BFS questions

[Cgolf]

So for those that are getting into this, the main question I have is how do you achieve a perfectly vertical drop if fishing with something like a Ned rig? I fish a lot of vertical cover and need the bait to land under where the cast hit the water and my experience with baitcasters is the spool drag causes the bait to pendulum a bit away from the target. 
 

also what action rods are you looking at, as I have a soft tipped medium ugly stick that fishes lighter than most mediums I have. Also what weight jigs do you toss with it. My quick research says up to 1/4 ounce lures, which I toss 1/4 ounce cranks a lot on BCs, I do know a bandit 100 isn’t a finesse bait. 
 

my guess is the vertical cover is going to rule out BFS because the rod won’t have enough backbone to keep the big ones from wrapping me around a reed. You can watch the big fish attempt and many times succeed at doing this. 

[bulldog1935]

I would say you get a better vertical drop and no pendulum with BFS compared to a heavier deep-spool baitcaster with a mass of mono or fluoro.   Even fishing light weights.  If you're fishing X-braid, it's so fine there's no hydraulic drag, even though the fine braid doesn't naturally sink.  The spool feeds just what you need on the drop without overrun. 

You use so much less brake with BFS because of the low mass and low inertia of the spool.

It moves on a breath, it brakes on a breath. 

 

My bass BFS rod is fast and has a stout butt.  The tip is so fast, you wouldn't guess it's capable of casting 1/16 oz.  It's important not to high-stick it if you want to use the butt power on a fish.  The action is medium, and Valleyhill calls it RF for regular fast.  I fish up to the rated 5/8 oz sinking and diving plugs on this rod, in addition to finesse spinnerbaits and Neds. 

Unfortunately, it's OOS everywhere I looked, and there are a couple of ebay scalpers. 

 

 

Different (much longer) rod and even lighter spool, but with my salt BFS, I fish 2.8-g sinking plugs in the basement (nite-lite fishing on a navigation channel, imitating winter glass minnows). 

 

@Cgolf since it was brought up below, stream trout rods are another animal that uses the same reel.  They're delightful in their place - in fact, the sinking plugs I'm using on salt BFS for winter glass minnows were intended for stream trout fishing. 

 

If you're patient on JDM hunt, you can find MM bass BFS rods with the wide lure range of my Valleyhill - I'd say they're worth the hunt for your bass niche.  The way I first found my Valleyhill was going through the entire Asian Portal bass/casting rod inventory by maker - I had it narrowed down to 3 rods and chose the Valleyhill - no need to look back. 

[FryDog62]

I use a 7’1” Light-Fast Phenix Feather, and a Daiwa Alphas Air TW with 7 lb Sniper.  Can drop most weights down vertically with a light tension/brake setting and some thumb.  Best of all, much less line twist than a spinning combo. 

[Tatulatard]

2 hours ago, Cgolf said:

So for those that are getting into this, the main question I have is how do you achieve a perfectly vertical drop if fishing with something like a Ned rig? I fish a lot of vertical cover and need the bait to land under where the cast hit the water and my experience with baitcasters is the spool drag causes the bait to pendulum a bit away from the target. 
 

also what action rods are you looking at, as I have a soft tipped medium ugly stick that fishes lighter than most mediums I have. Also what weight jigs do you toss with it. My quick research says up to 1/4 ounce lures, which I toss 1/4 ounce cranks a lot on BCs, I do know a bandit 100 isn’t a finesse bait. 
 

my guess is the vertical cover is going to rule out BFS because the rod won’t have enough backbone to keep the big ones from wrapping me around a reed. You can watch the big fish attempt and many times succeed at doing this. 

Don't have any spool tension. There should be enough slack line on the cast to allow for a vertical fall.  If you want more you can just push the thumb bar and the bait will peel line off the super lightweight spool.  I do all my neds and drop shots on casting gear.  

Also a true bfs rod is going to have enough power to move a bass around cover.  The key is to get a rod meant for bass and not a trout casting rod.

[walleyecrazy]

While not always possible, my usual way of achieving a vertical fall with a bait caster is to pull the rod tip back just before the lure hits the water. Then as soon as it hits the water I point the rod back at the bait. This creates immediate slack in the line which lets the bait fall on a slack line.