TackleTour

Quick question: For you BFS UL fans, what is your ideal rod action? Medium, Medium Fast, Fast or X-Fast? And why?

OK, now back to work....

Thanks.

I’ll follow this one as I jump off the deep end.

I have never owned an XF UL rod but I do have a F so I wold say fast.

I'm assuming that you are talking about bass rods and not the whippy trout rods.

I want an XF for some stuff, a F for some, and a MF for other stuff.

For an all-around BFS rod I would prefer a F leaning towards MF. I want the casting ease and due to to the smaller and thinner hooks involved, I am not too worried about hook-sets.

Houndfish wrote:I want an XF for some stuff, a F for some, and a MF for other stuff.

For an all-around BFS rod I would prefer a F leaning towards MF. I want the casting ease and due to to the smaller and thinner hooks involved, I am not too worried about hook-sets.

Ditto, though every action has its place in my rotation. I have a bfs rod specifially for ul cranks and tiny spinners, built on a Rainshadow Immortal UL moderate popping blank. It bends deep into the blank, maybe bordering on a slow action. It is spiral-wrapped, so no chance for the line to rub the blank. Now I really enjoy fishing those 3 gram-plus cranks with casting gear. But it wouldnt work well for anything with a single-hook, like weightless Roboworms or the 1/16 Micro-King spinnerbaits I often fish. My bfs rod count now stands at 6, if you count power-finesse combos for tiny jig-n-pigs and t-rigs.

hoohoorjoo wrote:I have a bfs rod specifially for ul cranks and tiny spinners, built on a Rainshadow Immortal UL moderate popping blank. It bends deep into the blank, maybe bordering on a slow action. It is spiral-wrapped, so no chance for the line to rub the blank. Now I really enjoy fishing those 3 gram-plus cranks with casting gear.

I would love some pic and more info on this rod, I am still on the quest for my "Ultimate 1/8oz Spinner/Spoon" rod and I am thinking more and more that custom is the way to go. I have two rods that will cast them satisfactory but neither of them is close to "Ultimate".

Houndfish wrote:

hoohoorjoo wrote:I have a bfs rod specifially for ul cranks and tiny spinners, built on a Rainshadow Immortal UL moderate popping blank. It bends deep into the blank, maybe bordering on a slow action. It is spiral-wrapped, so no chance for the line to rub the blank. Now I really enjoy fishing those 3 gram-plus cranks with casting gear.

I would love some pic and more info on this rod, I am still on the quest for my "Ultimate 1/8oz Spinner/Spoon" rod and I am thinking more and more that custom is the way to go. I have two rods that will cast them satisfactory but neither of them is close to "Ultimate".

Have you looked into any of the UL or L Moderate trout tapers? Custom may be cheaper if you have the means to build your own.

Craigthor wrote: Have you looked into any of the UL or L Moderate trout tapers? Custom may be cheaper if you have the means to build your own.

I have, but I am leery of spending too much on a trout rod due to the potential bycatch for the species I want to target. I want the rod to fish for White Perch in brackish rivers, but a very common bycatch will be schoolie Stripers, Pickerel up to the low 20", and even schoolie Blues. I worry that most Trout rods will not have the strength/backbone to land them without taking too long and killing the fish. The Stripers especially cannot abide a long fight when the water is hot. I have a Kuying Teton I am using now and it is pretty close to what I am looking for, I just want a little more length for a little more casting distance and a little more backbone.

My ideal rod will be soft enough for easy, accurate casts and to protect lighter line, but with enough power to get a 24" Striper to the boat in a hurry if need be. I feel like a custom rod will be my best shot at finding a blank like this as I will have all the varied spinning rod blanks to pick from as well. I have a ExtraLight/Mod St Croix rod now that is close to what I want but it will not cast with the ease I am looking for. Perch fishing for me is 100% a numbers game, I like to see how many I can catch on consecutive casts and this means getting the spinner/spoons right up next to, in, or under the cover the perch are schooling up to.

Really depends on line preference and technique. I found braid with faster BFS rods can tear holes with the tiny hooks. The fish seem to be able to shake free easier too. When I switched ti FC on my St Croix Legend Elite 7ft Light Fast custom, My land percentage was better, especially with small cranks.

Rods are SOOOO different. I have a custom MHX Spin Jig UL x-fast rod. Rated to 1/32oz and normal-ish UL line ratings. That rod will never do 1/32oz legitimately, not even with a spinning reel. The rod is x-fast but, does give under some pressure (more than most panfish are able to give).

So far only tried one, but fast was what I chased the whole time I looked to purchase one. Cranks and small trebles are a back seat lure to jigs and plastics for me though.

To the previous comment, I still want to try some UL fluorocarbon too, it doesn't add to much more weight than braid does it???

My custom Immortal bfs rod handled this 3.5# lmb with no problem. Caught her on a OSP mini crank, around 1/8 oz. With braid, I was able to land her in under a minute....and she whacked the crank while it was sitting, at the end of a 40 yd cast. Having the drag set right makes a world of difference.

The only one I have is a super crisp regular fast. It's a fast to extra fast at first, but bends more deeply as the pressure builds. I consider it to be very versatile, which to me is pretty important in an expensive setup. I wouldn't want a whippy bait finesse rod, but I only occasionally target anything other than LMB.

DirtyD64 wrote:So far only tried one, but fast was what I chased the whole time I looked to purchase one. Cranks and small trebles are a back seat lure to jigs and plastics for me though.

To the previous comment, I still want to try some UL fluorocarbon too, it doesn't add to much more weight than braid does it???

It is heavier, but no more than you have spooled on, I don't think it makes a difference. To me the benefits of using fluorocarbon outweigh whatever marginal difference in weight it has with braid. Of course, if you're using a truly extra fast rod you probably won't want to use braid, anyway, while if it's a regular or slow it might be necessary.

I mostly use rods with Fast to Moderate fast actions, I have noodle rods and extra fast rods but mostly only use my Kuying Teton 662L and MC Benkei 65UL/BF both with Moderate to fast actions

I like the fast action bass style rods. They cast low weights just as easy as whippy trout rods but have better hooksets for single hook baits.