Brakes And Spool Tension With Pitching

[iceintheveins]

I don't do much pitching since the waters I fish usually the cover is relatively sparse and the water is clear. I need to improve my pitching for other waters though.

Anyways, how do you set your brakes and spool tension when you are pitching to help keep backlashes to a minimum? Do I set them more loose than normal or tighter?

[K_Mac]

I've spent a lot of time this season improving my pitching skills. I have fished several times from the back of a friends boat who likes to pitch shallow cover. The first thing I learned from him was that I had to back off on everything to loosen things up. I use a BPS Pro Qualifier reel with dual brakes. I set one centrifugal brake, turn the mag break off, and set the spool tension to just keep the spool from moving side to side or just slightly tighter. It will take some getting used to (a skilled thumb is your friend), but once you get the hang of it you will find your accuracy and the way your bait enters the water to be much better. Good luck.

Note: When you go back to casting make sure to tighten things up a little or a hard overhand cast may have you practicing your professional overrun repair skills.

[Lund Explorer]

I've spent a lot of time this season improving my pitching skills. I have fished several times from the back of a friends boat who likes to pitch shallow cover. The first thing I learned from him was that I had to back off on everything to loosen things up. I use a BPS Pro Qualifier reel with dual brakes. I set one centrifugal brake, turn the mag break off, and set the spool tension to just keep the spool from moving side to side or just slightly tighter. It will take some getting used to (a skilled thumb is your friend), but once you get the hang of it you will find your accuracy and the way your bait enters the water to be much better. Good luck.

Note: When you go back to casting make sure to tighten things up a little or a hard overhand cast may have you practicing your professional overrun repair skills.

X2 on the educated thumb.

Winter is a great time to get out the coffee cup or a small bowl to practice off the water.

[J Francho]

I use Daiwa reels, so the brakes are centrifugally activated. There isn't enough RPMs to get the brakes going on a pitch, and I use almost zero spool tension.

[.ghoti.]

I also use Daiwa reels. Zillions are the easiest for me to set. From my normal casting settings, I back off the spool tension two clicks, and increase the mags four clicks.

It usually takes me two casts and adjustments to get the Alphas and Fuegos set "right", but both are done the same as the Zillions. Back off the spool tension and increase the mags.

It is crucial to remember to re-adjust before making a normal cast.

[Five-Alive]

I pitch with Curado's and I turn all of my magnetic brakes on and then back off on my spool tension to adjust to whatever weight I am pitching. This helped me alot!!

[CWB]

If I'm not mistaken, Daiwa's are mag brakes and Curados are mechanical.

I know I'm gonna be doing alot of practicing this winter.

I use a 200E7 with 2 brakes on and adjust the tension to suit.

Thumb plays a huge role as most have said, especially with quiet entry.

[Catt]

I was one of the “back off everything” crowd until I watched this episode of Bassmaster University, Elite Series pro Denny Brauer breaks down flipping and pitching and answers viewer questions. Denny set all control to where the lure drops to the floor & no overrun of any amount occurs, he even pitches without touching his spool at all.

Denny Brauer breaks down flipping and pitching

[J Francho]

If I'm not mistaken, Daiwa's are mag brakes and Curados are mechanical.

Daiwa's braking system is magnetic, but they are centrifugally activated. Curados are simple centrifugal brake shoes and drum arrangement.

[slonezp]

I was one of the “back off everything” crowd until I watched this episode of Bassmaster University, Elite Series pro Denny Brauer breaks down flipping and pitching and answers viewer questions. Denny set all control to where the lure drops to the floor & no overrun of any amount occurs, he even pitches without touching his spool at all.

Denny Brauer breaks down flipping and pitching

X2

The Ardent reel makes things alot easier due to the lack of a levelwind, and Im going to add a second one to my arsenal.

[pitchinthejig]

I fish only Daiwa reels and my setup is like this, for pitching I will set the spool tension as loose as I can with NO tension on the spool just stopping the side to side play if set to loose... I set my mags on ZERO in fact when I used to use TD-X 103's for pitching back in the day I took the whole breaking system off the spool as too lighten the spool as much as I could and also to take ANY mag break away because even on zero theres still some given a setup like this takes a trained thumb but I also cast with the spools set the same on my TD-Z's, Steez's, Zillions, Pixys and Alphas and mags between zero and 3 MAX... once you have trained your thumb to pitch with NO breaking you will never want to pitch a reel that doesnt have a TOTALLY free spool... the less breaking the lower you will be able to keep the lure to the water and the more range and accuracy you will gain... it just takes a little effort to learn to pitch with a totally free spool...

If you go this route of pitching then I would start out with a heavy braid because it will be easier to pick out back lashes when you get them and also it will back lash less... once you get trained pitching like this it will allow you to cast with a lighter mag adjustment and spool tension improving casting distance and accuracy as well.

[ww2farmer]

I fish with Shimano, I run the spool tension very loose, one brake on, for all my fishing, not just pitching.

[Sam]

I was one of the “back off everything” crowd until I watched this episode of Bassmaster University, Elite Series pro Denny Brauer breaks down flipping and pitching and answers viewer questions. Denny set all control to where the lure drops to the floor & no overrun of any amount occurs, he even pitches without touching his spool at all.

Denny Brauer breaks down flipping and pitching

X2.

I do what Brauer says to do and it works fine.

However, I also pitch and flip with a spinning rig which find to be easier to master.

[J Francho]

Brauer's tight spool, low brakes is good for skipping jigs under docks. Otherwise, I find it uncomfortable, and too much effort. However, he's using heavy fluoro, so that may change things. I do need a bit of spool tension when I pitch fluoro. hand't thought of that when I answered originally.

[Fishes in trees]

I've got several different models of reels, but when I'm pitching 99% of the time I'm using one of my Calcutta 200 TEGT reels. I find I don't have to change any settings at all. I go with 3 brakes on and 3 brakes off, with the spool tension knob set pretty light. It should be noted that I very seldom throw anything lighter than 5/16. Pitch, side arm cast, overhead cast, its mostly all the same for that reel. As long as my thumb doesn't have a brain fart, its all good.

Its very humbling, really, once you've upgraded your equipment to a certain point, any time you miss what you're casting at, the cause is "operator error".