Bait Cast First Timer

I've been reading many posts made over the past months regarding bait
cast reels, their pro's and con's, and proper technique. Glad I did.

I just treated myself to my first bait cast reel and, based on many of
your suggestions, went with a Shimano Curado. I picked up the Curado
and a BPS Extreme combo for $169. I've been using the Shimano Sahara
spinning reels for some time and like them (one on a BPS Extreme and
one one a BPS Bionic Blade), so it wasn't much of a stretch to go with
this bait cast combo.

For learning purposes I had the reel loaded with 17lb mono. I
positioned all of the plastic "active brakes" to the on position,
grabbed about a 1/2 ounce worth of plastic bait, and headed to the
pond behind my house for some casting practice. Someone should have
had a movie camera running because that's when the comedy began.

I remembered someone mentioning the cast control knob and that it
should be adjusted such that the lure gently falls to the
ground/water/floor when the spool is released. Ok, I held the rod up,
released the spool, watched the lure fall quickly to the ground, and
then watched my first overrun! Uh, gee, maybe I should have had my
thumb on the spool just in case the cast control was too loose?

Score so far: 1 overrun - 0 casts to the water.

Now, anyone who grew up on spincast reels knows that the push button
on the reel locks the line when fully depressed - right? And a bait
cast reel probably does the same thing - right? Wrong! So I push the
clutch bar, swing the rod behind me and discover the lure impacting
the bank behind me. Plus, you know it, of course the spool is spinning
and creating the second overrun.

Score so far: 2 overruns - 0 casts to the water.

While I have been using nothing but spinning reels for a while, they
don't have the push button/clutch bar, so there has been nothing to
erase my spincast memory of thumb timing. While I now had the "clutch
bar does not lock the spool" code broken, the release timing was whole
other lesson to learn.

On my second attempt at making a cast I had my thumb positioned to
depress the clutch bar and instantly contact the spool, thus holding
it from rotating. I made a beautiful overhead cast, letting go of the
spool about the same time in the swing that I would have let go of the
button on the spincast reel - and made resounding thumb on the ground
with the lure just a few feet in front of me! You know what happens
to the spool when the lure stops like that? Right, it keeps going. I
did react with my thumb but was still looking out over the water for a
fraction of a second, expecting to see the lure flying across the
water, and didn't quite react in time.

Sore so far: 3 overruns - 0 casts to the water.

Had that cast gone just another foot or so, I would have made the
water! The next cast was about 10 feet longer and I'd finally made the
water.

Fortunately, I'm not totally inept and was making some very good casts
before heading back to the house about an hour later. I only had one
more overrun and caught it in time to make it a small one. The hardest
part to get through my head was how early in the cast you need to
release the spool.

Just thought I'd share this to ease the frustration of others new to
bait cast reels. For me, it's the lake tomorrow and then, after I've
built my confidence with this monofilament, some better line. I'll bet
some of the super braids will cast further.

Are the braided lines more problematic regarding cutting in or
overruns?

JimC