Been thinking about it for some time and after reading article in recent OTW about conventionals I bought an Abu Garcia 6500CL from CCT. I figured I try it out today at the reservoir casting. I don't quite understand the settings on dual brakes. It sounds a little complicated having to change with different lure weights. Also it was mentioned not to start with a longer rod, have you found this to be true. Any advice on the rod length and brake settings would be appreciated, thanks in advance.

Try this, my friend. Tie your lure onto your leader, or line. Depress the line out button, your lure should drop freely, and when it hits the floor, your spool should not run on. I adjust to different weights, to allow the spool to spin freely, but not too fast.
What I do with my Abu's, is to make sure the spool is centered, usually the right knob(knob on the handle side) will be turned in, all the way, and I adjust the spool tension with the left knob.
I use mainly a 10' casting rod with my Abu 6500's, but if you feel more comfortable with a shorter rod, than go for it.
Take short casts at first, get a feel for what you are doing. And always feather the spool with your thumb. And when your plug or lure hits the water, stop the spool with your thumb, turn the handle and release the line out button. As with anything new, just practice.:kewl:

I wrote the article, so I'll try to respond......but I don't want to pretend to be the final authority on conventional casting, there are many others here with equal experience and hopefully they'll add their advice as well.

Take off the side plate and look at the inside of the spool. There will be a centrifugal brake. The new abu's have one with 6 blocks, the older reels two blocks. If you have an old reel start with two blocks, a newer reel start with 3 or 4 engaged (they should click in and out, engaged is out). Put the side plate back on. Hold the spool between your fingers and loosen the right (or left) side tension cap screw (the big knob under the reel handle) until you can feel the spool move or "knock" a tiny bit back and forth side to side. Retighten until that knock is gone, then a tiny bit more. As you cast, if the reel backlashes in mid cast you can tighten this slightly. If everything seems sluggish or slow during the cast, release it slightly.

When you are learning my experience is that a shorter, softer, overloaded rod is best. "Overloaded" is the key here. Short stiff underloaded rods are very hard to cast. Long rods generate a lot of velocity and spool speed, so controlling them is a little harder. It is also much easier to properly load a small rod, then a long one. The faster a rod unloads the more spool speed you will have to deal with. Go with a soft rod, and use a plug/weight that seems to be at its maximum. Keep your swing long and slow and smooth. DON'T try to snap the rod as it passes your head to add power and distance. If using a plug, you want something like a 2.75 oz pencil or 2.5 oz superstrike popper. You are probably better off tossing a 3oz bank sinker at the start (cheaper if you break off).

Once you get the feel down, you can back off on the # of brake blocks engaged (though you'll always want at least one or two), reduce the spool tension, use a longer faster rod. If you have trouble, pm me and I'll try to help. Good luck.

A couple of more things. You don't adjust the reel for the lure weight. You adjust the reel for the rod and your casting stroke. Once it is adjusted, casting light stuff just requires a little more finesse with your thumb and a little more attention to your casting stroke (smooooth).

You can also adjust your reel speed with oil viscosity. Probably unrealistic for a beginner, but a reel like a squidder or newell can be tamed easily by using thicker viscosity oil. Works for Abu's as well, but usually is unnecessary.

Somebody is also bound to point out that Abu's have a "floating" spool and over tightening the end caps will wear out the bearings faster. Technically this is correct (since the tension is transmitted to the bearings rather than the ends of the spool shaft), but in practice don't worry about it. As you learn to cast you'll back off on the tension long before you ruin a bearing (and bearings are cheap regardless).

once you get use to it, you'll only use your spinning gear in special situations. after 20hrs. or so casting, i'll take the reel apart and clean and oil it. do not get oil on the drag system. light coat. use 2 or 3 drops in each snd of the spool. i use 3in1 oil. good luck and enjoy

If we get lucky, maybe there will be another Casting Clinic by Big Dave this spring! I sure could use it.

Thanks for advice. I'll give it a try after I pick up some leaves.