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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.
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