Should I be looking at BFS?

[JustJames]

15 minutes ago, cyclops2 said:

There are many benefits to using a spinning setup. Average person will cast farther without spool tangles with or without wind. Cold temperatures causing bait casting reel with a small diameter and narrow spool to have  more stiff coils to tangle with mono.  There is NO CASTING  DRAG ADJUSTMENT .   Learning curve of spinning is always shorter with a spinning setup. My observations with loads of school children who never casted anything.

I remember volunteering to help kids first fish at a pond. Each kid would need 6 rods & 5 guys clearing the spools.  For just 1 child.  Almost every toss by a child was a tangle.

I totally agree and been doing that with my friends or my wife when they wanna fish with me, why because that don’t have enough experience with baitcaster. The thing is, this is not a thread about which one is better but specifically for Baitcasters with light lure. Just like if OP want to eat chicken but you told him to eat steak? 

[WC53]

I just like baitcasters better, it is a more relaxed fishing for me. Streams or kayak salt creeks. I can cast one handed, with either hand. I do carry a spinner on windy days or for a popping cork.

i got away from casters for a few decades, but have returned to them in retirement. Just more enjoyable for me.

Going from a Curado 70 to the bfs. The lighter spools make such a difference. I might try a new spool in a standard size reel to see what it does.

As was said, different strokes, just looking for a different rod choice.  If I am throwing a trout magnet, I will be using anspinner.

[scbassin]

Kazact95 I have read thru post & will state this.  I don't have a BFS reel & did not even know they make a BFS rod. I will say this, You mention a BFS Sierra rod I have never heard of it but have a couple of Dobyns Sierra SA 683 C rods rigged with Shimano Scorpion 71 XG casting reels that I fish weightless Zoom lizards & 5" Senkos with no problem what so ever. I also bottom fish with 3/16 & 1/4 oz. Texas,  Carolina rigs,  jigs, spinnerbaits. Every once in a while I'll go as high as 3/8 oz. The rod is rated from 1/4 to #/4 oz. lures. I have no problem with any of the rigs I mentioned above. If I want to use a 1/8 oz weight or a split shot I use spinning gear. I hope this helps you some.

[bulldog1935]

just a heads up - he may not see this unless you give him an @kazact95...

It's a big board, and threads don't always get followed on p3

[Mary Jane Young]

Hello Guys
I use the F0st-66X SIGLETT and conquets bfs and when fighting the most valiant fish, which is salmon, I am extremely pleased because the rod is super responsive to the powerful salmon rushes. I had a salmon well over 100 cm (25 inch) on this set, during the fight I bent the handle in the calcutta but I had a bad position and the fish went behind the bridge pillar and the braid rubbed through.

[bulldog1935]

@Mary Jane Young welcome and thanks for posting. 

Great kype on that fella. 

Now you have an excuse to buy a custom power handle. 

This is Livre SB with a swap to EF30(mm) knob.

[Mary Jane Young]

Hi
I'm dreaming of a wooden crank, hand-made, but there's a problem with wood, I don't have access to noble species. I very much dislike the one sided crank ot it does not fit me. I need some experience with writing post sorry

[bulldog1935]

@Mary Jane Young

The Japanese offer many nice handles, certainly double handles, and nice resin-impregnated wood knobs.  Unfortunately OOS, but you might watch for Rorolure.com to restock their very nice and cost-effective wood paddle knobs. 

 

Shimano Yumeya will offer nice handles for your reel, also wood knobs. 

Daiwa S and Shimano A share a common knob spindle and swap knobs. 

Daiwa and Shimano baitcasters are different keys at the handle nut - 7 mm for Shimano, and 8 mm for Daiwa. 

 

I just have this one example to show, a Karin-kobu knob on my buddy's Tica

[JeepFisher]

On 1/14/2022 at 9:52 AM, bulldog1935 said:

@WC53

Possibly, but it will throw the 1/8 oz to 150' - that likely depends more on the reel. 

