Talk me off the ledge please

How small is your rod and how light is your line? It's not about the size of your tackle, but how you work it. Come share your Ultralight and Bait Finesse System (BFS) fishing success here!
earthworm77
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Talk me off the ledge please

Post by earthworm77 » Tue May 21, 2019 6:43 am

I was looking for a UL casting combo to chuck small beetle spins and cranks for bluegills here in FL.
I wanted something lighter than my two Volkey/Aldabarran and Speedstyle/Aldabarran BFS outfits and I also didn't want to spend a fortune. I spent a few weeks looking around and pulled the trigger on a Tsurinoya XF50L and a Tsurinoya Dragon 6-0. The reviews on the XF50L seem promising and at 50.00 it came in about 125.00 less than I would have spent on the Scorpion BFS I was looking at. The rod concerns me less and I already have a special place in my heart for Kuying rods and this seems at least comparable. I was prepared to spend 70.00 on another Kuying 662L but I thought that might be slightly too heavy for what I wanted to do with it and I also wanted a 6ft rod. I generally only fish Shimano and Major Craft/Dobyn's products with only a few deviations from those.

Now, I am slightly uneasy about the reel because I am a complete tackle snob and I hate cheap Chinese products. I've seen enough decent reviews on the reel and especially the one from BCSG Fishing, who imho is pretty solid, to have some confidence in it but I guess I am looking to you guys for any experiences you may have with either product.

I dropped about 100.00 on the combo which seems great compared to the 300.00 or so I could have. Did I do something stupid?

poisonokie
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Re: Talk me off the ledge please

Post by poisonokie » Tue May 21, 2019 8:06 am

Time will tell. You can always mount your alde bfs to it instead.
This is the way.

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Re: Talk me off the ledge please

Post by white84z » Tue May 21, 2019 10:31 pm

I fished my XF50L this last weekend. It's definitely not as refined as 150$ reels but it is plenty fine for me. Mine is paired with Proflex 2 Up and it cast down to 3 or so grams fine, tour rod is probably a bit better for the lighter stuff. What I did notice is my reel liked a relatively loose spool tension with a lot of brake. I can tell you that this rod and reel will see 10x the use than any other rod I own including my megabass.

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Re: Talk me off the ledge please

Post by Warhawk » Wed May 22, 2019 12:25 am

I’ve got 2 of the Tsurinoya reels. I have one paired up with a cheap Crappie Max rod from Bass Pro. It’s a great little combo for chasing our small bass. The casting performance is just shy of an Alphas R Edition I have on a JDM Daiwa UL rod.

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Re: Talk me off the ledge please

Post by the hooligan » Wed May 22, 2019 4:55 am

i bought a used xf50L off here for $30 to see what all the hype is about. And to my surprise its a solid reel. I tried 8lb fluoro with 1/8oz crappie jigs and it threw them fine. Surprised cause its like a 12-13 gram spool. I have so much bfs stuff i decided to spool it with 30lb braid and now its my beater combo i leave in the trunk. Handled an 8lb snakehead with no problems.

Throw some spool bearings in it and a new drag and its a great budget reel.

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Re: Talk me off the ledge please

Post by earthworm77 » Wed May 22, 2019 6:14 am

the hooligan wrote:
Wed May 22, 2019 4:55 am
i bought a used xf50L off here for $30 to see what all the hype is about. And to my surprise its a solid reel. I tried 8lb fluoro with 1/8oz crappie jigs and it threw them fine. Surprised cause its like a 12-13 gram spool. I have so much bfs stuff i decided to spool it with 30lb braid and now its my beater combo i leave in the trunk. Handled an 8lb snakehead with no problems.

Throw some spool bearings in it and a new drag and its a great budget reel.
I can see that it will definitely need to get new drag washers.
I'll likely put new orange seal bearings in it too and de-grease the reel.

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LowRange
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Re: Talk me off the ledge please

Post by LowRange » Wed May 22, 2019 9:17 am

You dont want to spend too much if you are just getting your feet wet.

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Re: Talk me off the ledge please

Post by nstd » Wed May 22, 2019 10:00 am

earthworm77 wrote:
Tue May 21, 2019 6:43 am
I am a complete tackle snob
I think you know your answer. Get another Aldebaran BFS.

I went through the same thing, and now I have two ABFS. Since you have one, you know "the feeling." You'll hold the $50 reel in your hand and all you wish is for the silky smooth feeling of the well refined one. Eventually you'll buy another Aldebaran and you'll be out $50 because the x50 doesn't have much value, you can't sell it for much, and it'll end up collecting dust.

