I’ve been playing around with bfs for awhile and am having lots of fun. Little treble hooked baits are no problem and are a blast. Where im having a problem is with the soft plastics. I’ve been breaking off on 1/4 of my hooksets or so and I just can’t figure it out. Multiple connection knots same result. I generally go braid to leader (15lb braid to 7 or 8lb fluoro) about 8-10 feet of leader. I re-tie regularly.

 

To be clear- I am breaking off at the lure, not the leader. 
 

It gets a little bit better when I go straight fluoro, but I manage the casts so much better with braid and get a bit more sensitivity. 
 

I’ve got a jdm slx bfs reel and one of the new bps carbonlite finesse casting rods.

Any tips on how to minimize breaking off? 

What connection knot are you using? 

Have you tried others?

What floro are you using? 

 

Many things can play into this, but it could be something as simple as changing or backing-off on your hookset. Those thin light wire finesse worm hooks don't usually need a big hookset.

What knot are you using for the hook?  Suggest Fish N Fool (Uni twice thru eye) or Double Pitzen.

 

EDIT:  I didn't consider you might have the drag set too tight and setting hook too hard.

If you are breaking your line on hook sets loosen your drag.  I fish finesse at least 90% of the time with various lines I don’t have hook set break offs because I have my drags set to slip when I set the hook.  I fish with ewg hooks and fish them Texskin.  Like stated it doesn’t take much to sink a thin wire hook.

Don't set the hook so hard.  Just load the rod and bring the fish out of cover and to you then have the fight next to the boat. You don't need to wack em with little needle hooks and light line.  

9 hours ago, Lead Head said:

What connection knot are you using? 

Have you tried others?

What floro are you using? 

Clinch knot or palomar are the typical knots I tie. I don’t typically have problems with these knots on finesse lures in spinning gear. 
 

invisix, suffix siege, daiwa samurai are the ones I’ve used so far for bfs. 

Rod - solid tip is for soft baits.

Tubular tip is for hard baits.

That said, I catch a lot of big fish on ML and soft baits. You should assume they're not going to reject a soft bait. 

Simply lift the rod for a light set. After they're running,  give a solid set or two.

I tie a palomar 99.9% of the time with 6lb straight mono. I set the hook like I am trying to cross their eyes.  My best guess is that you need different line. Either that or the bait you are throwing is cutting your line.  Here is a 6lb mono fish on a Ned rig from my trip to St Clair 2 weeks ago. 

15 lb braid to 8 lb leader and a palomar knot is a fine combination of things on the surface. My lighter rigs are more or less the same. I just swapped my bfs rod to straight 8 mono but used braid all of last year.

 

Id make sure your palomar knots aren’t tied with the loop splitting the knot. That’s an immediate fail with fluoro when you pull it. And then any knot you’re tying make sure to test it hard when you tie it.  If it doesn’t pop when you pull on it, it wont when a fish does. Then just worry about abrasion. 

San diego jam is by far the best knot on flouro. You can always see if it is tied right, and it's resistant to shock shear relative to other knots. 

That, and loosen your drag up, and keep your thumb away from the spool. You may be thumbing on the hookset and not noticing. 

I have had no issues with using the San Diego Jam knot.  I've been using both braid to leader and straight fluorocarbon. 

 

What I've found in my fishing when it comes to BFS soft plastic/jigs and breaking off, is the rod, hook and my hook sets are key. Thinner wire hooks work best. A soft, more let the fish hook themselves hook set. The rod is the main component though.  For me,  I want it to have a fast to x-fast tip and a soft middle.  This let's you set the hook, and then helps ease up the strain on your line as you are fighting the fish and trying to keep it pinned. 

Look at the eye of your hooks.  Sometimes we buy a pack that has a bit of slag at the end of the wire that forms the rounded eye and that's enough to break light line on hookset.

I was having the same issue until I changed my knot. It still happens every now and then but mainly because I go too long without retieing.  

If your knot is good then it may be that your drag is set wrong. To set it correctly tie a loop off or hook your lure onto something solid, stand back a bit and load your rod up, the drag should slip a little as the rod reaches what feels like full load. This imo is the best way to set a drag as it accurately takes into account the power and action of the rod (and in turn the line assuming they're properly matched) that other methods do not. John Crews made a video called "secret to setting drag on a reel" if you want to see it in action.

 

Always have to be careful with flouro.

 

I'd say change your knot.

 

I'm a double pitzen fan myself.

 

 

I run a looser drag and thumb my spool on hooksets.  Just don't wig out on the hookset and yank at the fish.  Just move your arms and load the rod.  It doesn't need to be a violent event. This probably applies to all hooksets but especially with light line.   A hook set is about delivering pressure to the hook to penetrate the fishes mouth.  You don't need to rip and tear at fish with those Bubba hooksets you see in media.  I think people do that because they find it enjoyable more so than that being a requirement to hook fish.

 

This guy literally invented BFS (the acronym).  Watch how he sets his hooks.

 

 

So I went to a high pressured pond tonight to test out and fish one bait I have been avoiding,  the OSP HP Bug weightless (about 2.5g).  I was using a size #2 EWG hook with a San Diego Jam knot, #1 PE Sunline Almight,  8lb FC Sunline Grand Max leader, Megabass P5 Siglett, and Shimano Curado BFS. 

 

This whole thing is a challenge for me to say the least. I can only cast it about 30-40 feet. I needed my A game with casting, setting the hook and bringing them in. I caught 11 bass (and some good ones), a gazillion bluegill, and a couple of crappie. No break offs.  It was a blast. Just totally fun fishing. 

 

The rod was the key. X-fast tip with a Moderate/Slow middle but no way am I taking this rod on to a deep water lake.  Its a toothpick. 

 

 

Quick question:

 

Is there honestly much difference between UL spinning vs "BFS" with a baitcaster?

 

I LOVE throwing micro cranks for panfish and the occasional bass.

27 minutes ago, HawkeyeSmallie said:

Quick question:

 

Is there honestly much difference between UL spinning vs "BFS" with a baitcaster?

 

I LOVE throwing micro cranks for panfish and the occasional bass.

Yes but also no.  BF has been around for a very long time with ultra light spools in baitbast reels targeting trout in streams.  This is essentially identical to UL spinning in bait weights, rod lengths and powers but in casting form. 

 

BFS is a modern creation and is basically a bass fishing specific term invented by Yukihiro Sawamura when applied BF to Japanese bass fishing.  He took his shallow KTF spools for Daiwa reels and paired them to a bass rods that have soft tips with strong backbones.  These rods are much stiffer and longer than a similar power rated trout or panfish rod.  The goal was to use light fluorocarbon line too stiff for a spinning rod for highly pressured fish in cover.  This required a casting reel to handle the line and a new type of rod was made that could cast these light baits but still have the power to steer and control a fish around cover.  Watch the video above in YouTube with captions set to translate to English to here his story.

 

BFS is the newer niche bass fishing version of BF but for whatever reason BF was in stealth mode in the US despite being decades older and it wasn't until BFS leaked into the US bass fishing circles from Japan in the 2010s did US anglers get exposed to using light baits with a baitcast reel a mainstream sense.  This has lead to just the idea of using a baitcast reel to cast light weight baits for any species for any reason to be labeled BFS here.  

 

There is a distinction but it has been largely lost.  It's an important distinction because a L powered BFS (bass) rod is a whole different animal from a trout L BF rod.  Attached is a light powered JDM BFS rod from 2013.  Notice how large the blank is deep into the rod.  These rods are very stiff deep into the rod and shut off from the 1st guide to the butt to control and steer fish.  Trout and panfish rods are not built this way.