Fishing 1/8 oz across this tide pass, I was thumbing the reel to keep it out of my friends - this photo is at max zoom.  We were on stacked snook this morning. 

I'm set up for UL lures with the Japanese Yamaga Blanks 82/B - it will throw the 1/16 oz to 140'.  Extreme fun, but a mid-grade price, powerful butt, and even though the mid is fast, it's so long that it bends a lot with big fish - even rat reds. 

13Fishing offers the Omen Green in 7'7" ML, which is rated 1/8-3/8 oz, but may throw the 1/16 better with your Curado. 

I brought up the 7'1' ML because it does everything you wished in your post. 

Snook on a bfs setup? I wouldn't have thought to try that.  What line do you use?

[bulldog1935]

@JeepFisher

Hi friend,

I use PE#0.8 X-braid - YGK, Duel, Varivas - 15-lb test. 

My leader is 12-lb - YGK V12 or Seaguar Grand Max. 

Titanium bite trace, hoping to make it through gill plates, Dragon Brand (Poland) or Mako (Ukraine), 6 kg (13-lb). 

This is on my Yamaga Blanks BCIII-82/B, and an 18" snook is a riot - this one is hopping off the table, and went right back into the channel. 

 

Our slot is remarkably narrow, 25-28" - I did fillet one to try it once, they're wonderful. 

 

I've broken off, or more likely gill-plate cut a couple of over-slot fish. 

I'm going back this winter armed for the bigs.  Shore micro-jigging rod, rated 3 g to 28 g, 20-lb leader, and my custom finesse 4500CT - already proved the rod on slot reds this fall.  Going up to PE#1, 24-lb, and 16-lb V12 leader. 

 

Imitating winter glass minnows under the nite-lites - of course you catch the snook in the dark outside of the lights and parallel to the docks.  We've seen 20 snook stacked and loitering on our dock piles. 

Our bread and butter are schoolie male specs that sweep the dock lights lining the navigation channel all night.  Last winter overnight stringer for 3 limits/fishers - only kept injured 16s, and Susie's 25" male spec. 

Suzie's big male made two 50-yd runs, first across the channel, then along the docks. 

Riotous finesse fishing, and good eats. 

 

[JeepFisher]

Wow, many thanks for all of the details.  I'm looking on setting up my first bfs setup now, but I do fish for snook and juvi tarpon several times a year on vacation and visits to family in Florida. Tight lines!

[bulldog1935]

@JeepFisher

A good and frugal rod to look for in Japan are Abu Garcia Salty Style and Salty Stage. 

The Salty Stage Kurodai rods (black sea perch) are aimed right at inshore-size redfish and snook. 

They're fast taper, wide-lure range with a soft tubular or solid tip rated down to 1.5 to 3 g, and up to 15 to 20 g. 

This "Prototype" 7'3" that I picked for kayak salt finesse fishing has a tiny marking shield on the handle...

At 80 g, it's almost as light as Yamaga Blanks. 

The 82/B is the only Yamaga BFS choice - the shorter bait rods are too light. 

Abu has really gone crazy on salt bait finesse, offering a dozen models to fit anything, and half the price of Y/B.  Though you will never hear me complain about my Y/B rods - they're jewels and out-distance every other rod made. 

spinning

 

We're on our sixth winter (and 8th trip) to the Arroyo Colorado barge channel in far S. Texas, though I was salt finesse fishing piers and docks at night for a dozen years before that with my daughters and inexpensive rockfish rods bought on Rakuten.   We were catching nursery specs for kidfish, 40 in the hour after sunset, but when I sight-fished 22" and 23" specs in summer canals, discovered they had the backbone for big fish. 

Way back - when I was a teenager fishing bay tackle, popping cork and live shrimp from a lighted dock for specs - I witnessed my first salt finesse master.  I caught a few fish, but he caught 40 or 50 throwing a tandem rig with 1/16-oz jigs and crawling retrieve. Big fish sipping tiny bait won't expend much energy to eat, and everything is light touch.