"BFS" gets hammered into everyone's squre hole.
BFS is the reel, the combination of shallow, lightweight spool, low-inertia spool bearings, and threadline - it's a vehicle to fish threadline on baitcast tackle.
While the
reel mods go back to 1985 and small-frame Ambassadeur, the moniker Bait Finesse System was coined in print c.2000 by Hiroyuki Motoyama.
True BFS? -
Get Over It.
Going back to the 30s, threadline rods are longer, progressive tapers, not to be confused with the short para-taper UL rods that appeared in US in the '70s. They first appeared not for panfish, but for Atlantic salmon.
1939 Allcocks catalog calls out casting "ultra-light baits" and catching big fish on "finesse rods"
The first BFS reels, which didn't carry that name, also appeared in the 30s, incorporating lightweight alloy spool with shallow cork arbor, also intended to fish ultralight baits on 4-lb silk braid (which is the same diameter as PE#1 or 4-lb mono).
The rod can be stream trout, area trout, bass finesse, salt finesse, shore/surf finesse.
It can be rated XUL to MM - if it works in your niche with BFS (reel), that makes it a "BFS rod"
The rod above, might destroy it catching bass from a kayak - the rods below, no problem.
noteworthy, you'll never see "true finesse" or "power finesse" used anywhere outside of an internet bulletin board misnomer. Kurodai is black sea perch - to me, this is salt kayak finesse, because it's my one salt finesse rod I'm confident I can't destroy catching inshore fish from a kayak.
shore finesse (equates with
rockfish and "light game" -
- this long tip would be too risky to fish inshore from a kayak)
shore/surf micro-jigging - while this has the backbone for kayak, its length is ungainly
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Keeping it simple, I'll stick to low-profile reels.
I chose 34-mm Daiwa, I have a Steez, and 3 Zillions, which all exchange spools. My spools include Roro-X and AMO fixed-inductor (linear mag) for the lightest lures to the greatest distance, and Ray's Studio SV spools for wider lure range and 100% backlash-proof. Silver Wolf has increased LW pitch, which lays line wide on the spool, to prevent line dig down to PE#0.4.
My lines range from PE#0.6 on Zillion Silver Wolf to PE#1.2 in salt ML. The heavy stock Silver Wolf spool? - it's in a can w/ PE#1.2 for ML back-up.
I've done a lot of bearing trials - most aftermarket bearings out-perform Daiwa's stock shielded microbearings.
Roro Air bearings have a 10% distance edge casting lightest lures; KTF/IXA double bearings are a very close second, and the outer race gives them a wider load range, both casting heavier weights, and safe with big drive loads.
