BFS Rabbit Hole

[Bigbox99]

On 1/31/2025 at 12:02 PM, Bass Rutten said:

One of the biggest fallacies around bfs is that it is just ultralight fishing with baitcasters. There’s no industry standard for rods or lures that defines them as bfs, people just be making up their own definitions. Rod and lure are chosen for your target species/application not by some arbitrary weight range or rod power (within reason obviously). Many bfs spools are rated to 15 grams and more. Another myth being that bfs is trying to replace spinning gear. They have different purposes, (bass) bfs was designed specifically for accuracy, stealth, and power in pressured tight quarter fishing scenarios.

 

Some real advantages over spinning gear of a casting reel with lighter spool/bearings and line are improvements in ease of casting, lure control, accuracy, sensitivity, line management, and very stealthy lure entries. Also, a nice side benefit is being able to spool up with straight 8 or 10lb fluoro line, try that on your spinning reel! A few disadvantages are a bit of a learning curve, and deep water applications. If that sounds good to you then yes it's worth diving into the rabbit hole.

This is the correct answer.  People have been using baitcast reels since forever to cast light weight baits.  The term BFS didn't enter the bass fishing world lexicon until the 2010s when these types of bass rods that could cast tiny baits while still having a ton of backbone and power came out.  This also coincided with the wide adoption of fluorocarbon line and the combination of the two made for the best way to present finesse baits into cover for highly pressured fish.  There simply aren't spinning rods that combine that sort of soft tip and backbone.  It's not that's its not possible to design a spinning rod that way it's just that a casting rod was chosen when the 1st rod of this build was made and was casting rod specifically to use baitcast reels with light fluoro and the rest was history. 

 

It's a complete misnomer that BFS means casting light weights with a baitcaster.  People have been doing that long before BFS was a thing and many manufactures that have casting versions of L and UL trout rods do not call them BFS rods and instead use that specifically to refer to a L or UL rod in their bass line of rods.  To distill it down to its simplest element "BFS" is a type of bass casting rod.  It's a nebulous term today because as soon as it leaked out of enthusiast circles that were importing and using these rods the wider fishing scene latched onto the term and has applied it to literally everything involving casting light weight baits with a baitcast reel.

 

 

Turn on captions and set them to auto translate to English to hear the story of BFS (you will have to use the youtube app for this).

 

[woolleyfooley]

19 hours ago, softwateronly said:

I just ordered the 7'9LT-BFS it's so much fun, both available at asian portal right now.  I'm not gonna run into a dd on my waters, but the dozen plus 20"+ LM, a few 18" SM, a 3'+ Northern, and a 25" King that I caught on bfs last year is a fine substitute for now.  A spinning set up could have done all of the same things, but the ease and comfort of casting currently takes it to another level of enjoyment for me.

 

scott

 

 

 

What reel is that? A zillion?

[softwateronly]

4 hours ago, woolleyfooley said:

What reel is that? A zillion?

Yeah, zillion with a roro x27 spool.  Lotta fun.

 

scott

[mheichelbech]

I have a like new BFS setup available if anyone interested.  Shimano Alderbaran and Dobyns Sierra.

[redmeansdistortion]

On 1/30/2025 at 1:37 PM, MediumMouthBass said:

In recent years on Reddit, and Youtube mainly the term BFS has been hijacked by these "influencers" throwing 1/16, 1/8, 1/4 baits on these "BFS" rods and reels. As far as i know BFS weights are much lighter. Both the Cashion rods you mentioned are a bit high in the ratings, L is 1/16oz low end, ML is 1/8oz low end. In those ratings i dont see any benefit that BFS would have over the equivalent spinning combo.

The biggest misconception about BFS is that it's the equivalent to ultralight spinning.  This is the general mentality of the YouTubers and other social media with a predominately Western audience.  Much of that stems from where most of them got started; cheap AliExpress reels and trout rods.

 

First and foremost, BFS is the reel itself.  A light shallow spool, low inertia bearings, and a brake to make them work in unison.  Aside from the spool being light weight, the depth also keeps the retrieval rate somewhat consistent.  With a deeper spool, the retrieval rate nosedives as you get deeper into the spool.  BFS spools, while not immune to this, do mitigate it to some extent.  Second, the thinner lines used are also beneficial to casting distance since there will be less friction with the rod eyelets.  

 

Next, the rods.  The only rods that come adorned with the BF nomenclature are bass rods and saltwater rods.  Trout rods are entirely different, even though the powers and weight ranges may be similar.  Bass rods tend to have a more narrow range of weights, mostly because they are para taper which means they bend more in the middle and butt sections.  This is required for some bass fishing due to the environments they're found.  It's much easier getting a bass out of the slop with a bass rod than it is a trout rod.  Conversely, trout and saltwater rods are progressive taper, meaning they bend more in the tip and less the closer to the butt you get.  This serves two purposes; to keep the fish pinned during the fight, and offer a wider range of weights to cast.  Not all trout rods are meant to cast tiny spoons and spinners, some are meant for larger lures for bigger migratory fish.  My three favorite trout rods are 3-18g/4-10lb, 3-12g/3-8lb, and 5-16g/4-10lb respectively.  They're meant for big fish and have tapers that help keep them pinned and under control during those runs and head shakes.  Those rods were designed from the ground up to work with BFS reels.  I use them for lake run brown trout, steelhead, and coho salmon.  For those I'm often throwing 4-10g spoons and minnow style baits.

 

As far as AliExpress trout rods go, most of those are built on American style UL spinning blanks, which are usually para taper buggy whips.  They can cast very light lures, but they can't handle more formidable fish very well.  For smaller resident trout and panfish, they're just fine.  Sure, you can fish bass and larger migratory fish with them, but they aren't the right tool for the job due to their inefficiencies for such fish.

