Beginner Bait caster user, looking for help

[Heather Chasney]

Moving into the world of bait casters, just bought an Abu Garcia Revo SX.  Looking for advice on Mono vs Flourocarbon line.

[Eric 26]

I think you’re going to find most guys recommend monofilament for first time bait cast users. Berkeley big game monofilament in 10-15 lb range depending on the cover where you fish. For my area 10- 12 lb works fine.

[MN Fisher]

Beginner with a BC - get some 10# or 12# Berkley Big Game Mono

 

Practice with this until you're comfortable - you WILL have backlashes as you learn how to use the tension and brakes. Big Game is a good line and very inexpensive...because you will have to cut some of those backlashes out and replace the line.

[Heather Chasney]

I have Berkley 8 lb Mono now.  Any issue with throwing Berkley 8lb on to practice with?  I just have that on hand.

[roadwarrior]

Try it, but thinner line is more challenging.

[BrianMDTX]

I would keep the 8 lb for something else (Big Game is cheap...but very good). Get a spool of 10 or 12 lb BG and learn how to cast a baitcaster without spending $$$ on line. 

[Heather Chasney]

Thanks guys, didn't know that

[scaleface]

8 lb might be to thin and find its way inside the gap that surrounds the spool .

[Glenn]

You're going to want to watch this:

 

 

[new2BC4bass]

56 minutes ago, scaleface said:

8 lb might be to thin and find its way inside the gap that surrounds the spool .

I hope not.  I use a lot of 8# mono or co-polymer on Medium/Medium Light power rods.  Never had  problem yet.  And I use it on several brand reels.  Some guys on here use braid equivalent to 4# mono and claim to have no issues with the braid on a baitcast reel.

 

Heather, a lot of guys recommend Big Game to learn on.  It is fine...once it gets wet, but if it has sat on a reel for awhile it has more memory than some other lines.  It is a great mono, but I would suggest something else to learn on.  Sufix Elite or Sunline Super Natural are both soft lines with low memory.  Berkley Trilene XL is another soft line.  Softer lines have less memory than a harder line.  Generally speaking they will also have less abrasion resistance than a harder mono/co-polymer.

 

8# line is going to be harder to untangle backlashes than a heavier line.  I'd suggest starting with 12#-15# line.  Many fluorocarbon lines have more memory than mono/co-polymers.  Not all, but I'd do some research first if you decide to go that way.

 

Good luck and welcome to the baitcast world.  Once I used my first baitcast reel, I never looked back.  You don't want to know how many I've collected since getting my first one in March 2009. 

 

Also a huge to the forum.

[JustJames]

2 hours ago, Heather Chasney said:

I have Berkley 8 lb Mono now.  Any issue with throwing Berkley 8lb on to practice with?  I just have that on hand.

What Berkeley? Trilene XT is very thick compare with other line. You might be fine with that 8lb line.

You will learn faster using small diameter line and in the meantime get more chance to catch fish than those too big of a line. I wouldn’t use FC line as beginner though because it a tad too expensive to replace if you mess up.

[new2BC4bass]

1 hour ago, Bass_Fishing_Socal said:

What Berkeley? Trilene XT is very thick compare with other line. You might be fine with that 8lb line.

You will learn faster using small diameter line and in the meantime get more chance to catch fish than those too big of a line. I wouldn’t use FC line as beginner though because it a tad too expensive to replace if you mess up.

I don't see why she should learn faster using small line.  Please explain.

 

Also Heather has nothing in her profile so how do you know she will catch more fish with smaller line?    I'm  speaking of 12#-15# not 25# mono.  Is she fishing with 20 foot visibility or 18 inches?

[JustJames]

8lb Copolymer is not small at all more like all around line. Learn faster just my opinion, bigger line doesn’t cast as far and don’t need a lot of thumb control. He/she might feel she got a hang of casting bigger line too fast but once switch to smaller line, he/she would get struggle some more.

