Mag Reels

[phish]

I have always regarded beach fishing as something that people who get seasick on boats have to do ...Just kiddin

I've never really done any serious beach fishing and as a result cant really cast too well. A good friend who was a regular beach fisherman died recently and left me his tackle.

So I have been having a play with a beachcaster and reel over on some local playing fields which tend to be deserted in the evenings.

This is where the story really starts....the reel is an Abu mag which apparantly has both magnetic and centrifugal braking?

What I wondered was which works when and why?

I have seen tourny guys fiddling with magnet control during the leads flight and it looks like they are winding the magnets out so I guess the magnetic bit is for the beginning of the cast?

Any info would be gratefully received.

[Purple]

Not a multi man myself - but as I understand it ......

The first second or so of the cast puts the rods power into accelerating the lead, and the reel can get a bit excited and run faster than line once the lead speed has settled. The mags kick in and stop this "over run", after which a competition caster will back the mags off by hand to reduce resistance.

The competition casters take this to the extreme, whereas most ordinary beach casters will set the reel up before the cast, and leave it alone after that.

The alchemy of "tuning" reels I will leave to others to explain .....