Help with Musky gear for youngster

Years ago I bought about 25 used musky baits and two rod and reel setups from a guy that was selling all his fishing gear. Over the years I’ve tried fishing Muskies maybe twice per year, with no success. On Sunday night, I decided to go out and give it a try and much to my suprise, my 10 year old son wanted to come with (he typically loses patience with fishing pretty quick, so I don’t push him). He’s never handled a baitcaster, a long rod, or Musky tackle before, so I was a bit skeptical how this was going to go down. After some instruction and a few short casts to try to get the hang of the baitcaster, his 3rd huck was a good one, and I decided I’d leave him at if for awhile and go to fishing in the front of the boat. I no sooner than hurled my bait out and he starts yelling that he’s got a fish on. Without looking I said “no son; that’s just weeds” as I realized we’d drifted into the shallow weed bed. He replied “no dad; it’s a fish and it’s jumping!”. Turns out he’s got a Northern on his first real cast with Musky tackle, so now he’s HOOKED! He wants to go every day! My question is……The two Musky setups I’ve got have older Shimano Corsair baitcasters that are quite finiky when it comes to backlash, etc, and over the evening he was struggling with them. About every 4 casts or so, I’d have to go to the back of the boat and remove some minor backlash. I was hoping some here might have good advice for gear (reel, line, rod and tackle) that might be easier for a little guy to handle as he’s learning.

Tighten up your brake on it. He won’t be able to cast as far, but you’ll have a lot less backlashes. That might help until he gets a little handier, then you can loosen it up a little at a time. Before you know it, he’ll be outcasting you!!

I think pretty much any baitcaster is going to have that issue. I’d just teach him how to use it… casting brake, drag, etc., and let him untangle all but the worst of any backlashes. It can be hard to let kids do things for themselves, but they always seem to surprise you.

make sure the reel has good line on it. i change mine every year at least. if u need new line i like the new spiderwire stealth 80lb. i always hated spiderwire on spincasters but the stealth is the best superline i have used. it has no memory, strong, and picks up almost no water and is easy to cast. usually when i put on new line i have to break it in. i get a bunch of birdsnests when i break in the line but not on the spiderwire it’s awesome no birdsnest yet this year! knock on wood. if u are looking for a new reel all i can say is get a shimano not an abu. hope the youngster can land a big one.

I always fill my reels as much as i can. That way once it starts spining out of control there isn’t much room for that line to go and your backlash’s arn’t as bad. Now that the kids into it you might want to pick up a second job to pay for the added equipment….lol.

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Tighten up your brake on it. He won’t be able to cast as far, but you’ll have a lot less backlashes. That might help until he gets a little handier, then you can loosen it up a little at a time. Before you know it, he’ll be outcasting you!!

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Bingo

Very cool that your son got to hook a fish so fast, its things like this that will keep him wanting more. Good luck and post back when he sticks his first lunge

get yourself some Reel Magic and spray his spool down every so often. it won’t completely alleviate the backlashes, but I’ve found it reduces them and makes em easier to pick out. You also might want to try a smaller low profile bait caster assuming he has smaller hands. They’re kind of pricey, but the Curado 100B would be a good choice for smaller palms and will definitely stand up to a large toothy critter.

Ya, tighten the brake on it and explain he has to start putting thumb pressure on before the lure hits the water, his casts will be shorter, but as he learns how to work his thumb you can loosen the brake a bit.

There’s a learning curve here that usually doesn’t take to long to get resaonably decent on, the occasional birds nest I get from time to time tells me I haven’t mastered it completely yet though.

Patience and teaching should do it for you and him, congrats on taking the young one out btw.

Al

scratch the spiderwire stealth…it sucks. broke on a weed that was odd. that stuff is junk

scratch the spiderwire stealth…it sucks. broke on a weed that was odd. that stuff is junk

scratch the spiderwire stealth…it sucks. broke on a weed that was odd. that stuff is junk