i own two spinning reals and have been fishing for most of my life and i was thinking about trying a baitcaster? do these work good for fishing with walleye, pike and bass? just looking to try something new without spending a whole lot of cash? any suggestions

I ues a couple of them for bass and trolling for walleye. If you get one practice alot in the yard.

i would recomend a baitcaster if you do a lot of casting. you can cast easily 2x farther with a bait caster. i use my baitcaster for musky.

what would you guys recommend for a beginners bait caster? something arounnd 100$ and can i use my other rods that i use spinning reals with a baitcasting real?

i have an Abu Garcia 6600 CB that i use for musky's, it works great for me i had no problems with it and it is easy to use. i would think you would need to buy a different rod. I have a Cabelas's fishing pole that is rated 1/2-3 ounce baits. it works great for throwing bucktails and most medium size baits.

do i need a different rod?

Yes you need at least a Medium action to Medium Heavy action casting rod. Also some 10-14 pound line, preferably flourocarbon. Check out basspro.com they have 100-150 dollar entry level combos.

you dont absolutely need to get a different rod i learned to use a bait caster on a spinning rod. but if you can afford to get a casting rod it will deff make things alot easier on you. for a reel you should go with one that has a good centrifugal breaking system it will help with reducing your backlashes. get one that has two ways to adjust your spool. one that you can adjust to get a general tightness on the spool and the second one is usually a numbered dial this helps with adjusting the spool tension at different times durring the cast it mostly affects the end of the cast. another thing that you should prob get is a good baitcast pick they help alot when you get those pesky backlashes. the biggest problem people have when starting out using a baitcaster is they dont know how to adjust the spool tension correctly. what you should do is once you have a lure tied on hold the rod 4 or 5 feet over the water and press the button and let the lure fall to the water. you should have the spool adjusted so that the lure falls at a steady pace but the spool doesnt backlash when the lure hits the water. this adjustment should be made with the spool tensioning nob that is usually behind the handle. to start out put the numbered dial on 4 or 5 and slowly decrease the tension on it as you become better with casting.

you will deff become frustrated at times when learning to use a baitcaster but once you have it figured out you will love it. you will be able to cast farther and more accurately and you will have more power when it comes to crank big baits fast or pulling a big fish out of the cover.


oh almost forgot another problem that some people have with baitcasters is that they dont know how much line to put on the reel. for optimal performance you should have the lined filled to about an 1/8 of an inch from the top of the spool. to much line will cause more backlashes and not enough line will cause the casting distance to drop.

hope this helps let me know if you need any more help

I say bait caster, they are awesome to use once you know how to. I practiced for hrs in the yard until I got it after a lot of knotting. lol

spinning right now. looking at a quantum baitcaster cause there 50 bucks off.