Hi Everyone,
I'm new to fishing and to BFS as well; loving both. I found myself in a strange situation, I'm in Taiwan (which has a mix of JDM and western tackle). We have a lot of areas (pay to play) and wild areas to fish. I was recommended by my local tackle shop to get a bunch of rods and reels (probably not the best move, spent a ton of money on some mid-high end gear for both salt and freshwater fishing). Long story short, I ended up getting the 2018 poison adrena BFS rod for really cheap compared to online sources, but I have some concerns. I can't speak Chinese, so I am hoping a few of you can help me with a few questions (I did use the search function and was not able to find specific responses to my questions):
1. I have a few options at my disposal, I have a kastking zephyr, exsence dc SS, and am saving for the calcutta conquest or aldebaran (bfs or DC, mostly waiting for what 2021 brings). I've seen that the zephyr seems to handle bfs well enough, but I really love using DC. Can I use the exsence dc ss with the appropriate sized lures (for the reel and rod) and still safely use the rod, until I get the calcutta or aldebaran? I mean in regards to damaging the blank.
2. As for the zephyr, I was recently gifted this by a friend here that upgraded to an aldebaran bfs. I can't ask him many questions about it as he never used it. Should I use this or should I skip it and just buy the scorpion, aldebaran, or calcutta(different levels I know, but I don't see huge difference in price here). I could pull the trigger now, but was hoping to see what 2021 brings. I noticed there is a tiny gap between the spool and reel body that doesn't exist on my exsence, is this a limiting factor for size lines I can use?
3. Finally, if I end up using the zephyr, I was considering using 0.6 PE (or 0.06mm) with a leader which seems small, so I was considering going higher to maybe a 0.8 PE (please let me know if you have any opinions on this). Here in lies my main concern, on shimano's website, it says for the bigger poison adrena rods, max PE rating is 5. It makes no mention of PE for any other rod in this series. I know that fine PE can be especially abrasive on materials such as SiC and various other ceramics. Is this going to be an issue for the bfs rod which makes no mention of a recommendation for PE?
Sorry for the wall of text, and thank you for your responses in advance,
Thermo
Combo questions (Poison adrena 163l-bfs2 +?)
Re: Combo questions (Poison adrena 163l-bfs2 +?)
I'd just use the Zephyr and see how you like it. Nothing inherently wrong with Kastking reels *at their price point* and as you start out, if nothing else it'll make you appreciate the upgrade to an Aldebaran etc. all the more.
Spool it with 15-20 lbs braid (in the US people generally use the breaking strength, not line diameter to ID line. Different in Europe and possibly Asia) and don't worry about breaking your rod via too heavy line as long as you then use an appropriate nylon leader (4-10lbs, I'd think). That line, or the connection knot, will be your weakest link. You could go with lighter braid as the main line, but I rarely see the reason since it's such small diameter, anyway. If casting distance is really an issue, I've used 10lbs braid in the past (but it's rare) - the downside of such thin line is that it very easily digs into the spool, and knots become harder to tie/keep from slipping.
Make sure to never use the bend of the rod when trying to unsnag a lure. Pull straight back, using your hands (not the reel, the line will dig into the spool), and make sure the rod doesn't bend at all as you put more and more tension on the snagged line (careful about line cuts, braid is really good at penetrating skin! Use gloves or wrap your hands in your shirt).
There isn't a way to really break your rod by using the wrong reel. You overpower the rod by using too heavy a lure, or setting the hook too heavily into a fish or snag (make sure the drag is set loosely enough to prevent that), but you can't overpower the blank via the reel itself. You want a light enough BFS reel to be able to cast light tackle, and a reel whose overall shape and weight fits the rod. But the way you break a rod (while casting) is by exceeding the recommended overall lure weight for the blank. Just make sure you stay within those limits for piece of mind.
Spool it with 15-20 lbs braid (in the US people generally use the breaking strength, not line diameter to ID line. Different in Europe and possibly Asia) and don't worry about breaking your rod via too heavy line as long as you then use an appropriate nylon leader (4-10lbs, I'd think). That line, or the connection knot, will be your weakest link. You could go with lighter braid as the main line, but I rarely see the reason since it's such small diameter, anyway. If casting distance is really an issue, I've used 10lbs braid in the past (but it's rare) - the downside of such thin line is that it very easily digs into the spool, and knots become harder to tie/keep from slipping.
Make sure to never use the bend of the rod when trying to unsnag a lure. Pull straight back, using your hands (not the reel, the line will dig into the spool), and make sure the rod doesn't bend at all as you put more and more tension on the snagged line (careful about line cuts, braid is really good at penetrating skin! Use gloves or wrap your hands in your shirt).
There isn't a way to really break your rod by using the wrong reel. You overpower the rod by using too heavy a lure, or setting the hook too heavily into a fish or snag (make sure the drag is set loosely enough to prevent that), but you can't overpower the blank via the reel itself. You want a light enough BFS reel to be able to cast light tackle, and a reel whose overall shape and weight fits the rod. But the way you break a rod (while casting) is by exceeding the recommended overall lure weight for the blank. Just make sure you stay within those limits for piece of mind.
Re: Combo questions (Poison adrena 163l-bfs2 +?)
Wow thank you so much! Helps clear up a lot of confusion for me and then some! I appreciated the response. Will do, as you suggested and spool up the zephyr today! Thanks a lot!