Got the Shimano Conquest BFS  reel, arrived in the mail yesterday!

 

It's beautiful! 

It's lighter than I thought, not as light as the Shimano Aldeberan BFS or Kastking Kestrel Elite BFS reels, but for a small round reel it's light. It sits lower on a reel seat than I first thought. The weight of the Conquest BFS is 6 3/4oz on my analog scale.

 

Only thing I noticed odd about the reel is the dial for the magnetic brake does not have a clicker. The star drag and spool tension knob both have clickers. I hope this is normal since the brake dial does not have dots on it to show where a click should go. The dial area only has a min and max setting with a white dot in the middle back of the min-max settings.

 

I have a Chinese(CDM) almost similar to the Conquest BFS reel, the Sabre JKS 51 and I compared both. They seem to be close to the same height and the Conquest BFS feels lighter. Obviously the Sabre is not has smooth or finely tuned as the Conquest BFS. I compared both in thr pics.

 

Spooled the Conquest BFS with Sunline Siglon braided line in 12lb, 2lb diameter mono. Option B would have been Power Pro Super8Slick in 10 lbs, lime green color.

 

The reel pairs perfectly on the Phenix Classic BFS 6'8" casting rod. I'm sure it will feel good to handle on the Dobyns Sierra Ultra Finesse 6'9" casting rod too. I'm hoping to eventually get the Shimano Expride 6'8" BFS rod sometime soon for the Conquest BFS. That would be a perfect match in my opinion. 

 

I will have a couple Gomexus carbon handle to order for the Conquest BFS and Aldeberan BFS reels. Both have 80mm handles and the new carbon Gomexus handles will be 85mm handle length.

 

To me, this is art meets functionality 

I looked at the Expride and the Curado BFS at my local shop and they didn't exactly feel like BFS rods. They felt more like a L or ML. Even though, I think, they are rated down to 1/8oz. They felt more like 1/4oz would be a good place to start. I ended up with the Dobyns Sierra Ultra-Finesse 700C. Much softer middle and better tip. They did feel like good rods but not light enough to handle what I wanted to throw. 

 

Definitely a sweet reel. I took my new HG out on the kayak on Sunday and had a blast with it. I caught 3 small bass, 2 keeper crappie,  4 wipers, and a really good sized yellow bass.  I caught most of them on a 1/8oz crankbait and a 4 gram trout minnow.

The Conquest BFS is art, plain and simple.  Round reels are my jam, I can't think of one that isn't easy on the eyes.  

 

Now the fun part comes, experimenting with the magnets.  It should have a couple of user replaceable magnets.  I run my '17 model without them and it really opens it up.  I felt running all magnets kind of choked it off a little.

FishTank, does the magnetic brake dial click when turned?

3 minutes ago, ghost said:

FishTank, does the magnetic brake dial click when turned?

No. It is sort of odd. I wish it did and I wish it had some sort of dots that indicate where you're at with the brake settings but no big deal. I can cast that 4 gram lure on 6lb test line until the spool is empty so I can live with that.

@ghost one other thing, the rod I used for the HG was a Megabass P5 Six Eleven.  It's stiffer than most BFS rods but loads well when it comes to lighter treble hook lures 1/8oz and up. This rod has become my favorite P5 rod. 

Hey FishTank, the Expride BFS rod would work for me. I hardly cast anything lower than 1/8oz.