Reel: Kawa Sabre JKS 51(left)

Rod: Catch.U Fire Dance, 5'9",1/8-5/8oz lure weight.

 

 Not the most prettiest or most refined, but it gets the job done. 

 

The Kawa round reel is no Conquest BFS, it's not as light, it is geary and not as smooth. Magentic braking is a bit light, magnets not that strong. I did change out the stock handle to one that suits my liking.

 

The Catch.U rod is not sensitive, it can cast a 1/8oz trout spoon well and the handle is a bit long'ish in length, wish it was a bit shorter and the rod blank a bit longer. I don't think I'll be casting any lure over 3/8oz with this rod.

 

I know I can eventually afford the Conquest/Expride setup, if I save my pennies but for the time being; this cheap, less than $100 setup gets me by. I think owning that setup will probably scare me that I can scratch the reel or break the rod. That would so break my heart.?

 

The setup is actually quite nice looking it handles catching bass and trout swimmingly. If either fails or breaks, I know I didn't spend a lot of money for both. I also wanted the chance to try out BFS fishing with a smaller round reel.

 

So, BFS fishing doesn't have to be all that expensive to have fun fishing lighter lures. I prefer BFS over spinning gear lately. My hand holding the rod gets fatigued, I don't know why. But I don't have that problem fishing BFS casting gear.

 

Fun fact: those are a plastic round reel with a riveted metal reel foot.  

China doesn't have a domestic market - they don't fish there, and they copy things to export (if they did have a domestic market, 1.45 billion people would absorb everything they produced).  In all fairness,"if" should be when. 

 

That's a pretty combo, for function following form, and since I didn't post this on the last BFS thread, thinking it was self-explanatory, I'll post it here so others recognize there are other less expensive options. (I did share this offline with the OP of the "help me buy BFS" thread).  

 

Rather than buying a packaged BFS reel, the best way to set up for BFS is to swap spool and bearings in an existing reel - especially if you have a recent Daiwa SV.   (Revo linear mag brake also makes a great BFS swap.)  Compared to buying a packaged economy reel, you're starting with a higher quality reel with a great braking system.  It's not like you're making a permanent change - you can always swap it back (though you may like it too much).  

 

The Ray's Studio SV spool on the left fishes an extreme wide lure range, and easy to set up backlash-proof with both the lightest and heaviest lures.  (The reel on the left hasn't backlashed in 3 years in salt ML niche.) The spool is made in Thailand, and ebay vendor ships direct from there.  $70 and every bit as good as the discontinued KTF spools scalpers are asking $300+ on ebay.  The moving SV rotor is also forgiving if you tend to jerk your cast.  

 

The fixed-rotor Roro-X spool on the right is the lightest made, with titanium spindle, will cast the lightest lures to maximum distance.  Rorolure is in Hong Kong and mails direct.  The near-equivalent spools from AMO on Express website are right up there in performance, and at least one comes with both BFS air bearings - they also come with a nice spool can to store your loaded spare

  

BFS Air bearings make an instant change to your reel.  The goal here is to get rotating mass and inertia as small as possible - this is how you get maximum distance and need the smallest braking force to overcome mid-cast backlash on light lures.  For max distance, Roro SiC BFS bearings win - they're rated to maximum 3/8 oz.  The most versatile for wide weights are the newer double-row bearings, which will cast 1/16 oz to beyond an ounce.  

 

China actually makes some memorable reels, like the Okuma Komodo, a Banax design, used by 13 Fishing too.

 

But it's in the rod scene that chinese gear humiliate most famous fishing brands, like daiwa and Shimano. You can get a BFS rod, with higher quality than a Zodias ''BFS'' by just U$100. The value for money is astonishing, since China fully mastered carbon mesh technologies.

 

Concerning lower spool inertia, your concept is simplistic, if not mostly wrong. Inertia should be reduced, indeed, but the braking system needs to be capable of dealing with the increased spool spin.

 

The same applies to bearing upgrades. Most of them are just ***, promoted with a lot of payola. Increased spinning by bearing upgrades don't increase long distance casting, since the increased spinning creates stronger braking action, in centrifugal or counter-emf braking systems.

 

Shimano noted these points and created the FTB system, who allowed for a lighter spool weight, without compromising counter-emf induction.

 

I have a Conquest 51 BFS custom with AMO/Momo Studio conversion kit. Ultra lightweight honeycomb spool and mag brakes. One hybrid ceramic bearing. I kept the stainless steel sideplate bearing, because it avoids the ceramic one over spinning, since the honeycomb spool  hasn't enough mass to induce a counter-emf, for a efficient linear braking action.

Ska4fun, can you give me some rods you mentioned similar to a Zodias in CDM, please?

 

I do own the Phenix BFS Classic in 6'8". Real nice BFS bass rod!

10 hours ago, ghost said:

Ska4fun, can you give me some rods you mentioned similar to a Zodias in CDM, please?

 

I do own the Phenix BFS Classic in 6'8". Real nice BFS bass rod!

Surely. Strangely i didn't get a notification for your quotation.

Kyorim brand: K1, Carza, Big Mandarin and Long range.

Purelure brand: Zana and Cedan series

Tsurinoya brand: Dragon and Ranger series

 Kingdom Fishing Keel III

Noeby A7 Sense

 

These are the ones I know.