Small Stream Trout Fishing with Bait Finesse System: BFS Fishing UK

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Adopting "BFS Fishing Japan - Style" and applying it to an English small trout stream made for a wonderful fishing trip this spring. Although I caught some fish on a more classic style flat-sided minnow hard bait, I wasn't getting as good a hook-up proportion as I'd like. Lots of trout were nipping or flashing at the bait without getting hooked.

Switching over to a smaller, soft bait (a 50-mm Fat Ass and 1.5-g Cheb head) increased my hook-up rate. But - it didn't stop the hook pulling free from a lively jumping fish as you can see in slow motion in the video!

Casting the light lures (weighing between 1.68-g and 2.5-g in total) with a custom S-glass rod and ultralight baitcaster reel with a spool weighing just over 6g is a lovely finesse experience. The Bait Finesse System style of casting relies so much on loading the rod and allowing it to straighten and throw the bait for you. It's a very satisfying feeling when the lure flies out just right.

The light line, light lures and low casting angle (plus the control of the lure during flight - and as it lands) can create a very soft and subtle splashdown; when you get it right. That helps to avoid spooking trout - and in fact, just the right amount of "plop" can get a fish to look towards your bait - rather than cause it to run away!

Dedicated barbless single hooks (on hard baits) and either barbless or de-barbed single hooks on soft baits make it much easier to release a trout without having to grip it hard and remove protective slime. The hook in this video is debarbed - with the point of the barb squashed against the shank - though there is a gap between the centre section of the barb and the shank (so you can see daylight in a central "bridge" shaped section of the barb). The curved bend of this hook pattern makes it a little more difficult to competely flatten the barb throughout its full length. However, Nine Seven Tungsten tell me that they can source barbless equivaltents of these hooks...

Also, the mouths of trout are put together a little differently from the mouths of pike, bass, perch and other fish. Treble hooks seem very prone to damaging the maxilla bone (the upper, outer jaw bone) of trout, so I prefer not to use trebles when targeting trout.

For predators with larger mouths treble hooks can be appropriate. In fact, for pike, they are sometimes better than large single hooks since they tend to sit in one spot - rather than (potentially) sawing to and fro on thin connective membranes.