because I thought (and I may be entirely wrong) that they'd be too big and a smaller piece would appeal to panfish more. I like fishing panfish because I mostly fish off my dock. I live in a complex and my dock is a big floating dock with multiple places to cast from. When I fish I can always guarantee I'll catch panfish, or catfish (heaven forbid, I hate catching those things), but bass are hit or miss usually. But that's when I fish with live worms mostly, if I bring out the minnows or shiners, I will almost always catch bass unless just nothing wants to bite. Does color really matter that much or should I focus more on presentation? I like the suggestion of baits that cause vibrations, because this water has pretty poor clarity. I've been meaning to buy more spinners since I don't know what happened to the ones I had in the past, and throwing a trailer on them would be nice. I have some space monkey plastic creature baits that would probably make a good trailer because the "claws" on them do have good motion. I also made a few swim jigs with little grub trailers recently but I can't for the life of me get them to run true, sometimes they even just spin around and around when reeling in. But besides, I think something with a blade would be better for me rather than simple swim jigs. You know, I think for the next 2 or so weeks straight I am going to fish nothing but artificial. This will be the best way for me to learn the tricks needed instead of falling back on the old handy live baits. Luckily I live where I can walk down and fish within minutes, so after class or work or whatever, I'll head out and try to fish for at least an hour every day (if I can). By then I SHOULD have at least gotten a hit on some soft plastic. I'll ditch the bobber as well, and just throw wacky, and maybe try a Texas rig. I also want to get some jigs as well, maybe something that mimics a crayfish. I just kind of want to try it all and then make note of what seems to work best. I do also have a boat, well it's my parent's boat, but they'll let me use it. I know of a few spots I've caught many bass at, usually where there is a downed tree or something for them to bunker under, or an old dock that is mostly underwater. Think that'd be a good spot to drop something and try to lure them out. You may be onto something about rod sensitivity. I actually don't know off the top of my head what sensitivity my rod is. It's an Ugly Stick rod, with an Ugly Stick reel. 7' if I'm not mistaken. I have a BC with a nice rod, but it's more for saltwater fishing which I don't do much of. I'll check tomorrow and see the details on my rod to see if that could be part of my issue. Usually when I fish wacky Senkos, I'll cast, wait for it to fall on slack line. Once it hits bottom I'll lift my rod tip up to about the 9-10 o' clock position, and then drop while reeling in the slack. I'll wait 15 seconds and repeat. One crappy thing is when I hit a log which often means I lose my hook and Senko (those babies aren't cheap, ya know?), but I've kind of learned where to not cast if I don't want to get hung up.

No, I used just a piece since most of these worms would be far too big for the mouths of panfish (at least the size I was catching). I did however wacky rig a 3" Senko, and still no luck. Maybe with a bobber they aren't getting enough action? I have fished full sized Senkos without bobbers. Some weightless, some with tiny jig heads, never once got a bite though. Oh and I mostly only try wacky rigging them. I haven't tried a Texas rig in years. Maybe I'll give this a shot tomorrow. I have tried full Senkos before with no luck, but I'll focus more on the drop and getting the presentation down. I always hear about the love people have for Senkos, so I really want to catch something with one so I can ride that train as well.

I have lived in FL my entire life which also means I've been fishing for pretty much my entire life. As a kid, live worms were my go to bait, and as I got older I started using minnows and shiners as well. All have done me fine and I've caught a wide array of freshwater fish using these baits. BUT, I have never once caught a fish with soft plastics. For the past two days I decided to try an experiment. I went out with two rods, both rigged with a simple bobber and one small weight and a hook. One rod I would throw a live worm on the hook, the other I'd throw a piece of soft plastic worm. My idea was to fish for whatever that would bite, but since this spot I was fishing is always great for panfish, that's what I was targeting. My first cast with live worm produced a tiny bass, and within the hour I was fishing I caught about 10+ fish with live worms. 1 bass, and the rest panfish. But, my rod that had pieces of soft plastic on it did not get a single bite. I am fishing in pretty stained water with about 2 foot of visibility. I tried watermelon plastics, some green with red flake, some black with red flake, some black with blue flake, and even some fire tiger grubs. I got zero bites. I even tried different ways to hook the baits, some whacky, some I'd hook through just the tip so maybe it'd float and get more action. I was using pieces of Senko's, some cheap Berkley worms, those grubs, and a couple of other random worms. Eventually I gave up and took the bobber off and just kept the weight with a piece of plastic on it and slowly twitched it along the bottom. Nothing. Not a single bite. What am I doing wrong? Like I had the lines in the water right next to each other and the fish could not care less about the artificial baits and would always hit the live ones. and the funniest part, I took a piece of soft bait, put it on the hook, then hooked a small live worm on the same hook. Guess what? Little panfish came up and sucked the real worm off the hook and wouldn't touch the plastic after that. What gives?!

