Bought this BFS gravity reel and Tharp MH ROD dec 2023 . Absolutely in love with this combo . I definitely want to buy a matching setup. Hopefully ARK will have a sale
I pair the reel with 2 piece ark genesis medium light rod and I’m very impressed!
So far I’ve been using only cheap bfs reels and I decided to spend a little bit more money this time and choosing this one was right decision, I love it and I feel the difference!
Dear reader, if you want to skip to the end, just buy this reel.
I love throwing light weight lures between 1/16th and 1/8th of an ounce, but I hate the twisted tangles of spinning reels and constant bail management. Finally, this BFS offering has given me the best of both worlds. I've caught more fish in more places with this reel than any other in my arsenal. I'm throwing the lures I want to with the style of reel that I love, with control like I've never experienced before, and the ability to present small and atypical lures has landed me some of the largest fish of my life. Honestly, if I could go back and learn to cast baitcasters all over again, I wish I started with this reel. Using a baitcaster with light lures has made it obvious where I've developed bad habits, and so I've learned more about brake settings, thumbing and subtle casts in a matter of weeks with the Gravity BFS than a full season with a traditional baitcaster. My casting technique has never been better and now I have a blast putting the casts exactly where I want them. Another benefit is that birds nests tend to be very small, due to the low momentum of the lure and spool- the learning curve doesn't come with very high a price! If I could only have one baitcasting reel for the rest of my life, this would probably be the one.
The warranty service Ark offers is outstanding. I've had the reel since the early spring and I'd prematurely managed to wear out my gears, and they honored the warranty; they sent me a new replacement. My only wish is that I could buy parts to service my own reel after the 1 year warranty expires. Ark, if you're reading this, please consider carrying spare parts (like gears!). Just this past Saturday I landed 31 fish on it, from 5 different species, sunfish, crappie, yellow perch, large mouth bass, and a pickerel, the largest of which was 16" and in excess of two pounds. A phenomenal day, made possible by Ark fishing.
Sincerely- a true fan.
🆕Gravity BFS
Mine was good out of the box however after 3 uses it developed a whine and wasn’t able to cast as far. I took out the spool and noticed that somehow my line had gotten into the spring on the axle of the spool luckily I was able to remove it and I thought it was good. I went to use it again and the whine persisted. So I checked and sure enough my line got into the center of the spool again. I’m using 5lb fluoro which is thin but shouldn’t be able to slip past the ends of the spool and get into the center. Some tweaks to make sure that can’t happen are necessary
We apologize for the issues you've experienced with your reel. Please feel free to start a warranty claim under the service tab on our website, and our team will be more than happy to assist you. There can be many contributing factors as to why this issue may be developing, and we want to get this solved for you. - Team ARK