Baitcasting is Kicking My Butt!

After decades of fishing spinning gear and my recent successes at learning to cast a flyline and tenkara rods, I have slowly been trying my hand at baitcasting. Nothing like a overspun sourced birdsnest to bring you back down to earth. But hey - practice makes perfect and you can only get better if you try and try and try again. At one point as I was practicing by casting a 1/8 ounce weight I was getting good distance despite completely missing my target (hard left every time). At least I wasn't spinning a birdnest. Weight on the lure and setting the brake for the weight of the lure seemed to be key to getting better. I figured I should try a lure at the end and see if I could get a fish on - mistake - I got birdnested. Back to square one...