Ultralight gear at Otay 11/12/23

Today was ultralight day with a 7 1/2 ft. Diawa Presso, and 1/16th oz ball head jigs. Paired the tiny jig heads with 2.5 inch mini swimbaits. I caught 6 nice bass in the the 2-3 pound range, and 1 Crappie. Incredible fun on ultralight gear. So much so that I am considering springing for a quality BFS rig. Anyone have any experience with BFS ultralights?
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That is so cool keep up the good work.

Luv the fish pic’s!
Thank you for your fish report with photos.
Sorry, I cannot be of help with your BFS rig question.

SP Dan <“))><

Good on you for getting out and catching some on the little stuff. It is fun when the pole bends.


Thanks for sharing

Are you looking for an apprentice? LOL Would love to learn to fish for slabs and largemouth bass. Good stuff.

SteelersFan4Life wrote:Are you looking for an apprentice? LOL Would love to learn to fish for slabs and largemouth bass. Good stuff.

Haha I am hardly instructor worthy, but I am always game to meet up and share what I have learned over the past 50 years of float tube bass fishing! Let me know if you'd like to get together.

For how long does the bass "season" last? it will be difficult for me to get down there with the holidays. afterwards, i think i can make it down.

SteelersFan4Life wrote:For how long does the bass "season" last? it will be difficult for me to get down there with the holidays. afterwards, i think i can make it down.

Bass fishing is a year around thing. The patterns change and winter can be a little tougher but still certainly doable. I bass fish year around.

Started down the BFS rabbit hole back in the 80's after finding a beat up daiwa Prolight 1000 left at Huntington pier.
Preferred a small baitcaster to my Garcia Mitchell 308 spinner which caused massive line twists with mono fishing for bonita casting Krocodile spoons, diamond jigs, splasher rigs.

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Over the years, needed to fish lighter finesse gear especially in ultra clear water in big bear and local  ponds that get tons of pressure.

Really a combo of a reel with light spool, clean spool bearings, line (light braid, hybrids)  and rod that can load lighter baits.

I bought all my JDM reels used
Rods i converted old spinning fiberglass rods to conventional before BFS specific rods became available.
Lots of aftermarket spools these days you can pop into reels that perform much better at light stuff than stock.

My older shimano's get down to 1/4 oz
Older daiwas, especially with aftermarket spools get down to 1/32 oz

Shimano Curado 100b, Chonarch50Mg, Core50mg
Daiwa Sol, Alphas 103, Pixy, TDZ
Newer BFS specific reels have very narrow and light spools.


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Bottom line:
Buy used, try aftermarket spools for existing reel, play around finding the right rod that can load lightest weight you will be casting and have fun.

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So awesome!  Thanks for all the info!  I just ordered an Ark Gravity BFS reel and a Ray Fishing Tarantula BFS ultralight rod.  Total price for both was around $280.  So kind of a intermediate budget entry into BFS as far as I am concerned.
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I have 3 other ultralight spinning rod combos -including Phenix, and Diawa Presso rods- that I use for pitching mini jigs and small baits for trout.  Like I said though, I STRONGLY prefer baitcasters.  I am hoping that this will give me a good alternative to spinning gear (without all the associated line twist issues) while not sacrificing too much casting ability and distance.

What line(s) do you prefer on your BFS setup?  I am currently planning on 6lb. PE braid to 4lb. flouro leader.  I am hoping that will be a pretty well-rounded approach to multi-species casting for trout, bass, crappie, bluegill, spotties etc...

Nanofil best casting but need good knots or will slip

Lazy Alberto knot flies thru microguides

Started out w a foot of Floro leader but got better bites by having 6 foot leader w knot between spool and first guide. More natural sink rate and keeps light bait lower w more fluoro than all braid as braid floats





For nonBFS, heavier braid, kelp cutting I use Max Cuatro with regular Alberto or FG

jmytuna wrote:Nanofil best casting but need good knots or will slip

Lazy Alberto knot flies thru microguides

Started out w a foot of Floro leader but got better bites by having 6 foot leader w knot between spool and first guide. More natural sink rate and keeps light bait lower w more fluoro than all braid as braid floats





For nonBFS, heavier braid, kelp cutting I use Max Cuatro with regular Alberto or FG

Awesome thanks for the info!