I haven’t Trout fished much the last 5-6 years, my fishing interests lie elsewhere but I have a friend who insists on chasing Wild Trout every so often. On those trips, I play pseudo guide and clean up casts behind him where he skips. As his experience increases, there are less and less casts to clean up. To keep me entertained, I thought I would bring a little fun and a different twist to my Trout fishing with a BFS Baitcasting setup geared for Trout and for tinkering with Bass in small streams.
In those last 5-6 years previously mentioned, I have been using bait casters for Bass and Saltwater fishing and they have become second nature for me. For this purpose, I paired a 24 Shimano Trout One NS B54UL rod with a 22 Shimano Aldebaran BFS reel to see if I could make it work for small stream fishing. It didn't take much time, there were some awkward moments for sure but I cannot deny the fun of using it, I can't ever see me using a spinning setup again for Trout fishing.
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With that said, if anyone has ever thought about doing this or even wants to introduce a different style to their existing Trout fishing, here are some pluses and minuses to it.
Pluses
Casting
Not much if you are an underhand flip caster, in a way, it gets easier because you only need one hand as you do not need to hold the line while casting, controlling your line length or closing your bail with your opposing hand. With this setup, your dominate hand handles all of it.
As someone with lots of experience with that style of casting, there were some awkward moments as I didn't know what to do with my other hand. The ol the left doesn't know what the right is doing thing. Also, because I use bait casters bass fishing, I sometimes use my non-dominate hand to hold the butt of the rod when making long casts. Once again, that got awkward because there is no long butt on this setup to grab. After a few trips, it's not an issue anymore but the first trip, I looked like the rookie of rookies.
Line twist
Inline spinners cause line twist, it's just the nature of the beast. Due to a baitcasting reel taking line straight forward, line twist is virtually eliminated so switching out line is decreased over a spinning reel.
Fun!
I cannot emphasize the fun of using a setup like this enough. You don't always need to underhand flip cast in this game and a little flick of the wrist can make a spinner sail just above the water, under branches and brush. This aspect is not exclusive to baitcasting, people who are good with spinning setups can do this too but with a bait caster, it just becomes more fun and you might amaze yourself at the casts you make because of thumb control.
Negatives
Learning Curve
If you are experienced with baitcasting setups, you'll love a setup like this for Trout fishing. If you are not experienced with bait casters, expect a long learning curve as you need time to get past the backlash woes to where backlashes are only caused by unforeseen errors
like slapping the side of a boat, a close branch you forgot to consider in your cast, etc. it's just the nature of that beast.
Finicky
Line and Lure weight. BFS setups are finicky with line and lure weight, both affecting each other. With .24mm line (8lb), I found a lure weight of 0.184 ounce to be my sweet spot. With .22mm line (6lb), 0.165 ounce lure and with .20mm line, 0.148 ounce lure. I emphasize "for me" as your casting style may want something different but once dialed in, you don't give it much thought from there.
Some Pics
And of course a few pics because what good is a fishing post without a few catch pics. These were taken over several trips and different streams. Finding Wild Trout, Smallies and LM Bass in the same stream would be very unique.
![Image]()
![Image]()
![Image]()
![Image]()
In those last 5-6 years previously mentioned, I have been using bait casters for Bass and Saltwater fishing and they have become second nature for me. For this purpose, I paired a 24 Shimano Trout One NS B54UL rod with a 22 Shimano Aldebaran BFS reel to see if I could make it work for small stream fishing. It didn't take much time, there were some awkward moments for sure but I cannot deny the fun of using it, I can't ever see me using a spinning setup again for Trout fishing.
With that said, if anyone has ever thought about doing this or even wants to introduce a different style to their existing Trout fishing, here are some pluses and minuses to it.
Pluses
Casting
Not much if you are an underhand flip caster, in a way, it gets easier because you only need one hand as you do not need to hold the line while casting, controlling your line length or closing your bail with your opposing hand. With this setup, your dominate hand handles all of it.
As someone with lots of experience with that style of casting, there were some awkward moments as I didn't know what to do with my other hand. The ol the left doesn't know what the right is doing thing. Also, because I use bait casters bass fishing, I sometimes use my non-dominate hand to hold the butt of the rod when making long casts. Once again, that got awkward because there is no long butt on this setup to grab. After a few trips, it's not an issue anymore but the first trip, I looked like the rookie of rookies.
Line twist
Inline spinners cause line twist, it's just the nature of the beast. Due to a baitcasting reel taking line straight forward, line twist is virtually eliminated so switching out line is decreased over a spinning reel.
Fun!
I cannot emphasize the fun of using a setup like this enough. You don't always need to underhand flip cast in this game and a little flick of the wrist can make a spinner sail just above the water, under branches and brush. This aspect is not exclusive to baitcasting, people who are good with spinning setups can do this too but with a bait caster, it just becomes more fun and you might amaze yourself at the casts you make because of thumb control.
Negatives
Learning Curve
If you are experienced with baitcasting setups, you'll love a setup like this for Trout fishing. If you are not experienced with bait casters, expect a long learning curve as you need time to get past the backlash woes to where backlashes are only caused by unforeseen errors
like slapping the side of a boat, a close branch you forgot to consider in your cast, etc. it's just the nature of that beast.Finicky
Line and Lure weight. BFS setups are finicky with line and lure weight, both affecting each other. With .24mm line (8lb), I found a lure weight of 0.184 ounce to be my sweet spot. With .22mm line (6lb), 0.165 ounce lure and with .20mm line, 0.148 ounce lure. I emphasize "for me" as your casting style may want something different but once dialed in, you don't give it much thought from there.
Some Pics
And of course a few pics because what good is a fishing post without a few catch pics. These were taken over several trips and different streams. Finding Wild Trout, Smallies and LM Bass in the same stream would be very unique.
