A couple pointers I have is either the magnetic or the centrifugal brakes work to eliminate backlash at the beginning of the cast, and the spool tension knob will help to eliminate backlash at the end of the cast.
I really prefer the centrifugal brakes because they don't affect the spool speed during the whole cast like magnetic brakes do. In short, magnets can limit distance.
I also just use my thumb to slow the spool near the end of the cast before the bait reaches the water. I do that mainly because I got tired of messing with the spool tension for different baits, and losing the knob
One area I will differ on that the prevalent opinion is in using braid instead of Mono. If all I could use was mono on a baitcaster, I would get rid of them. Braid is so much easier to use because in the line sizes you need to keep the line from burying itself into the spool, causing more backlashes btw, it takes on a coil that really makes it hard to work with. Whenever you get a backlash with mono, it kinks like crazy, and you wind up cutting a bunch of it off just to get fishing again. Braid won't do that unless you really screw things up.