I think I figured out the issue. When engaging the brakes, you pull out each of the tabs just like almost every other reel. Well I found when you pull the tabs out as far as they'll go, they click in place but that ends up being too long and when you put the reel back together they get in the way which is why it wasn't working. So I just pulled them out to where they were loose and can move, but not entirely extended. I hope that's how they are supposed to work, because I can't see how the reel would work with them fully extended.

Yeah I'm kind of starting to learn that this reel would be better suited for other applications. I received it as a gift and unfortunately don't have a receipt or anything to return it. I was thinking about using it to throw heavier swimbaits and maybe for jigs when I want something that can rip through cover, but I'm still not entirely sure what I want to use it as. I'll look into the rod more tomorrow. I don't see what I could be doing wrong, but clearly there is something that isn't right. I was just genuinely frustrated with it today because once I respooled it I was happy to see it casting well, then once I put the brakes on it stops functioning right. I took that thing apart so many times it was ridiculous.

Welp guys, I took some of your suggestions and changed some things. I unspooled all my line and put some mono backing underneath and then spooled the braid back on. With the same 5/16 lure I was getting almost double the cast distance. However, this was still with all of the brakes off so I took her back apart and activated 3 of the brakes and left 3 off. That's when the reel just started giving me crap and now it won't work for anything. I'm fed up with it at this point because I spent the last 2+ hours taking the thing apart repeatedly making sure everything was seated fine when reassembling (there really isn't much that could go wrong, but apparently something is). Thing won't reel unless you put more force than necessary into it, it won't cast at all, the lure doesn't drop one inch with tension completely loosened. I've tried everything and I'm done with it. Every single time I have taken it apart to adjust the brakes it has done this, but before it had fixed itself and now it won't. Oh and just to specify, the model number is an AMBSX-6601

I sure didn't. I was debating if I should put some backing on but decided not to. I'll definitely do as you said though, I think I have some cheap mono around here somewhere.

It's a 7' medium fast Abu Garcia Vendetta. I'm no expert when it comes to fishing, do you think this rod would be an issue? I did make a mistake though, initially I posted that the lure was 3/8 oz, but it isn't. It's actually a 1/4 oz, so maybe that's just too light? Anyhow, I disabled all brakes (for the time being), and put on a 5/16 and was getting a further cast, but still that's not much heavier than a 1/4. Maybe I should just stick to 1/2oz or heavier for this setup. I mean the 5/16 with no brakes was casting about 25-30 ft, which is alright. I don't need to lunge the thing a half a mile in most situations. I feel with a 1/2 oz I could easily cast as far as I'd want to.

Sure enough, they were on the other side of the spool. So I just adjusted them to 3 on, 3 off. Still way too much tension though. The jig doesn't even fall at all now when releasing the spool. I guess I'll turn off all the brakes and see if it helps. I'd hate to run it like that, since i know the brakes are there for a reason, but I may have to for this light of a lure or something. Is it unrealistic to think that 3/8oz might just be too light for this reel and the line I'm using? I've only owned one other BC in the past and I'm pretty sure it would have casts 3/8oz lures fine.

Okay I just took the sideplate off and here is what I see. I don't see where the brakes are to disable them. I'm looking at pictures online and can see what the brakes would look like, but I'm clearly missing something here. Even the schematics picture on Abu's website makes it looks like the brakes should be right there where the spool is.

Awesome, I am going to try that right now and will report back with how it goes. Thank you for the help so far!

Actually, I did not. I've never owned a round BC, only low profile ones. What do the pins control exactly? I think I need to read the manual or something if this is common knowledge and I never knew about it.

For Christmas I received an Abu Garcia Ambassadeur SX reel that I didn't setup to use until yesterday after I bought a new rod to go with it. I spooled the reel with 20lb braid and decided to take it off the dock to see how it casts. I have a 3/8oz jig on there with a small trailer, but when I go to cast I can only get about a 15 ft. cast out of it. I have adjusted the tension to as loose as it can get, yet the jig still drops slowly when releasing the spool. I can't adjust the spool tension any lighter than what it is at, yet that doesn't seem to be light enough. Does anyone have any suggestions? Is this simply because 3/8oz is not enough weight? Maybe the reel needs to be broken in? I have the reel on a 7 ft. rod, and the wind conditions shouldn't have been an issue. I've fished with BC's in the past with good luck, but I can't seem to get this one to cast right. Edit: I should add that I don't have nearly as much line on the reel as possible. I spooled on 125 yards of line but completely neglected to buy more line considering the reel can hold quite a bit. Could that be the issue? Would having less line on the reel hinder the casts this much?