Ken Estes: Hi! My name is Ken Estes, fishing expert here at L.

L.

Bean in Freeport, Maine. Today, we would like to talk a little bit about casting with a spin rod.

What I have here is a basic spin rod outfit in my hand and when you get ready to cast, you are going to hold it in the appropriate hand whether you are left or right handed, I happens to be left-handed, so in my left hand.

What I am going to do is I am simply going to pick up the line with my index finger, I am going to open the bail with the right hand. I am going to bring the rod back and when I make my cast, I am going to release the line with my index finger and make the cast. When that is done and the lure has hit the water, I am going to close to bail either manually or turn the handle of the reel and that will also trip the bail close. We can do a couple of different kinds of cast. We can do side arm or over hand, just whatever is comfortable for the individual.

Varying the rate of our retrieve is going to determine where the lure travels within the water column with most lures. There are lures out there that had diving lips on them and that's going to make them dive deeper. But as a general rule, spinners and lures such as that are going to be affected by the rate of retrieve. As we can see here when I cast out, I do a very fast rate of retrieve and you can see how my lure stays up on the surface.

On our next retrieve, you will see how that when we slow down our retrieve, our lure sinks lower in the water column. And you can also give the lure a steady slow retrieve or steady fast retrieve or you can take the rod and twitch the tip of the rod and impart different actions to the lure.

You want to mix things up as you progress through your fishing day in order to find the fish. You want to explore that water column by mixing up your retrieve.

These are some of the basic techniques you can use to get started spin fishing.