I've recently been realizing that I am using lighter finesse techniques, mostly weightless senkos, trick worms, flukes, small frogs, and finesse chatterbaits/jigs. I am currently using a medium heavy rod rated 1/4 to 1-1/2 oz, and a SLX XT DC 71 with 30 lbs power pro, but I feel like I am loosing out on casting distance. I am thinking of getting a new medium light rod for those lures, and had a few questions. Will going to a smaller diameter braid help casting? I keep hearing people say braid less than 30# will dig in, but BFS guys regularly use 10-15 lbs stuff - how does that work? Should I fill the spool up with backing and only fill the last 40 yards with braid? Also, any particular rod recommendations? Thanks!

Welcome to the forum! I'm an avid bfs guy but not ultralight. My dedicated senko rod is a Kistler Helium light Medium Heavy/fast with a bfs reel w/ 15 lb braid. It's the shallow spool that allows lighter braid.

A med light rod is a good bfs bass set up but more for open water techniques, not heavy cover. I use Kistler KLX ML and a Falcon Clearwater inshore salt ML. ( it is for speckled trout and redfish, has terrific sensitivity and backbone)

Hope this helps!

Thanks for the reply! Would you say that using mono backing could make the spool similar to a shallow spool? I am mostly on a paddleboard or small boat so it would be more open water

I fish Japan X-braid across the board, shallow spools, all BFS-mod.  Inshore, I'm fishing 34-mm Daiwa and PE#0.8 to #1.2 (PE# is Japan silk thread diameter scale).  My raciest with lightest spool and bearings will cast 1/16 oz to 130'

 

But my first baitcaster w/ braid was deep-spool Super Duty G (mag brake).  

Still a very impressive distance caster down to 1/8 oz, and my first braid was 20-lb Sufix 832  (0.23-mm dia, on Japan thread scale, about #2).  Liked this performance so much, bought a 2nd SD on closeout and set it up exactly the same.

 

I backed the deep spool with 25-yds 20-lb Maxima UG mono (Not fluoro), which left room for about 120 yds of the 20-lb 832.  

The coarse mono backing stacks inefficiently, which keeps the loaded spool weight down.  

The trick to loading this, tie your improved allbright knot backing to braid off the reel - spool the mono backing onto the top of the braid source spool, then fill the reel continuously under tension - the backing allbright knot is thin enough to pass your line guide.  

 

This reel also has BFS spool-micro-bearings still rated to cast heavy lures.  

I fish this on an "ML" Crowder (really, it's MM) mostly casting 1/4 oz neutral-density jerkbait.  

Nothing even close to dig - most people who claim dig have braid backlash they didn't find.  

You might want to visit Texas Kayak Fisherman forum - not as active as a decade ago, but a killer archive, and possibility of meeting fishing neighbors.  

Wow, thanks for the insight! Will definitely try out the mono backing. Have you ever casted to your backing? I feel like with the places I fish I rarely have to cast past 120 feet

I fish river kayak with old-style short rods,  BFS-mod Ambassadeur, and PE#1.  

Bench-racing reels is my idea of fun, and high in my hobbies.  River kayak is usually fishing pretty close,

though combo on the bottom, 6-1/2' 2-hand rod, will cast 3 g to crazy distance  -150', and I've used it for salt shore.  

 

At the coast, I need long casts for drift-fishing kayak, also tide passes and shore fishing. 

I built this mini surf Ambassadeur (completely from parts, no "donor" reel) just for tide passes - PE#1.  

Just above is Little Cut, where a 130' cast lets you fish both channel slopes and double your fish chance.  

Found out what it could do last month at Big Cut, where it cast the 1/4-oz plug to 200' - more impressive, the 7'8" tubular-tip finesse rod hooked fish at 180' -

 

- unfortunately, when the tide started swinging out and the fish turned on, a half-dozen dolphins moved in to end the fishing, and we moved back onto Estes Flat, but had a great 2-hour drift all the way back to Palm Harbor.  

what type of rods/weight ratings are you using? I put 20 lbs mono backing and 30 meters of 15 lbs braid, but I'm getting a bunch of backlash and the distance is no more than 50 feet

I don't know what your reel is, what kind of brake, etc.  

Don't know what weight you're trying to throw.  

I found centrifugal doesn't cast light distance as well as mag brake.  

The set-up I described for mono backing on deep spool (SDG w/ mag brake) is my 1/4-oz target, but it always surprises how well it casts 1/8 oz. 

 

My 1/8-oz target is Zillion w/ Ray's Studio SV spool.  

 

Targeting everything lighter than 1/8 oz, I'm fishing Roro fixed-inductor on Daiwa, which functions as linear mag.  

 

 

Same reel set-up, different rod - this will cast 2 g to 130', but I'm fishing 3g at 130'.  

 

This will fish 1/16 oz at 90'

 

Set your mag on high-arc casts, preferrably casting something just lighter than your target.  Dial out mid-cast backlash.  

Then take your target weight fishing.  

If you're getting start-up backlash, it's because you're snapping your wrist - get that out of your cast.  

There is less tendency for braid digging in with BFS because the reels lay the line on with a higher angle AND drag settings are much lower.  I've not had a problem with the Ark Gravity reel with 10 pound braid.