Casting the Alphas R edition

[hooked_on_trout]

Well I have not broken it in yet and have just been using my Saturday mornings to practice a few casts up and down the street (Only one river-to-sea vibe wrapped around the power lines).

So what I found was (Just before I go on my braid is color coded every 25 meters), that casting was ok with the tension thing wound up and mag force anti-backlash at 50%, but then I released the spool tension to almost zero I was casting a 1/8 with 4" minow jig 30 meters on a 6 foot rod with ease.

I tried to go better and reduced the anti backlash to about 15% and the first cast back-lashed and nested the 2th cast back-lashed and snapped the lure from the line.

So it seems the anti backlash needs to be turned up a little, but less spool tension = longer casts.

Cheers

[nadders]

i set my spool tension basically to the point where the spool does not have any freeplay but no further as a baseline then set the anti backlash to zero as a baseline

cast a particular lure, if the backlash tends to happen toward the start of the cast i up the anti backlash to the point where its comfortable to feather the cast with my thumb

if the backlash tends to happen halfway/near the end of the cast i up the spool tension slightly as it is a constant braking force whereas the anti backlash backs off toward the end

once your thumb is further trained you'll be able to run with low settings and low spool tension alike, the only time i find myself upping spool tension is when casting light stuff

alphas r is a great casting reel anyway you should have fun with it, look after it in the salt though they need lots of TLC

cheers

Dan

[hooked_on_trout]

nadders wrote:

i set my spool tension basically to the point where the spool does not have any freeplay but no further as a baseline then set the anti backlash to zero as a baseline

cast a particular lure, if the backlash tends to happen toward the start of the cast i up the anti backlash to the point where its comfortable to feather the cast with my thumb

if the backlash tends to happen halfway/near the end of the cast i up the spool tension slightly as it is a constant braking force whereas the anti backlash backs off toward the end

once your thumb is further trained you'll be able to run with low settings and low spool tension alike, the only time i find myself upping spool tension is when casting light stuff

alphas r is a great casting reel anyway you should have fun with it, look after it in the salt though they need lots of TLC

cheers

Dan

so you still get backlash?

[faulked]

everyone does as you get better at thumbing youll get less and less the worst thing is when you need that extra couple of metres and push it that bit too hard thats when you will stuff it

just keep practising youll get it

jason

[sweresy]

a beautiful reel but as nadders said prone to holding salt. i love mine and cant believe how sensitive the left side palm plate control is.

[nadders]

hooked_on_trout wrote:

nadders wrote:

i set my spool tension basically to the point where the spool does not have any freeplay but no further as a baseline then set the anti backlash to zero as a baseline

cast a particular lure, if the backlash tends to happen toward the start of the cast i up the anti backlash to the point where its comfortable to feather the cast with my thumb

if the backlash tends to happen halfway/near the end of the cast i up the spool tension slightly as it is a constant braking force whereas the anti backlash backs off toward the end

once your thumb is further trained you'll be able to run with low settings and low spool tension alike, the only time i find myself upping spool tension is when casting light stuff

alphas r is a great casting reel anyway you should have fun with it, look after it in the salt though they need lots of TLC

cheers

Dan

so you still get backlash?

with min brakes min spool tension and no thumbing a backlash will inevitably happen, finding out at what stage of the cast it tends to happen gives the indication of which setting you should tune up to give the optimal distance

i prefer to set my bcs so that a very light feathering with the thumb is required throughout the cast with a slightly harder feather at the beginning, which tends to be 1 or 2 bricks on a centrifugal system and minimum spool tension or 1-2 again with daiwas magforce, with the size lures i usually chuck

if casts start getting harder to control a backlash immediately off the bat then i'll inrease the # of bricks or the magforce setting, whereas if they're starting to happen later on in the cast i'll tighten the spool tension a bit

[hooked_on_trout]

faulked wrote:

everyone does as you get better at thumbing youll get less and less the worst thing is when you need that extra couple of metres and push it that bit too hard thats when you will stuff it

just keep practising youll get it

jason

yes that's what happens, but I guess that is practice. But for a while there it all came together and I was casting some lovely smooth casts with ease.

So I am happy with that, just have to hone my casting.

cheers

[hooked_on_trout]

nadders wrote:

if casts start getting harder to control a backlash immediately off the bat then i'll inrease the # of bricks or the magforce setting, whereas if they're starting to happen later on in the cast i'll tighten the spool tension a bit

Yeah there is no way I can feather a spool at the moment, it's very light and I havn't used anything larger than about 12 grams (I am roughlty guess that would be the weight of a 1/8 Jig head and a 4" minow in grams).

Just out of curiosity is a 1/8 jig meaning 1/8 of an ounce.

BTW. Imperial is far from gone, we have meat at work labeled in KG and lb.

cheers

[fishingnut]

Its more about accuracy than length, try putting a bucket and a reasonable distance and casting into that bucket nine out of ten and your doing well, also pitching it,backhand,overhand, all sorts of different ways to get that lure into where it needs to be....

[nadders]

yeah, 1/8th jighead is 1/8th of an oz

[Joel Eadie]

i got a story totally unrealated hope thats ok, i was practicing my accuracy on my new rod last week havent even taken it out yet. i wanted to see how far i could cast an unweighted 3'' minnow so i gave it all my might.

off comes the top half of my rod and buries its self into the dirt, pull it up and the tip was gone

you wouldnt believe how mad i was

[hooked_on_trout]

Joel Eadie wrote:

i got a story totally unrealated hope thats ok, i was practicing my accuracy on my new rod last week havent even taken it out yet. i wanted to see how far i could cast an unweighted 3'' minnow so i gave it all my might.

off comes the top half of my rod and buries its self into the dirt, pull it up and the tip was gone

you wouldnt believe how mad i was

yep sounds like you really put your arm into that cast :laugh:

cheers

[hooked_on_trout]

fishingnut wrote:

Its more about accuracy than length, try putting a bucket and a reasonable distance and casting into that bucket nine out of ten and your doing well, also pitching it,backhand,overhand, all sorts of different ways to get that lure into where it needs to be....

Will try that

cheers