fishwizzard

It's all anecdotal evidence, but the reddit BFS sub has be steadily building members and twice in '20-21 has someone commented on it by name when I am using a casting combo for fishing park ponds for stocked trout, in previous years it's was just "how are you casting an inline spinner on that thing?!?", now at least a few guys seem to be familiar with the idea of UL/BFS casting. Daiwa tried to sell a BFS reel in the US, the Pixy R-Type, a decade ago, but the price was very high, I think Dobyns and now Shimano have it right by starting at the lower end of the market where it's less of a gamble to give the style a try.

Mine is a Kuying Teton UL, 1-4g lure rating. It's a 100% noodle, but I have managed to land a few 1-2lb bass on it. I mostly use it for trout and white perch, but a few times I year I take it out for wading for smallies and it's a blast, even a little 12" can bend the rod almost in half.

I set the drag on most reels via the highly scientific method of "can just barely pull line with it held between my thumb and index finger". For most reels my thumb rests on the spool and I clamp down to add pressure at the hookset and then as needed when fighting a fish. For some larger reels where my thumb isn't in an ideal position I do add a lot more drag, usually setting it to the equally accurate "can just barely pull line with it wrapped round my thumb two times".

I have had to pay for a repair on a JDM reel that would have been covered by warranty a single time, a bad pinion gear on an old Zillion SV. But I have saved like 5 times that much buying JDM reels, so it still works out to a better deal.

Bearing in mind that I haven’t had a real good fish on yet, I would say if the power is probably a little greater than a MC Light. Because of the tip it’s going to be strictly an open water rod for me and I would feel confident in controlling any fish that can’t instantly snap 6lb mono. Taper is too hard to tell, it’s my first solid tip rod and I don’t know what to expect. The 1/2lb monster only just started loading the midsection and but even when holding the rod dead still, the turbo-dinks could jump and thrash all they wanted and the tip kept tension on. I am dying to know whether or not I can get reasonable hook sets with the lighter t-rig plastics, an open hook-only rod isn’t super useful to me for my bass fishing, but it’s looking like close to my ideal kayak inshore rod.

Took the Dobyn's UL out today after work, spoiler alert, 20mph winds are not super great for finesse fishing. I hit up a pond that got stocked on Wednesday with the idea of trying it out on some trouts. Threw a 3.5g spoon a round for a bit but had no takers. The rod loaded and cast it pretty well, but with the wind I had the brakes up high and was taking it really easy. I couldn't feel the spoon wiggling, but didn't really expect to. I changed to a 1/8oz jighead w/ 3" grub and found a nice wind-blown corner. Got into a school of tiny tiny bass and managed 19 of them in like 45min with 6 in a row being the record. The grub+head did as good in the wind as it did in my yard, very respectable distance even when casting parallel to the wind. It was hard to get any idea about the rod's sensitivity or hookseting power due to the wind but I managed to hook and land every hit I was able to detect. None of the bass were big enough to really load the rod much past the tip, hopefully the weather will be better tomorrow and I can try to get a few on the t-rigged grub and see what this thing can do.

Don’t forget the heavy rains on Wednesday, making any small, sheltered spots super high and turbid!

The conflicting “Ned Rig” definitions strike again! I do agree that trying to pull my 1/8oz headed grub across my reasonably trimmed lawn wasn’t working, but I do think a MWF-Style (1/32-1/16oz head, #2-4 thinwire hook, like ~3/16oz total presentation weight) is going to be right in this rod’s wheelhouse. This is one of the main presentations I am hoping to use with the rod, total weigh is just under 1/4oz. Hook is an Owner 1/0 Twistlock, I also have other hooks to try, Owner 1/0 Finesse Twistlocks, which are shorter, a little deeper, and a little thinner.

Right out of the tube, I like any rod where I can get my finger on the blank when palming it. Balance with the Alphas is right in the middle of the locking nut, completely perfect. I only tried two lures, a t-rigged 3: Senko (~1/8oz) and a grub on a 1/8oz jighead (~1/4oz). Line is 6lb Supernatural. Both lures cast well, but the grub really flew out there. All my casts were pulling to the right, but I assume that is the solid tip messing with me. The tip is super soft and crazy thin, it is going to be nerve racking the first time I get a good fish on. What remains to be seen is if it's powerful enough to give good hooksets on the little t-rigged plastics and the jigheads at the end of a long cast. The rod has a lot of power in it's backbone but I don't know how that tip is going to be with hooksets. It seems like it's going to be overkill for stocker trout and white perch, but we shall see about that as well. One of my after work ponds got stocked yesterday, so hopefully tomorrow I can test it out on trouts and basses. The only downside so far is the cork, it's approaching "why bother?" bad, I wish they just did the entire thing in composite/rubberized and give up on the real thing.

I do a lot of bank fishing and spend part of each winter walking my spots and looking for cover/structure that is normally hidden due to sav or water clarity. I try to take a picture with a good landmark in the background when I find something good. The issue, of course, is remembering to “favorite” the pictures so I can find them again.

I think they have brought the 722c and 723c back in the IMX Pro line, but not the rest of the models.

Nope, at some point yesterday the tracking changed to it arriving by EoD tomorrow. Which is annoying as I have a little road trip thing happening tomorrow that will take me past dozens of spots where I could slay some white perch, which is one of the main things I bought the dumb rod for!

That is a very crafty way to make screw-in weights.

imho that rod is all you really need for about any presentation with a total weight from 1/4-3/4oz, which frees you up to go to a more powerful rod for the second one. If you like the PA you have, the 7'4" H/RF rod is supposed to be a great GP Heavy. If you can track one down, the Megabass Hyuga 72H is a really versatile Heavy as well.

The original Midwest Finesse "Ned rig" is as fast as any cast-n-crank presentation and was literally designed to cover a lot of water quickly.

I broke down and ordered the 7'4" model, it should arrive this Wednesday. That video of the taper has me way more excited than I was when I bought it.

Hahah, oh man, that is so so close. I am going to save those pictures to help explain to people at work that a drawing is just an approximation of reality and not 100% the truth.

I "invented" alcoholic whipped cream at a party in 2001. It was super gross and I was shocked when I saw it in stores a decade later. In terms of fishing, I have gotten into fishing a frog with a snap to increase walking ease, waiting for that one to hit mainstream.

I snell straight shank hooks most of the time but always on hooks w/o a keeper, the knot itself seems to help hold the worm in place.

Imho the Hedgehog Air BFS bearings do make a noticeable difference when casting really light presentations, so long are you are running the reel more or less wide open. Once I start adding braking/spool tension, the gap between them and flushed/oiled stock bearings drops a lot. They also make a hell of a racket on the cast.

https://japantackle.com/special/shimano-21slxbfs.html I have not looked into when they’re supposed to hit stores.

I weigh pretty much every lure/plastic/whatever as soon as I buy it or rig it up. I have a pile of combos so knowing the weight of a given presentation helps narrow the field a bit before I move onto the yard testing phase.

Hah, same boat here. I was looking at the SLX BFS as I would like something to use instead of my Pixies in brackish rivers.

Does it share a frame with any of the other Curdos? It looks smaller then the DC model.

From that list, I would pick Invisx due to it being supple but not super stretchy. That being said, I use the slightly stiffer 12lb Sniper on my mostly-dedicated senko rod because I like to buy line in bulk and Sniper fits my other needs better.