Ultralight fishing at Otay

[Dannicus]

Today was ultralight day with a seven and a half foot Diawa Presso, and 1/16th oz ball head jigs. I paired the tiny jig heads with 2.5 inch mini swimbaits. I caught 6 nice bass in the the 2-3 pound range and a Crappie. So much fun on ultralight gear. So much so I am thinking of springing for a quality BFS rig. Anyone have any experience with BFS ultralights?

[CorsoEnthusiast]

I have become a big fan of BFS fishing.
There’s a lot of stuff available out there now at most any price point.

I’m using a Megabass Triza Aello rod, a true 0 power UL that will throw baits as light as 1/32oz. My reel is a Daiwa Silver Creek Air Stream Custom.

It makes even smaller fish a ton of fun

[Dannicus]

That looks like an excellent setup. I love ultralight fishing, but to be honest I really don't like spinning reels. Especially on ultralights. I am fishing 6 lb. Braid to 4 (or sometimes even 2 lb.) flouro carbon leader, and I am constantly having to fight line twist.
Yesterday I had to cut out about 10 yards of tangled braid rats nest and re-tie the leader. Hopefully a good BFS setup will help that. I am assuming I will sacrifice quite a bit of casting distance but at this point it might be a fair trade off.

[mcquade outdoors]

Looks like a fun day. Its funny how we go in trends for fishing styles. I used to fish ultralight setups all the time (spinning and casting) and then went to heavy line stuff. I've recently transitioned back to mostly light action gear here in San Diego now.

[CorsoEnthusiast]

That looks like an excellent setup. I love ultralight fishing, but to be honest I really don't like spinning reels. Especially on ultralights. I am fishing 6 lb. Braid to 4 (or sometimes even 2 lb.) flouro carbon leader, and I am constantly having to fight line twist.
Yesterday I had to cut out about 10 yards of tangled braid rats nest and re-tie the leader. Hopefully a good BFS setup will help that. I am assuming I will sacrifice quite a bit of casting distance but at this point it might be a fair trade off.

You’d be surprised! My BFS setup casts as far as my light spinning rig does. The trick is learning how to cast with just a flick of the wrist and not use the big backswing we cast with on conventional casting gear.

[Fisheromen]

Burle Ives fishes??? Who knew?

[Dannicus]

That looks like an excellent setup. I love ultralight fishing, but to be honest I really don't like spinning reels. Especially on ultralights. I am fishing 6 lb. Braid to 4 (or sometimes even 2 lb.) flouro carbon leader, and I am constantly having to fight line twist.
Yesterday I had to cut out about 10 yards of tangled braid rats nest and re-tie the leader. Hopefully a good BFS setup will help that. I am assuming I will sacrifice quite a bit of casting distance but at this point it might be a fair trade off.

You’d be surprised! My BFS setup casts as far as my light spinning rig does. The trick is learning how to cast with just a flick of the wrist and not use the big backswing we cast with on conventional casting gear.

This is great news. Now I just need to find a rod and reel that I can actually afford!

[CorsoEnthusiast]

That looks like an excellent setup. I love ultralight fishing, but to be honest I really don't like spinning reels. Especially on ultralights. I am fishing 6 lb. Braid to 4 (or sometimes even 2 lb.) flouro carbon leader, and I am constantly having to fight line twist.
Yesterday I had to cut out about 10 yards of tangled braid rats nest and re-tie the leader. Hopefully a good BFS setup will help that. I am assuming I will sacrifice quite a bit of casting distance but at this point it might be a fair trade off.

You’d be surprised! My BFS setup casts as far as my light spinning rig does. The trick is learning how to cast with just a flick of the wrist and not use the big backswing we cast with on conventional casting gear.

This is great news. Now I just need to find a rod and reel that I can actually afford!

There are a couple super budget brands like KastKing that have entries into the BFS market. Might be a good economical way to get started.

[JWall]

Glad to see Otay giving up some fish!

[Dannicus]

I have become a big fan of BFS fishing.
There’s a lot of stuff available out there now at most any price point.

I’m using a Megabass Triza Aello rod, a true 0 power UL that will throw baits as light as 1/32oz. My reel is a Daiwa Silver Creek Air Stream Custom.

It makes even smaller fish a ton of fun

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.




I have 3 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...

[Mcfish]

Burle Ives fishes??? Who knew?

Love your Christmas songs.....

[Dannicus]

Rudolph the red-eared sunfish...

[Just_Bass]

Ultra light bait caster is quite fun for crappie especially float tubing. You don’t really need a super long rod about 5-6’ should handle nicely. Line choice 6-8lb quality braid should be fine with multi species setup but ultimately for pure distance I go with nano braid or Nanofil line. The problem when using thin super line with off brand reels is line get into the gap between spool and frame due to not enough tight tolerance. The fix is not to fill the line all the way (full spool) just about 50 yds should be plenty.
I’m not sure about spec of rod and reel you bought but be careful with SOLID TIP rod, too much weight (1/4oz) and hard whip might end up with broken rod (don’t ask me how I know). Remember line twisted is spinning problem as well as backlash is baitcaster headache. Take it easy at first and bring extra spool of line.

