What is BFS, and what are its advantages

What is BFS?

BFS stands for bait finesse system and is the technique of using a baitcasting reel and a light powered rod to cast light lures that are normally too light for a traditional baitcaster.
BFS fishing has been around since the early 2000s, and was popularized in Japan before being brought over to the States and the rest of the world.

What are the advantages of BFS fishing?

The advantages of BFS, where ultralight fishing really shines in American angling, comes down to a few common scenarios of the average angler.

Pressure

For a lot of your run-of-the-mill, weekend anglers, spots that hold good size or numbers of fish are extremely often pressured waters.
Pressured waters are areas where there’s a lot of fishermen fishing, relative to the amount of fish in that body of water.
One of the main reasons for Japan’s rise in BFS popularity is that waters in Japan are often wildly overfished and pressured.
When the pressure is up, there are two techniques that can help fishermen: going somewhere else, or downsizing your lures and presentation.

Accuracy

Years of fishing with a spinning rod equates to about a month of fishing with a baitcaster when it comes to accuracy.
Because of the way line goes off the spool, baitcasters are incredibly popular compared to spinning reels because they can provide a much more accurate presentation significantly easier.
This is especially helpful when ultralight fishing in tricky environments, including creeks, rivers, bank fishing around trees, dock skipping, and fishing around overhangs.

Creeking

BFS has a massive advantage when wet wading, or navigating through creeks of all sizes.
As mentioned earlier, it’s easier to accurately cast a baitcasting BFS setup than it is to cast a similar spinning setup.
Additionally, spinning setups are more prone to casting higher and less accurately, which is a disadvantage when you need to hit a certain pocket or are in a tight space.
Another advantage is in the size of rods themselves. Many creek-specific BFS rods are around 4’6”–5’, and can be found even shorter if necessary.
BFS fishing can even have advantages over fly fishing in many scenarios, because fly rods—even the shortest and lightest—are often around 7’–9’, which makes overgrown areas incredibly difficult to fish.

Matching the Size / Making it More Fun

Sometimes the fish are just smaller, and you want something that’ll make fishing for smaller fish enjoyable.
XUL BFS rods can make tiny panfish a blast, and casting sub-1 gram lures can be a fun adventure in itself.
You can catch large fish on ultralight tackle. You can’t catch smaller fish on larger tackle though. It’s a one-way street.
When you know the average fish are smaller, it’s best to keep the tackle similarly diminutive.

Fun

BFS fishing is just subjectively a more fun way to fish. If you’re not in a competition, it’s just a more engaging way of fishing.
A bit trickier than a spinning setup, a bit easier than a fly setup. It looks cool and feels fun.