Académique Documents
Professionnel Documents
Culture Documents
If you're starting out angling and you're reasonably serious about progressing, you need to learn how to cast a
multiplier reel.
To start off with, you need:
A 12-14 ft Rod, rated 2-4oz or 4-6oz with a Medium action.
A Multiplier reel
Leader
A rod with a Trigger winch helps with handling the rod and reel.
Reel spool
The fuller the reel is with line, the greater is the amount of line coming off the reel per revolution.
With a partially filled reel, a much smaller amount of line comes off per revolution - often not enough line
comes off at the initial point of the cast, when the most force is applied to the turning spool. This will lead to
problems ---> short casts, snap-offs and overwinds.
Always keep your spool filled with line.
A properly filled reel:
Line lay
A critical factor in casting is line lay on the reel. The line should be wound onto the reel in a smooth criss-cross
pattern, keeping the line uniformly flat across the plane of the spool. As soon as a bump of line appears on the
spool, this is a cause for concern, as the layers of line on top of the bump will slip down into the troughs below
when placed under pressure. This will cause an interuption of the line coming off the reel during a cast, a loop
of line coming off the reel out of sequence is an instant recipe for an overwind.
Make sure your line is laid down neatly and flatly - uniformly across the spool.
A good idea when practicing casting is to wet your spool with fresh water. This allows the line to slip off easier,
stretches easier and prevents thumb burn.
Leaders
It is simply stupid not to use a leader in Rock and Surf.
A leader is essentially mono of a greater diameter and breaking strain than your mainline.
Join your mainline to a leader of approximately 1.5-2x the diameter of the mainline, either with a Spider Hitch
and Double fig 8 to start with, then progress to doing the Bimini twist and a Double Fig 8.
The leader should be double the length of your rod. What this does is it allows you to wind a few turns of the
stronger leader onto the spool of your reel, allowing you to make the cast off your leader. The initial force on
the line during a cast places huge strain on the mono, so having a thicker leader on your reel allows you to
throw much harder, preventing snapoffs on the cast.
A leader also provides other benefits such as greater abrasion resistance and strength on the business end.
The Reel
Know the components and functions of your reel. Learning to cast with a multiplier is easier when you know
how things work.
Centrifugal Brakes
Many reels are made with Centrifugal brakes as part of the reel.
These are designed scientifically to help brake the spool when it's needed. Most of the World's greatest distance
casters use some sort of mechanical braking system in their reels - either centrifugal or magnetic. These brakes
help to brake a reel spool when it is spinning fast.
They are there for a reason - use them!!
Clutch Lever
Also on the Handle side of the reel, is a lever called the Clutch lever. This disengages the gears of the reel from
the spool gear, allowing it to free spool.
Just before you cast, you disengage this lever and hold the spool still with your left thumb.
As you cast, you release the spool by lifting your thumb.
When a reel is spinning at high revolutions, there will come a time where you will need to apply emergency
brakes to the spool, often resulting in thumb burn - a nice big blister on your thumb!
This is caused by the line burning your skin when spinning out of control. This is why we try brake the reel on
the metal lip. If you don't, you risk burning the line as well. If your thumb is being burnt, you can be sure that
the line has been burnt too!
How to Cast
See this post - http://www.ultimateangling.co.za/index.php?topic=9711.0 and study the Low Compression Off
the Ground cast. Teach yourself how to do the basics right, then you can progress.
Procedure:
Inspect the line on the Reel. Make sure your leader knots are on the RHS of the spool, away from your casting
thumb. This is important! A wildly spinning Double Fig 8 will gash your thumb open in an instant if you forget!
Tighten up the Cast control knob at first.
This will help you in preventing an overwind, making the reel more controllable. With the Cast control tight,
you won't get much distance, but distance is not the object here - learning how to control your equipment
properly is the primary objective. With experience, you can loosen a quarter turn at a time. As the Cast control
knob gets loosened, the reel will spin faster and the further you will cast.
The ideal setting for the Cast control knob - this is what you should aim at achieving - is when the knob is loose
enough so that there is a tiny amount of lateral play in the spool. Too much lateral play will cause the spool to
vibrate and brake itself against the reel frame.
Place your left thumb on the lip of the reel spool.
The reel will now start spinning fast. Keep your thumb positioned above the spool so that you can just feel the
line coming off the reel.
With experience, you will learn when the line coming off is too quick and a bunch is developing. At this point
you lightly 'feather' the reel with your thumb to slow it down to a controllable speed.
Watch your sinker - as it slows down as it nears the water, begin braking the spool with your thumb. When it
hits the water, brake the spool abruptly. If you don't, the sinker stops, but the reel doesn't stop spinning and you
get the famous overwind! Don't worry about overwinds - everyone gets them - it's part of the game!
Bring the Scissors!!
Because of the absolute inevitablility of Overwinds in learning how to cast, one should shop carefully for
mainline. Buy the cheaper brands of line to practice your casting with, and keep the more quality lines for your
proper fishing.
That's fishing!