Share Your Bait Cast Finesse System (BFS) Set Up

[ChrisD46]

Who has taken the plunge with the new BFS set up now becoming popular with bait cast rod & reel makers ? List what you have now please (including line and line size) ... Thanks - the Bait Monkey's little brother is after me saying : "The BFS is better than Finesse Spinning" !

[webertime]

Daiwa Fuego CT with diy bfs spool

NFC 663 blank cut to 6'5"

Seaguar 4lb fluoro

[Peacedivision]

~1/4oz and down

22 Aldebaran BFS

Dobyns SUF701C

6lb tatsu FC

Currently has a little 3/16oz pointer jerkbait tied on

 

~1/4oz and up

SLX BFS

Cashion Icon 610Manother siteS

6lb ultragreen mono, copoly? never got a straight answer on what ultragreen is.

Currently throwing a SB77.7 top water

[waymont]

I have two:

Phenix Feather ML, Daiwa Alphas Air TW 8lb original PP to 6lb leader

 

Loomis GLX 842 mbr, Daiwa Alphas Air TW 8lb original PP to 8lb leader

 

im not interested in casting UL lures, my range is 1/16oz Ned to 3/16 shaky head.  Also throw rebel minnows, pop r, 3/16-1/8oz home made beetle spins.

lighter baits on the first combo, and heavier baits on the second.

[bulldog1935]

Most of my bait reels are set up BFS to fish threadline braid, and most aimed at the salt, to fish 1/8 oz down.  Different rods match shore-fishing and kayak-fishing niches.  

Sticking to bass, my go-to rod for our local, deep, no-motors reservoir is Valleyhill ROC-67MMM.  This is a great choice for taking out one rod on 14' kayak, covering from 1/15-oz Neds and finesse spinnerbaits, to mid-weight cranks.  

I can swap several reels in here, and currently have it matched with ZPI Alcance with finesse spool and bearings.  

 

The other place I fish bass is our limestone rivers from a 10' kayak.  Fishing shallower here, it's important the rod has backbone to stop a respectable bass from going under the boat (and running wide on the other side). 

My go-to finesse combo is Smith Plugger reel and 5'6" ML S-glass Super Strike (2 power).  The short rod fits very well in narrow river channels, and skip-casts under cypress overhang.  Bottom-bouncing this 4-g keel spinner on the flagstone is cheating. 

 

I recently added a longer 6'3" graphite Smith rod with the same finesse rating, and matched it with a raced-out Ambassadeur 4500C.  The goal here is longer casts with the same light lures, and this will cast 3 g to 90'

[msgf91]

Daiwa SS Air (the newer one)

ALX Aura 6'10 L

4 lb sniper

 

I heard the ALX had a fat hands grips so I was worried about that. But the benefit so far is there's no reel seat flex under load. I hooked a huge buffalo and didn't notice any flex. 

[garroyo130]

4 hours ago, webertime said:

Daiwa Fuego CT with diy bfs spool

NFC 663 blank cut to 6'5"

Seaguar 4lb fluoro

 

Thanks for posting this! I remembered I have an extra Fuego CT laying around and BFS might be fun to try with it. 

 

Not to hijack, but is there a preferred gear ratio? I have 6.3 and 8.1 gears for the reel available. 

[bulldog1935]

@garroyo130 - my reel with the long handle above is 8.3 gears, which is why I put the long handle on it  

If you go with a low-ratio gear, keep the short handle.  

 

[fishwizzard]

I got bit by the BFS bug early on in my fishing career, I more or less taught myself to cast with a BFS reel.  Don't do this by the way, it's pretty pricy in terms of backlashed line and lost lures. 