Line size will effect movement of lure, you should use line as small as possible to make the lure/plastic move like natural. Also bigger line get a lot more resistant underwater, it will be a lot harder to detect subtle bite than smaller line. If you only wait for those obvious tab bite you only catch 70-80% of the fish.

12lb Copolymer/15lb FC is the biggest line I use for every day fishing, jig, topwater or anything medium heavy duty. Most of my reels are 6-8lb Copolymer.

 

[NavyVet1204]

I started with 12lb fluro last year on my first bait caster which was a Revo SX as well and it has worked out very well for me.

 

Seaguar Red Label Flurocarbon is my go to line in the FC world. Very affordable and readily available( for me). 

[WRB]

8 on Berkley Big Game .011 diameter and will be OK on your bait casting reel. 10 lb BG is .012D and 12lb is .014D.

One of my pet peeves is calling line thick or thin, line round diameter, smaller or larger not a flat sheet that thick or thin.

Tom

[islandbass]

11 hours ago, Heather Chasney said:

I have Berkley 8 lb Mono now.  Any issue with throwing Berkley 8lb on to practice with?  I just have that on hand.

Since it’s already on, just use it until you lose it, and you will, lol. The recommendation of 10-15# test is excellent so 12# will be a happy middle ground. 

My first cast with a bc reel was awful and I was ill prepared.  I put on 30# braid and didn’t know all the brakes were off. I made my cast. I let my thumb off the spool too late and my practice weight slammed into the ground in front of me as the spool spun at light speed with no thumb on it. The infamous “fwarahthrupp” sound was heard right before the spool stopped abruptly. Yup, I wasted an entire spool of braid with one cast. It was so bad I had to cut the braid off. 
 

 

I will give one piece of advice. No matter what, your thumb must stop the spool from hitting anything — hopefully the water’s surface, lol, but anything — the ground, a tree branch, etc. It doesn’t matter how you stop the spool. Stop it cold turkey, or feather the spool to a stop. The bottom line is that the spool must stop spinning before your lure or practice weight hits something. 
 

Learning this out the gate will get you far if you do this early on. ?

[ironbjorn]

Berkley Big Game in 12lb. It's a thicker mono so 15lb, while great for beginners, isn't necessary, and you will catch more fish and have better lure action with the 12lb. Set the brakes at least half if not 2/3 of the way to start with. Set the spool tension to the lure weight. To do this, engage the reel with the lure tied on and keep letting it fall until it falls to and touches the ground without creating overrun or loops in the spool.

[ClearCreek]

23 hours ago, Glenn said:

You're going to want to watch this:

 

 

Glen:

 

This appears to be the same video that you did a few years ago.  This video has a bunch of confusing and just wrong information.

 

Again, you call the cast control knob (the knob that is on the same side as the reel handle) the centrifugal brake - it is NOT the centrifugal brake.

 

Centrifugal and magnetic brakes on bait casting reels are located on the side of the reel opposite the reel handle.  These brakes are typically adjusted from this side as well. 

 

As you should know, the cast control knob can be used by a beginning bait cast reel user to adjust the rate of drop of a bait before you cast that bait.  You kind of started to explain how to do check the rate of drop, but then did not finish how to properly adjust this knob to help prevent backlashes   

 

Please redo the video with the reel parts identified correctly.

 

ClearCreek

 

 

 

 

[new2BC4bass]

20 hours ago, Bass_Fishing_Socal said:

8lb Copolymer is not small at all more like all around line. Learn faster just my opinion, bigger line doesn’t cast as far and don’t need a lot of thumb control. He/she might feel she got a hang of casting bigger line too fast but once switch to smaller line, he/she would get struggle some more.

Line size will effect movement of lure, you should use line as small as possible to make the lure/plastic move like natural. Also bigger line get a lot more resistant underwater, it will be a lot harder to detect subtle bite than smaller line. If you only wait for those obvious tab bite you only catch 70-80% of the fish.

12lb Copolymer/15lb FC is the biggest line I use for every day fishing, jig, topwater or anything medium heavy duty. Most of my reels are 6-8lb Copolymer.

