For those that have tried BFS fishing, what has your experience been like?

 

Better than expected? Worse?

 

Advantages and disadvantages?

 

Have some big fish stories? Good or bad.

 

THANKS!

Experience has been very positive👍
Advantage casting light lures normally considered for spinning tackle more accurately. 
Eliminates line twist without going to braid and leader.

Improved strike detection.

Average size bass can put up good fight on light rods used with BFS.

Small Stripe bass between 4 lbs to 7 lbs are very strong fighters on BFS tackle.

Tom

Experience has been good. 

I wanted something to throw my spybaits with more control ( retrieve, striking force, fish control) than spinning tackle.  

I got a Curado BFS that I put on an older Compre rod (light).  Casting distance is similar to spinning outfit. I'm using 8 pound fluoro.  

I have a bit less precision when using lighter lures ( under 1/8 oz).  

Good fight with all fish.  The average size of the smallmouth bass I catch is fairly big so, yes it's fun.  I like the sound of the drag going out.  

I don't use it for spybaits anymore but mostly for small hard swimbaits.  

Lots of fun.Z Man TRD bug on a 1/8 football head catches everything from ice out till ice over. I've caught LM, SM, sunfish, crappie, catfish, pike, muskie, eyes, and carp on it. 6# mono.

My experience has been great.  My catch rate has gone up due to it.  I am up to 3 setups now as I just prefer baitcasting over spinning.

My experience has been better than expected.  I was using Curado 70s on my two Ned bc rods.  I bought 2 Curado CUBFSXGR reels they cast 1/16 Neds way better than the 70s.  I like them so well that I bought 2 more which will see their first action on Wednesday.

Imo, it’s a better platform to convert a Daiwa Zillion to BF due in part to a much stronger drag system, a stronger gear set, a longer (stock handle) and the ability to change out 34 mm spools as needed. It’s more expensive though that much I can promise. However if you know you love it, and you love thread line, this might be a great option for you. 

Btw, I tried the Curado BF reel. Weak drag and to me it was @bulldog1935 that tipped me off on why.. drags designed for mountain streams. Makes complete sense huh? Well it was a great caster with mono and had great braking.. my son owns it now and complains about the drag also 🤣 I told him! 

I prefer it over light spinning for sure. BFS allows me to use a main line of fluorocarbon without the line twist of spinning. I get a better uniform sink rate from straight fluoro than braid/leader. And... I can cast farther easier with straight fluoro on BFS than braid to leader. The denser, heavier fluorocarbon helps throw those 1/16 oz lures a good 20% farther than lightweight braid. 

Got into it this year, lots of fun.  I  build my own rods, and under the advice of another builder, I built a 6 foot rod, what most would consider UL power, moderate action, and it loaded nicely and cast easily very light stuff, but hook sets were a big problem.  I think due to not enough power.

 

I then built a Rainshadow IMMWS72MLF, a walleye spin blank.  It is lighter powered than most would consider ML, and the action is what most would describe as moderate fast.  It is 7 feet 2 inches and it casts farther than the other and has much better hook sets.  7-2 is longer than many prefer for BFS, but it works well for me. I fish only from a boat.  

 

I have not caught any really big fish on either rod yet, but it's fun on the "government issue" LMB I've encountered so far, about 15 inches.   And it handles them easily.

 

Hoping to get into some big SMB this next spring. 

I've gone 100% threadline braid over it.  

My first target was salt shore, fishing 3-g micro-plugs, and bought a new Steez for the 2-g capable Roro X-29 spool.  

 

Next step was kayak ML using Ray's Studio spool on Zillion.  I've pushed it from limestone creeks to frogger and even surf on bench Ambassadeur. 

 

It all casts my light target weights farther than I need to fish, which means casting with reduced effort and improved reliability and accuracy.  

Even my Ryoga in mud-marsh, skip-casting bunny shrimp, has KTF Kahen spool and PE#1.5

 

I'm a smallie river guy so when my son was in CO for 5 years I caught the trout bug. That was when @redmeansdistortion was using BFS low profile so I got some advice from him. @bulldog1935also gave me some good info. Good thing I'm kinda poor at the moment, the Zillion and those round reels sure are pretty!

 

Better than expected. I could flick cast a small minnow bait like a rocket. Line twist wasn't an issue.  Only negative was the one backlash I caused. No picking that one out lol.

 

Biggest fish I caught was a 20 inch brown. Messed up the video tho, I accidentally turned the video off when setting the phone/tripod down. I had an even bigger rainbow chasing down my minnow bait one day. I was looking up river and when I looked down this giant of a fish was hot on my bait in like 6-8 inches of water. Should've stood perfectly still and killed the retrieve. Instead I moved my arms a little... bye bye fishy. Hope to get back out there next year.