 

My current line up is something like this:

 

• MB P5 Bait Finesse/Hien
  • Alphas 800s
  • 10lb Sniper
  • Used for "3/8oz total weight jig/worm stuff" and those little War Eagle spinnerbaits.
• MB P3 Criffhanger
  • Airy Red Pixzilla
  • 7lb Sniper
  • Used for "1/4oz total package weight jig/worm stuff"
• MC Volkey VKC-65UL/BFS

  • Pixzilla 

  • 6lb Supernatural Mono

  • Used for Ned rigs and little paddletails, mostly a wading combo

• MB XXX Black Themis

  • Alphas PX68

  • 7lb Sniper

  • Used for dropshots 

• Loomis CR 721c 

  • Aldebaran 50

  • 11lb defier armilo mono

  • Used for small poppers and open water flukes

• Dobyns 7'4" Ul/Kyung Teaton UL

  • Alphas Air PE Special

  • 6lb J-braid

  • Used for spoons/spinners for trout/perch.  I don't really like either rod and am looking for something else.

I have had maybe a half dozen or so other BFS rods over the years and have a few more BFS/Finesse reels waiting for a rod.  I really prefer the egros of casting combos over spinning ones, thus the collection.  

[QUAKEnSHAKE]

Daiwa T3 with roroX 5g spool has PPsuperSlick 10# braid

Kuying Super Lite 7'6" .6g-10g rated rod

 

Also have a Daiwa SV105 with 7g spool no rod for it as of now.

It has 10# Berkley X5 on it.

  

 

[Maxximus Redneckus]

On 10/20/2023 at 9:12 AM, Peacedivision said:

~1/4oz and down

22 Aldebaran BFS

Dobyns SUF701C

6lb tatsu FC

Currently has a little 3/16oz pointer jerkbait tied on

 

~1/4oz and up

SLX BFS

Cashion Icon 610Manother siteS

6lb ultragreen mono, copoly? never got a straight answer on what ultragreen is.

Currently throwing a SB77.7 top water

Ive got 3 slx xt can i buy bfs spool separate ..

[newapti5]

I am not really into BFS, so I have only one BFS rod - Kuying Teton 662L, rated for 2-10 gram. But I do have two or three BFS reels. One is an old version Alphas Air, and the other is a Gen 3 Abu Revo LTX. Both work fine for casting 2-3 gram lures. I use 10lb Smackdown braid with 6-8lb flouro leader.

[ATA]

My main BFS Setup which I catch lots of fish (Bass/Trout) on it. Calcutta Conquest BFS reel spooled with 15lb test various 100 yards, This line was on it forever and I just change the leader depending on where and what I am fishing for.

The rod is 5'2" m-aire Japanese rod. This is my river combo.

[redmeansdistortion]

I have too many.  Round reels are my jam, so I have a bunch of small Ambassadeurs, a couple of Millionaires, and a '17 Conquest BFS.

 

 

The raced out Millionaire Ringa SSS goes great with the Silver Creek Glass Progressive 5'1" L.  This is a great combo in the creeks.

 

Another of my favorites, 2500C on a Smith Troutin'Spin 6'5" ML.  I use it to throw baits like Hot n Tots and Rapala CD5s and CD7s for steelhead.  This is one of my favorite rods, the wooden grip makes it much tolerable to use in cold weather versus metal.  This is a very well thought out design and is right at home on the smaller rivers in Michigan where I live.

 

 

This is my newest combo; well the reel isn't new but the rod is.  A 6'9" ML Palms Rera Kamuy.  The rod is rated for 3-10g but I've used it quite comfortably in the 14g range.  This rod is faster and has a better backbone than the Smith rod mentioned above, making it better for fishing woody rivers where I have a greater chance of losing a fish to the logjams.  Within the next couple of weeks I'll be out fishing coho and Atlantic salmon with this one.  Line is #1.2 with an 8lb leader.  Spool is an Avail 2540R and the reel has the factory 4.7 gears.

 

Here we have a 1600C IAR on a Daiwa Bass X 6'4" L.  While the Bass X is Daiwa's budget line in Japan, it's a great rod, especially when compared to domestic offerings around the same price point.  I would compare it to a St. Croix both in weight and performance, and at the current exchange rate, it's a bargain and cheap as chips.  I've wrangled everything from white bass to big sheephead (freshwater drum for those of you not in the Great Lakes) on this guy.  I've kept many a Lake St Clair smallmouth from losing me to the reeds with this one.

