Determination pays off...

[jasonfish320]

since the weather has been nasty this week I decided to buckle down and learn how to skip using a baitcaster...I am lucky enough to have a large stream that flows right past my house to practice on, it has a ton of overhang which works out well for dialing in this mythical skill. The setup that I found worked best: Daiwa Megaforce reel and a 6'6" MH action rod.

REEL SETTINGS: The painstaking work of clearing birdsnest after birdsnest gets a little irritating, but Kevin's video really saved me a lot of time in this regard. The reel settings that I found worked best for me where to have the tension knob backed way off to free spool, then turn your brakes up, on the megaforce my setting was on 5-7...

CAST: The cast that I found worked really well was a side arm, I use this cast the majority of the time anyway because it's a quick snap of the wrist, low projectory and little splashdown. The difference with the skip is to make a circle as you follow through with your sidearm...start at 12 O'clock and as you move clockwise with your stroke release at about 9 O'clock and continue to lift your pole tip slowly as the bait skids across the surface...

THUMB: This is probably the most difficult part of the process, you really have to have a feel for the spool and just put enough tension on the line to let it continue its course without impeding the distance. If you have been using a caster for a while you can probably get the hang of this fairly quickly.

LINE: I noticed that skipping with a caster is brutal on the line, I had 10lb mono spooled on my megaforce and after about an hour or so of practice it finally snapped off inside the reel, not sure if it was from the many birdsnests that tangled up or the aggressive nature of the cast and the line rubbin on the guides...also, might note that the line has been on this reel for 2 seasons...I'm thinking that braid wouldn't be a bad choice to pull those hawgs out from under docks and hard to reach places, but flouro will probably be my first choice

AFTER-THOUGHTS: I've always wanted to learn how to make this cast and so far I can skip about 30-40 feet which should be plenty to get deep under docks, I know that spinning gear is probably the best tool for the job, but I'm thinking that having a casting rig will help me pull more fish out of cover and make it easier to adjust my cast since I use mostly baitcasters and usually have only 2 spinning reels rigged up