[Dannicus]

Ultra light bait caster is quite fun for crappie especially float tubing. You don’t really need a super long rod about 5-6’ should handle nicely. Line choice 6-8lb quality braid should be fine with multi species setup but ultimately for pure distance I go with nano braid or Nanofil line. The problem when using thin super line with off brand reels is line get into the gap between spool and frame due to not enough tight tolerance. The fix is not to fill the line all the way (full spool) just about 50 yds should be plenty.
I’m not sure about spec of rod and reel you bought but be careful with SOLID TIP rod, too much weight (1/4oz) and hard whip might end up with broken rod (don’t ask me how I know). Remember line twisted is spinning problem as well as backlash is baitcaster headache. Take it easy at first and bring extra spool of line.

Thanks for the advice! The Ark Gravity reel is a newly released dedicated BFS reel. It made its debut this year at iCast, and supposedly is very good. It was well reviewed by the guys at bait finesse empire and so I am excited to see how it performs.

[Gotfish?]

That looks like an excellent setup. I love ultralight fishing, but to be honest I really don't like spinning reels. Especially on ultralights. I am fishing 6 lb. Braid to 4 (or sometimes even 2 lb.) flouro carbon leader, and I am constantly having to fight line twist.
Yesterday I had to cut out about 10 yards of tangled braid rats nest and re-tie the leader. Hopefully a good BFS setup will help that. I am assuming I will sacrifice quite a bit of casting distance but at this point it might be a fair trade off.

Odd that you are getting that much line twist. Are you overfilling the spool so it sometimes more than one turn comes off? Or using spoons or spinners without a swivel or a poor quality swivel or too large of swivel? Fishing with a light drag and having the fish pull the drag out a lot? Using lures that spiral on the fall (some darter jigs and tube jigs will, especially if snapped hard)? The line on the reel should be filled under tension, coming straight off the spool.

If line twist is your only problem with the spinning reel, that is fixable as most of us don't have that problem, just need to find out what is causing it. And you might have the same line twist with the BFS setup anyhow unless it is related to the drag.

[Dannicus]

That looks like an excellent setup. I love ultralight fishing, but to be honest I really don't like spinning reels. Especially on ultralights. I am fishing 6 lb. Braid to 4 (or sometimes even 2 lb.) flouro carbon leader, and I am constantly having to fight line twist.
Yesterday I had to cut out about 10 yards of tangled braid rats nest and re-tie the leader. Hopefully a good BFS setup will help that. I am assuming I will sacrifice quite a bit of casting distance but at this point it might be a fair trade off.

Odd that you are getting that much line twist. Are you overfilling the spool so it sometimes more than one turn comes off? Or using spoons or spinners without a swivel or a poor quality swivel or too large of swivel? Fishing with a light drag and having the fish pull the drag out a lot? Using lures that spiral on the fall (some darter jigs and tube jigs will, especially if snapped hard)? The line on the reel should be filled under tension, coming straight off the spool.

If line twist is your only problem with the spinning reel, that is fixable as most of us don't have that problem, just need to find out what is causing it. And you might have the same line twist with the BFS setup anyhow unless it is related to the drag.

It's not the only issue, and I have been fishing ultralights for many years, especially mini-jigging, and other light tackle trout techniques. I fish mostly nano-braids to flourocarbon, leaders and throw a lot of mini jigs, micro swim baits (paddle tails), and the like. If I throw spoons or spinners I always use a swivel. Still wind knots seem inevitable. They will likely happen with an ultralight baitcaster as well but I have always had less line twist with my baitcasters than my spinning gear so I assume it will be less.

The primary factor for me is that I am a lot more accurate fishing around cover with a baitcaster. While I never foresee a BFS replacing my spinning rods for trout casting in open lakes, (I love my Phenix rod and Diawa reel), I suspect it will be a lot of fun to work the edges of tullies and around cover for bass and crappie. It sounds nice to apply my educated baitcaster thumb to ultralight gear. The decrease in line twist and wind knots is secondary to being able to be more accurate.

I suppose it's a personal preference, but I really prefer baitcasters when I can use them. Nothing like palming a reel and not having to deal with a bail while kicking my tube along the edge of cover.

[Gotfish?]

When I fish the bay in my tube, I usually have 4 baitcasting setups and 1 spinning. What I like best about baitcasting is that it is easy to run the line between thumb and forefinger and feel those subtle pressure bites. I usually am throwing 1/4 ounce jigheads with soft plastics so I don't need BFS. I do have a BFS setup, it is nice for fishing the smaller weightless plastics for bass in lakes. I have a 7' Old 18 BFS rod and a Shimano Curado BFS reel, spooled with 6 lb fluorocarbon for now. I also have an older 6.5' crappie rod and a 7' kokanee rod that are both very light that I bought before BFS stuff became widely available.

[Dannicus]

When I fish the bay in my tube, I usually have 4 baitcasting setups and 1 spinning. What I like best about baitcasting is that it is easy to run the line between thumb and forefinger and feel those subtle pressure bites. I usually am throwing 1/4 ounce jigheads with soft plastics so I don't need BFS. I do have a BFS setup, it is nice for fishing the smaller weightless plastics for bass in lakes. I have a 7' Old 18 BFS rod and a Shimano Curado BFS reel, spooled with 6 lb fluorocarbon for now. I also have an older 6.5' crappie rod and a 7' kokanee rod that are both very light that I bought before BFS stuff became widely available.

Yeah I am primarily a lake guy although I do fish the bays once a month or so. I've never tried ultralight there though. When I fish the bays I have almost have your setup with 3 baitcasters and one spinning. I use the medium spinning rod for weighted flukes and the baitcasters for jigs and everything else. Although it might be fun to fish a BFS setup around the slips and docks for spotties.

I had a banner day in Mission Bay a couple of weeks ago.