 

Other rods I own are a Major Craft Finetail Stream 5'0" L, Major Craft Finetail Glass 4'10", Major Craft Troutino 4'10", Kuying Teton 6'6" L, Graywolf 4'11" progressive E-glass, and Daiwa Bass X 6'6" ML.  BFS has become my way of fishing the vast majority of time on the water.  I'm not reaching for the heavier stuff unless I'm chasing king salmon in the rivers.  

 

[Lead Head]

Lightest I throw is a 1/16oz Ned.

I have a fuego CT, and old steez 100 with cheap $15 bfs spools from aliexpress. These spools work great for me after replacing the junk bearings that come on them.

 

 

[Peacedivision]

14 hours ago, Stale KracKer said:

Ive got 3 slx xt can i buy bfs spool separate ..

I don't know if there are aftermarket spools for the regular SLX reels.

[bulldog1935]

16 hours ago, Stale KracKer said:

Ive got 3 slx xt can i buy bfs spool separate ..

 

1 hour ago, Peacedivision said:

I don't know if there are aftermarket spools for the regular SLX reels.

 

https://japantackle.com/tuning-parts/spools-casting-reels/shimano/tu002389.html

Roro makes this 32-mm dia spool that's the only reference to SLX I've found.  

[msgf91]

On 10/20/2023 at 11:45 AM, msgf91 said:

Daiwa SS Air (the newer one)

ALX Aura 6'10 L

4 lb sniper

 

I heard the ALX had a fat hands grips so I was worried about that. But the benefit so far is there's no reel seat flex under load. I hooked a huge buffalo and didn't notice any flex. 

I took the SS Air slabn yesterday. 

[FrnkNsteen]

I haven't dove into the rabbit hole too much yet. I did buy a Dobyns Sierra SUF740c I saw at a local shop and have a '20 Tatula SV on it with a Ray's spool I bought from someone on here and 6lb mono.

 

Played around with it a little bit with light lures, but haven't spent much time with it.

[johnmyers]

Aldebaren BFS, NRX + 842c MBR I am really liking it casting great 1/10 oz jig with 2.75 fat coffee tube. I also have an Expride 6’8” light waiting on another Aldebaren BFS. I wish Loomis would do an NRX + 901c I think it would be perfect with an Aldebaren 

[new2BC4bass]

On 10/21/2023 at 8:39 PM, QUAKEnSHAKE said:

Daiwa T3 with roroX 5g spool has PPsuperSlick 10# braid

Kuying Super Lite 7'6" .6g-10g rated rod

 

Also have a Daiwa SV105 with 7g spool no rod for it as of now.

It has 10# Berkley X5 on it.

  

 

I've read that the T3 does quite well although I don't remember what its low limit is.  I'd need a spool for one of mine.  I have an OG 6'9" Expert Light rated 1/16 on low end.  A custom rod rated for the same low end.  An Ace Hawk Double C602UL/U.

 

Have aftermarket spool for a Pixy and one for a Steez to try.  Three Black Max 1601C to play with.  Have a tuned and upgraded Airy Red, but think it may need an aftermarket spool.

 

I think that even with the proper rod/reel combo I will need to improve my casting technique.  I do well at 3/16 oz.  Not so good lower.  This is with standard gear.

[dave]

Shimano Scorpion BFS XG and a Stile 100XG, both on custom made JLS Rods, rated down to 1/16 ounce.  

[papajoe222]

Mine are Daiwa Alohas paired to a 6’6” ML/F StCroix and an Acid (spiral) wrapped Forecast 6’ ML spinning blank. One of my biggest bass this year 5+lb. Was caught on the Forecast combo. 

[Derek1]

Currado bfs, dobyns 691. Had the most fun with a 1/8th oz spinnerbait. It can be a good time. 

[JackstrawIII]

Bought a Dobyns Sierra Micro rod and am waiting for Santa to bring my Curado BFS rod. Super excited to try it with small crankbaits this spring!