 

IMO when learning to use a baitcast reel, distance should be the last thing on your mind.

 

I have zero idea of the type of water the OP fishes in.  When I started with a spinning reel (at age 6....cane pole at age 5), Dad set me up with 8# mono (Trilene XL, I think),  In my mid-teens I went to 4# XL.  This was in ponds and lakes on the NY/PA border (I'm originally from an extremely small town in northern Bradford County).  We fished open water.

 

Fishing with my brother-in-law in Florida I am using 40# braid casting into lily pads, etc.  I use 12# mono or co-polymer on a couple MH rods.  Most often with a 3/8 oz. or 1/2 oz. spinnerbait.  I use 8# mono or co-polymer on my treble hook Medium power rod.  I really don't think replacing the braid and 12# lines with an 8# line is going to increase my catch.

 

Now if I were going to be fishing in some of the Upstate NY lakes (or even the ones I fished as a youngster), then 8# mono/co-polymer would be my first choice.  And I would be fishing Medium or Medium Light power rods the vast majority of the time.  In Florida I prefer MH rods and heavier lines.

 

 

[JustJames]

6 hours ago, new2BC4bass said:

Fishing with my brother-in-law in Florida I am using 40# braid casting into lily pads, etc.  I use 12# mono or co-polymer on a couple MH rods.  Most often with a 3/8 oz. or 1/2 oz. spinnerbait.  I use 8# mono or co-polymer on my treble hook Medium power rod.  I really don't think replacing the braid and 12# lines with an 8# line is going to increase my catch.

 

Lily pad? Really?

I think I was talking about OP and fishing in general. I don’t know if I offended you anywhere. If you feel that way, I am sorry. For the sake of OP, I’m not gonna respond no more.

[bulldog1935]

Congratulations on your new reel - searching on your reel's brake system, which turns out is the identical unit as Lew's combo brake, I ran across this Oz guy on how to adjust it.  

Revo® 4 Infini™ Brake System Overview - YouTube

 

I'll admit to cutting my teeth on Big Game mono - that was on a Millionaire 6H in the late 70s. 

Got spooled by many bull reds in the surf, and always had a bulk spool around.  

Even still have a piece of old spool from the 90s, though it's 12-lb I graduated to on all my reels, which was sufficient even for killing my old Penn 4400SS on king mackerel.  

Here's that reel from the 90s loaded with Big Game - just retired this reel 2 years ago, and it still looks like this.  

 

What you gain with mono/fluoro, simply because of its stiffness, is ease of recovering backlash.  This is also what you lose with braid - the total limp of braid makes it more difficult to recover backlash, because you can get sharp, folded loops that are difficult to even find.  Though some forum members began with braid and never looked back.

I'll put in a plug for 12-lb Seaguar fluoro as go-to for most fishing, and all the right qualities to learn on baitcaster.  

[roadwarrior]

30 minutes ago, bulldog1935 said:

 I'll put in a plug for 12-lb Seaguar fluoro as go-to for most fishing, and all the right qualities to learn on baitcaster.  

[new2BC4bass]

11 hours ago, Bass_Fishing_Socal said:

Lily pad? Really?

I think I was talking about OP and fishing in general. I don’t know if I offended you anywhere. If you feel that way, I am sorry. For the sake of OP, I’m not gonna respond no more.

I'm not upset.  I thought we were having a friendly discussion/partial disagreement.    I value your opinion as it is backed with more actual experience than mine.

 

The OP hasn't given enough information for me to offer any kind of solid recommendations.  As you are well aware of, this is not the first time that has happened and for sure won't be the last.

 

All we can do is offer advice based on our own experiences.  It is the OP's responsibility to figure out which best suits her circumstances.  She (I assume female from the username) has received some good options...including yours.

 

I apologize if I've upset you James.  Wasn't my intention.  I was simply trying to point out that where and how you fish has a little something to do with line choice.  I've fished where 8# mono/co-polymer would be my first choice.  I've fished where 40# braid would be my first choice.