[FryDog62]

I have the following BFS set ups and use them not as a gimmick but because I can’t use spinning due to wrist injuries, and these serve a functional purpose. I would have a hard time going back to spinning now even if my wrist didn’t bark.  They work - -

 

6’8” Cashion ICON BF ML/ Daiwa Air TW - for Strolling/FFS minnows

 

6’10” Cashion ICON BF ML/Curado BFS for Ned rigs

 

7’0” Cashion ICON BF L/Aldebaran BFS for micro crankbaits (my favorite set up!)

 

7’1” Phenix Classic BFS/Aldebaran BFS for 1/16-1/18 oz hair jigs. 

[bulldog1935]

Here's one you don't see too often - KTF Ryoga with Kahen spool and IXA dual-race micro spool bearings.  I'll fish this inshore with PE#1.2

 

and actually, it was Hiroyuki Motoyama who coined Bait Finesse System (the reel mods) in print in 2000.  First applied to stream trout, and then to shore fishing for bass.  BFS has since moved to salt shore fishing and offshore vertical jigging.  It goes back decades, and before it had a name, it was simply called reel tuning.  Don Iovino in US, Jun Sonada in Japan.  

The only problem with BFS is trying to pound the square peg into one's personal round hole.  BFS is the modern version of threadline fishing using modified bait reels.  Kinda the ultimate boon for anyone who'd rather be fishing modern braid.  

The term also gets grabbed by marketers, who always want to sell us N+1.  

If you want to learn more about the long, progressive-taper rods, that goes back to Wanless and Atlantic salmon in UK, and in the US, Ernie Schweibert, Dave Whitlock, and Joe Robinson.  

The rods give you leverage over big fish, while protecting light line - the opposite of UL tradition in US, which uses short para-taper rods that give small fish leverage over you.  

[Bigbox99]

26 minutes ago, redmeansdistortion said:

The biggest misconception about BFS is that it's the equivalent to ultralight spinning.  This is the general mentality of the YouTubers and other social media with a predominately Western audience.  Much of that stems from where most of them got started; cheap AliExpress reels and trout rods.

 

First and foremost, BFS is the reel itself.  A light shallow spool, low inertia bearings, and a brake to make them work in unison.  Aside from the spool being light weight, the depth also keeps the retrieval rate somewhat consistent.  With a deeper spool, the retrieval rate nosedives as you get deeper into the spool.  BFS spools, while not immune to this, do mitigate it to some extent.  Second, the thinner lines used are also beneficial to casting distance since there will be less friction with the rod eyelets.  

 

Next, the rods.  The only rods that come adorned with the BF nomenclature are bass rods and saltwater rods.  Trout rods are entirely different, even though the powers and weight ranges may be similar.  Bass rods tend to have a more narrow range of weights, mostly because they are para taper which means they bend more in the middle and butt sections.  This is required for some bass fishing due to the environments they're found.  It's much easier getting a bass out of the slop with a bass rod than it is a trout rod.  Conversely, trout and saltwater rods are progressive taper, meaning they bend more in the tip and less the closer to the butt you get.  This serves two purposes; to keep the fish pinned during the fight, and offer a wider range of weights to cast.  Not all trout rods are meant to cast tiny spoons and spinners, some are meant for larger lures for bigger migratory fish.  My three favorite trout rods are 3-18g/4-10lb, 3-12g/3-8lb, and 5-16g/4-10lb respectively.  They're meant for big fish and have tapers that help keep them pinned and under control during those runs and head shakes.  Those rods were designed from the ground up to work with BFS reels.  I use them for lake run brown trout, steelhead, and coho salmon.  For those I'm often throwing 4-10g spoons and minnow style baits.

 

As far as AliExpress trout rods go, most of those are built on American style UL spinning blanks, which are usually para taper buggy whips.  They can cast very light lures, but they can't handle more formidable fish very well.  For smaller resident trout and panfish, they're just fine.  Sure, you can fish bass and larger migratory fish with them, but they aren't the right tool for the job due to their inefficiencies for such fish.

The BFS term orgins are pretty unspectacular and it has had quite the transformation over time.  The term originated from Yukihiro Sawamura when applied BF (baitcasting finesse) to bass fishing and he made up Bait Finess System (BFS) to pair his KTF spools and/or KTF developed Daiwa Air reels and his bass rods together.  In the video above you can watch him tell the story of BFS if you turn on captions and auto translate to English.  To summarize, he wanted to use heavier fluorocarbon line for bass fishing finesse and these lines were too stiff for spinning reels so he developed baitcasting spools for bass reels and bass rods able to throw these light weights while being powerful enough to move fish away from cover.  Other rod brands jumped on the trend and we had an explosion of BFS rods from all the usual suspects in the 2010s.  

 

The term entered the US fishing scene when bass anglers in tackle enthusiast circles that regularly follow Japense bass fishing trends and import JDM tackle began to pick up on BFS and import rods and spools.  The Majorcraft Volkey BFS and Corrza were popular affordable rods at the time.  I belive TTT even imported and sold them in their shop for a while.  I owned both the Volkey BFS UL and L and they were unlike any L or UL rod I had ever owned.

 

Once BFS leaked out of enthusiast circles into the wider US fishing scene the term lost it connection to its origins and now is just a duplicate term for BF.  BFS used to be bass fishing specific but since that connection has been lost you can still reference your species and application with things like "BFS bass" "BFS trout" "BFS inshore" to help determine what kind of rod you would prefer, which is basically what we do today.