Casting Bass Pro's Ocean Master 12' Rod!

Casting Practice Using A Newell 338 "Blackie" Conventional Reel!

I've added 2 Heavy rated surf casters to my shoreline arsenal. Bass Pro's Ocean Masters. Both are at 12ft, takes 20-50lb line & rated at 6-12oz. This one is for Conventional reels, the other for Spinners but the stats are still the same.

I'm going to use a Newell 338-F "Blackie" spooled with +400yd of Suffice 80lb braid on this rod for practice today. I'll demonstrate how to "thumb" the side spool, not the line. Problem using braid for casting is it's much thinner then monofilament line. So on a 80-100yd average cast it's hard to "thumb" the side spool because the line level is still high. If spooled with mono more surface area of the side spool is shown as mono line is much thicker then braid & the lines level on the spool would be lower.

You could top shot the reel with mono but i elected to go all braid. Also when casting braid be sure to keep constant pressure on the spool so the braid won't "bunch" up. If this happens knotting will occur. The reason i used all braid was i needed the yardage for the fish i target. Also you can cast farther using braid over mono because the thinner diameter has less air resistance. But braid won't stretch like mono & braid cuts easier then mono.

I'll also demonstrate the usage of leather finger/thumb protector pads. These are meant for archers but works great for casting. Back in the day we cut bicycle inner tubes to cover our thumbs. Love them! Also i'll show the cheap screws to mount a bracket to your Newell reel. I spent less then a dollar for a pair. Original OEM bracket screws average around $10 a pair. These are stainless steel.

So far the last 2-months has been bad here in Hawaii. Storms. Oahu & Kauai has been hit hard this past week. Water is mud so i practice while inter-changing the combinations to perfect a rig that'll bring out the best features of both rods & reels.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NMPJTJLtrPw