BFS rods

[ItsHardwick]

So I’ve been bitten by the BFS bug. I recently bought a Shimano Aldabaran BFS hg. It’s amazing, I never imagined throwing 1/16 ounce baits on a baitcaster. I have 20# braid on it now and it works great, thinking of going down to 10#. Currently it rests on a Bass Pro Shops carbonlite 2.0 that is 6’6” ML fast. The rod is pretty much a noodle. I also have a Zodias ML that has much more backbone and is really more like a medium. 

 

Anyways...... down to what I came for. 

 

I want to upgrade rods. The zodias is going to be too heavy I think and I don’t particularly like the white of the carbonlite, plus I’ve become a bit of a JDM snob. I’ve looked at some shimano and major craft rods in Light and Ultralight. I think I’ll probably go for a light in the 6’4” to 6’10” range. Ultralight is probably overkill, I’m not trying to throw trout magnets or anything, just small bass/crappie baits in the 1/16ish range for some finicky pressured fish we have here. 

 

Anyone been down this road before? Have any recommendations? I just really don’t know where or what I need to be looking/searching for. 

[ItsHardwick]

@BaitFinesse Thank you so much for the info and thoughtful answer. I was hoping you would chime in. Good to know about the UL, I was thinking more like UL panfish spinning rods and thinking what could I do with that lol. I’ve never actually held an UL casting rod so I didn’t really have anything to go off. 

[The Bassman]

There's some good deals on JDM Zodias on E-Bay. They're two piece but you'd never know it. Lighter actions than available US. You probably won't have to pay duties because of being packaged shorter.

[JustJames]

First of all, if you target for Ned rig 1/16oz with 1/2 zinkerz you don’t need BFS for that my Crucial Medium 1/8 - 3/8 with stock Curado 70 or sv 105 can handle that just fine.

Now back to your question, I also have 2 of majorcraft L 6.5 (go emotion) and 6.7(benkei) I use this a lot targeting crappies with crappie jig 1/16oz and baby shad, and also use these for finesse fishing for bass. The backbone is pretty good can handle 3-4lbs bass easily but the tip is not soft at all. If you don’t plan to cast a long way or go below 1/16oz the L would serve you well for bass and panfish. Imagine you have a true BFS reel where as mine just regular reel with shallow spool, your should perform even better.

I also in market for UL rod targeting panfish alone for 1/32oz jig head, I’d prefer majorcraft but end up got two of the cheap Chinese Tsurinoya Proflex ii 6’3 and Dexterity 7’2. These two rods is perfect for panfish with soft solid tip that help playing with paper thin mouth, and can handle my target weight just fine. It might not be good for bass on hook set, I don’t know have caught bass with it, but I have broke the tip (solid tip) on my Daiwa Tatula MXB before.

I have been fishing a lot for crappies the last month, didn’t even care much for bass lol.

Check out these clip for action of both rod.

 

[CrankFate]

If I were in this situation, I’d go with the new Shimano Poison Adrena Rods. I’d go with one of them now, except I just got 4 more rods and 4 more reels ? ? ?