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Re: Talk me off the ledge please

Post by earthworm77 » Wed May 22, 2019 12:22 pm

nstd wrote:
Wed May 22, 2019 10:00 am
earthworm77 wrote:
Tue May 21, 2019 6:43 am
I am a complete tackle snob
I think you know your answer. Get another Aldebaran BFS.
That is sound advice if I was going specifically the BFS route. I purposely don't want to spend the money on another Aldebarran.
I do have an older MG7 Aldebarran I could spruce up if the XF50 turns out to be a lemon. The more I read about it though, the more confident I am that it is exactly what I should have bought. Uljersey....did a great write up on his experiences with the reel so far. I am keeping my fingers crossed.

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LowRange
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Re: Talk me off the ledge please

Post by LowRange » Wed May 22, 2019 1:28 pm

Even if you do upgrade to a higher end rig you can keep the XF50 with a cheap UL rod to use as a Kayak rig or something. That's what I do with my BM3 BFS and Teton 662L. I still have my Haibo Smart 50 that I use with a 5'6" M Cherry Wood that I also use for 1/8 jig heads and small plastics from the Kayak. If I dump it and I lose them forever then I won't bat wn eye.

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Re: Talk me off the ledge please

Post by nstd » Thu May 23, 2019 1:05 am

earthworm77 wrote:
Wed May 22, 2019 12:22 pm
nstd wrote:
Wed May 22, 2019 10:00 am
earthworm77 wrote:
Tue May 21, 2019 6:43 am
I am a complete tackle snob
I think you know your answer. Get another Aldebaran BFS.
That is sound advice if I was going specifically the BFS route. I purposely don't want to spend the money on another Aldebarran.
I do have an older MG7 Aldebarran I could spruce up if the XF50 turns out to be a lemon. The more I read about it though, the more confident I am that it is exactly what I should have bought. Uljersey....did a great write up on his experiences with the reel so far. I am keeping my fingers crossed.
in that case, this might be worth looking into

https://www.aliexpress.com/item/lighter ... 89baeb22d4

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Re: Talk me off the ledge please

Post by poisonokie » Thu May 23, 2019 7:32 am

nstd wrote:
Thu May 23, 2019 1:05 am
earthworm77 wrote:
Wed May 22, 2019 12:22 pm
nstd wrote:
Wed May 22, 2019 10:00 am
earthworm77 wrote:
Tue May 21, 2019 6:43 am
I am a complete tackle snob
I think you know your answer. Get another Aldebaran BFS.
That is sound advice if I was going specifically the BFS route. I purposely don't want to spend the money on another Aldebarran.
I do have an older MG7 Aldebarran I could spruce up if the XF50 turns out to be a lemon. The more I read about it though, the more confident I am that it is exactly what I should have bought. Uljersey....did a great write up on his experiences with the reel so far. I am keeping my fingers crossed.
in that case, this might be worth looking into

https://www.aliexpress.com/item/lighter ... 89baeb22d4
Holy crap! These Chinese companies are shameless! That's why I hesitated saying anything about those trout spoons on Ali Express. I suppose the Japanese companies are shameless in their own right for charging what they do for some of this stuff, but they're paying for R&D, quality materials, and fair wages. You can either buy a quality product and feel bad about spending the extra cash to do it, or buy something similar, albeit inferior, and feel bad about where your money is going...
This is the way.

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Re: Talk me off the ledge please

Post by earthworm77 » Thu May 23, 2019 8:01 am

nstd wrote:
Thu May 23, 2019 1:05 am
earthworm77 wrote:
Wed May 22, 2019 12:22 pm
nstd wrote:
Wed May 22, 2019 10:00 am
earthworm77 wrote:
Tue May 21, 2019 6:43 am
I am a complete tackle snob
I think you know your answer. Get another Aldebaran BFS.
That is sound advice if I was going specifically the BFS route. I purposely don't want to spend the money on another Aldebarran.
I do have an older MG7 Aldebarran I could spruce up if the XF50 turns out to be a lemon. The more I read about it though, the more confident I am that it is exactly what I should have bought. Uljersey....did a great write up on his experiences with the reel so far. I am keeping my fingers crossed.
in that case, this might be worth looking into

https://www.aliexpress.com/item/lighter ... 89baeb22d4

Again, I'm having trouble justifying the Tsurinoya which has had a bunch of favorable reviews to date, the reel in the link is even more expensive......and looks like the epitome of what I am afraid of regarding these knock off type reels.

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Re: Talk me off the ledge please

Post by LowRange » Thu May 23, 2019 10:29 am

There are a ton of these Shimano knock off reels. This one is a Cadence CB8 on Amazon.
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Re: Talk me off the ledge please

Post by Knotty » Fri May 24, 2019 8:42 am

I have two XF-50 and one Aldebaran. Love the XF's for how good a job they do for the price and love the Aldebaran for the engineering wonder it is.

If you're a JDM snob, I don't think you'll like the XF. While they work well, they're not refined. You're going to feel the growl of the gear teeth.

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