Shimano Calcutta Conquest BFS reel

Some of my JDM Spinning Rods and Reels.

MajorCraft Finetail Banshee FBA-602L rod

MajorCraft Finetail Trekking and Traveler FTX-46/505UL rod

MajorCraft Finetail Works Tune Area Spec FTA-582UL rod

Please don’t take this as me showing off…that’s not what I’m about. Rather, when researching JDM tackle, you run across names and numbers without pictures provided. I’m merely putting forth pictures to anyone interested in JDM tackle.

I have ZERO affiliation with MajorCraft but have found them to be good values in terms of quality and performance. There are LOTS of other brands out there and there are higher and lower priced rods and reels as well. As stated before…we are really happy with these rods in regards to price vs performance.

Two of the main places I purchase my JDM tackle from are Digitaka and JDMTackleHeaven. I have found them to be reasonably priced with fast/reliable shipping. Again, no affiliation. Also, Chris Stewart over at http://www.finesse-fishing.com has a selection of BFS rods, reels, lures etc. He’s based in NY so shipping might be faster on certain items.

I am by no means an expert on JDM tackle, rather I try to post stuff I have researched, purchased and used. I hope it might prove helpful to someone…Cheers!

Outing 25 April 2021…

The wife and I took a quick trip to one of our local lakes this morning. We counted 6 boats on the lake with more arriving when we left. All told, we fished for 2 hours before the wind kicked up and it got kind of crowded. We walked to the opposite end of the lake and in no time we had 5 boats up on us. Guess that happens when you’re catching fish. There was no ill will amongst anyone and I think everyone was just glad to be out fishing and trying to get out of the wind.

Today was the first time I was able to use my Major Craft Finetail Area Stage FAX-B642UL baitcast rod. I LIKED IT! It was a little more limber than I was expecting but worked very well. I ended up catching 6 largemouth bass. Conditions weren’t great due to all of the recent rainfall. The lake was about 4ft high and stained. It was a day of catching “salad” as we call it. Almost every cast forced you to pick grass, weeds or algae off of your lure. But like I tell the wife, “if you aren’t fishing in the weeds then you aren’t where the bass are.”

I took the GoPro this time and tried to shoot some video for the blog. The wind made it tough due to where we were positioned on the lake (facing into the sun)

https://videopress.com/v/kiXrUwMR?preloadContent=metadata

https://videopress.com/v/mehkDeKM?preloadContent=metadata

I managed to catch 2 of the 6 fish on video. Because of the wind, the GoPro wasn’t able to pick up my voice commands very well. The sun felt great and we had a blast just getting out there and relaxing and catching fish…

Got Out With My Shimano Calcutta Conquest BFS…

We waited for the temps to climb this morning and then headed to a local lake. I wanted to take my Shimano Calcutta Conquest BFS reel and my Major Craft Finetail Stream FSX-B502L rod. I figured that the only way to become proficient with it was to use it for several hours. I only experienced one minor backlash in 3 hours of fishing so I was pretty happy. I managed to catch 6 fish, 5 Largemouth bass and 1 Warmouth but I didn’t get a single picture. As anyone who is familiar with Oklahoma knows, wind is always a factor and today was no different…it was blowing at 20+mph today.

Due to previous commitments, we had to cut and run after 3 hours.