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Field Report: Saltwater BFS in the Pacific Northwest

1080 608 VARIVAS

Field Reporter

StickyRiceGoesFishing

The date of the fishing trip:

January 2022

Location:

Puget Sound, Seattle, Washington

Target Fish:

Flounder, Sculpin

Fishing Style:

Saltwater, BFS (Bait Finesse System)

Tackle Information:

Bait Finesse System (BFS) fishing in the U.S. has certainly grown in popularity over the last couple of years, but the vast majority of anglers joining the Bait Finesse ranks are doing so in freshwater. In contrast, I started down the BFS path on the shores of my local beaches here in Seattle.

From the moment I used braid, I was a believer, and have played with various brands since. VARIVAS reached out to me recently to see if I’d like to try out their Avani Light Game PE. Having been a fan of a few of their other PE lines, and knowing this particular flavor was designed for my kind of fishing, I couldn’t say no.

To be fair and objective, I fished with the Avani Light Game line over several outings, mainly focusing on flounder. Due to some crazy weather, things were a bit of a grind, but I ended up dialing things in eventually. At the very least, the slow fishing was an opportunity to acquaint myself with the characteristics of this line made for Light Game.

Here are the highlights:

  1. The line is very easy casting, and pairs well with a BFS reel such as the Daiwa Alphas Air TW. I was able to get very good distance with 1/16, 3/32, and 1/8 oz. rigs–my wheelhouse weight range when chasing flatties.
  2.  It’s also supple when compared to other lines I use, including the VARIVAS Area Super Trout Master Limited series, Super Trout Advance series and the HighGrade PE x4 braid. I felt that this contributed to its ease in coming off the spool easily, in spite of fishing in a salty environment where your line can quickly pick up grit.
  3. Sometimes when a braid is too limp, it can bow when you’re fishing and reduce sensitivity and your response time in setting the hook. The Light Game does exhibit some of this, but not so much so to the degree that I would have lost an edge in reaction speed or sensitivity. A flounder’s bite has a very distinct thump which I detected as easily with any other PE riad I’ve used, even a little more so than a couple of brands.
  4. The Avani Light Game doesn’t dig into itself; and any bird’s nests are easily picked out.
  5. It holds a leader knot really well–I would credit it that suppleness I mentioned. Sometimes I have trouble with braids cutting into my leader as I seat my knot, but the Avani Light Game gave me no trouble at all.

As you can tell from the pictures, I didn’t catch any monsters. Then again, that’s why it’s called light game and my tackle was geared for this purpose. In this regard, the Avani Light Game is very well-suited to this task! If you’re like me and prefer the salt chuck to the sweet water and enjoy BFS and ultralight tactics in that environment, I’d encourage you to give the Avani Light Game a shot. It’s a solid PE 4-strand braided line that strikes a good balance between casting performance, manageability, and sensitivity–crucial qualities, even for pint-sized quarry!

Follow StickyRiceGoesFishing on Instagram for fun action figure packed, light game, shore fishing content.

Thank you, StickyRiceGoesFishing, for taking us up on trying out the Avani Light Game line and sending in your thoughts. We greatly appreciate it! Great photos, too! – the VARIVAS America Staff

VARIVAS Products used in this report:

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Field Reports on the VARIVAS America ‘Fish Tales’ blog are selected from submissions to the VARIVAS America Field Report Program and from VARIVAS Japan published articles and media sources.
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Testimonials, statements and opinions presented in Field Reports on the VARIVAS America ‘Fish Tales’ Blog are applicable to the individuals depicted and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of VARIVAS or VARIVAS America.
Testimonials are representative of customer and user experience. Opinions, experience and results, however, will vary and may not represent the experience of all customers and users of VARIVAS products.