My experience is mixed. I hated spinning rods for bass. Fished them all the time for trout and salmon but hated them for bass. I had a couple for bass but they weren’t great. Simultaneously I picked up an entry bfs setup and a good spinning rod. I’d fish both with similar lures but the spinning rod was just better at it. I liked the casting rod though so i upgraded the bfs setup while also adding another spinning rod. 
 

My plan for the bfs setup was light bottom contact (Ned and light Texas rigs) and it’s great for that. I have used it for some other stuff as well. I settled on 6-8lb supernatural mono for now as braid wasn’t doing it for me. With a 1/16 head plus 2” soft plastic I can pitch with it just like my jig rod. That was great for targeting bass on beds with small plastics earlier this year.

 

At the same time, I’ve lost my distaste for spinning rods (good gear will do that for you) and I think a spinning rod is a better choice in a lot of ways. Accurate casting and fluoro mainline- bfs shines. Otherwise?  I think I like a spinning rod better. 

You also asked for big fish stories.  Nothing crazy, but the first real trip out with the current iteration (Cara BFS 7’2”, shimano aldebaran, straight mono) ended up with a bunch of smallies and the biggest was just a hair under 20”.  And the last trip out using it (seeing if it would be a good small jerkbait rod) finished up with a pickerel bigger than the first smallie.

 

 

 

 

I don't have a lot of experience with it, but it's been more of a novelty item for me. It's kind of a fun/different way to present small lures than I normally would with spinning gear. I do like that I don't have to worry about wind knots with my braid like I do on spinning gear. 

 

I haven't caught anything real big, but I've caught a couple decent fish on it. I just bought the combo late this year so it doesn't have a lot of use yet.

 

 

It is fun casting light lures, BFS is nice when the bite is tuff. Takes a little practice to cast the light lures. I have two setups

I don't think I have touched a spinning rod while bass fishing since purchasing my bfs setup.  Better in every way imho.  Biggest fish so far was 6lb 11oz on 6 lb sniper and a karashi.  Handled it no problem, just had to play the fish a little longer.

 

 

For those that have tried BFS fishing, what has your experience been like? Better than expected? Worse?

 

Way above expectations for myself. I no longer own any spinning outfits, sold them all off 2years ago if that tells you anything.

 

Advantages and disadvantages?

 

Advantages: Stealth, control, accuracy, speed, line management

Disadvantages:  Ease of use, cost (getting better), not for deep water

 

Have some big fish stories? Good or bad.

 

I was late to the party and just got into the BFS scene. I enjoy the ability to fish light lures on casting gear. There was a bit of a learning curve. Casting feels a bit different and my bfs rod has micro guides so the knot from braid to leader did not work well. I switched to straight light weight mono and have been very happy. I have caught nothing huge, but a 2-3 lber feels like hog on this light gear. I like it!

I bought a Tatula BFS rod and Kastking reel to give it a whirl.  I've only used it a few times.  It casts Neds on a 1/10 oz head nicely.  

 

For now, it's cool, but won't take over jigs or jerkbaits for me.  

4 hours ago, DogBone_384 said:

Kastking reel

Which reel?

On 12/15/2025 at 12:52 PM, HawkeyeSmallie said:

For those that have tried BFS fishing, what has your experience been like?

 

Better than expected? Worse?

 

Advantages and disadvantages?

 

Have some big fish stories? Good or bad.

 

 

 

For me it's just so so. Not giving up spinning at all.

Largest fish was using T3 with 5g spool, line braid 8#, rod kuying superlite throwing small paddltail and landed this 33" carp hooked in mouth.

Gimmick. My friend handed me one while we were finesse fishing using plastics. I made one cast and went back to my spinning setup.

36 minutes ago, scaleface said:

Which reel?

Kestrel. It’s good for its price point. Casting distance is very good but it’s not nearly as smooth/refined as Shimano or Diawa.

I have build 6 or six BFS rods.  They have all turned out really nice.  I use two Curado reels with them.  I built mostly on NFC blank.  None of the have been truly ultralight blanks.  NFC P700 is the lightest power and it is more like a light power rod.  
 

Trying all of these rods are okay as casting  rods.  But they are not as good as a spinning rod for finesse setups.  I may change out the spool on the Curados to help out.  But they are still difficult to cast light lures around 1/8 once.

 

I use both spinning rods and bfs setups but spinning is far better for finesse fishing.  BFS performs poorly if there is any wind  or if you need casting distance and if you need the bait to free fall.  

The Ark Gravity AF28 limited Edition BSF reel is $150, excellent reel!

Tom