Fishing With Light Tackle.
By Ernest Miller

There’s something to be said for landing fish on equipment that’s rated for half the size of what your going after. Using a fly fishing blank tied up as a spinning rod is the perfect partner for light line. Fly rod blanks tend to come in longer lengths which is a good thing to consider when using light line. The energy of fish pulling on the line is distributed though out the length of the rod. Here is a way to demonstrate this point. Set the drag on your real to where you think it should be. Grab the line twelve inches above the reel and pull. Make a note of how much tension or force it requires for your drag to engage. Now grab your line several feet after the end of your rod . Try to pull the line out as your fishing poll has a slight bend in it. You should notice quite a difference. It takes much more pressure to engage the drag after the line travels through the guides of a fishing rod. How much of a difference is effected by how long and how flexible the specific fishing poll is.

When fishing pressure is heavy on Steelhead it’s not uncommon to drop down to 4 pound test to land Steelhead from 6 – 10 lbs. The fish become line shy in shallow clear water like what we have in normal conditions on the Muskegon River. You can watch the Steelhead make drastic moves as they dodge to get out of the way of your fly of spawn as it’s floating toward them. Using a smaller diameter line or even fluorocarbon line is needed to keep your presentation in the stick zone. Either is a good option. One advantage to using fluorocarbon line is you don’t always have to drop the pound test line your using .Dropping to lighter line in the Muskegon River can be frustrating as you catch on rocks or any other part of the bottom and break off more. Breaking off can be costly as it’s becoming more and more common to use high quality hooks or flies which aren’t cheap. Light line is more vulnerable to abrasion and or being cut by structure. When Steelhead fishing in a river situation with light line. We make sure to use Maxima leader line. That may seem like just another fishing plug because they sponsor me but it’s not. This is very high abrasion resistant fishing line. I’m sponsored by them because I believe in there products. Every product out there has certain characteristics . Understanding products and when to use them is just like understanding what size wrenches you have in your toolbox before you start a project. This happens to be a characteristic of Maxima you can count on to shine.

Fishing light tackle and fishing line paired well together can make fishing for pan fish more enjoyable. I’ve found fisherman like to have a long fishing pole for smaller fish just so they can see their fishing poll bend. Having your fishing pole bend over on a respectable Blue Gill is a great thing to see but it’s not necessarily the highlight for me. Having a workable well rounded approach to what your fishing for is what it’s all about. Matching your light fishing rod with the correct reel and line allows for so many advantages in regards to your fishing presentation. When a fishing rod and fishing reel are balanced, the design of the two together will set in your hand without holding it. This is very pronounced when fly fisherman don’t have balanced equipment. They will actually get blisters from having to hold the fishing pole handle to tight. When fishing with a spinning gear blisters aren’t as common. The results are usually in the form of fatigue after a person has been fishing for a good portion of the day. The advantages of using light fishing line with a well balance fishing pole and fishing reel make the whole thing more worth wild. Light fishing line is smaller in diameter. Not only are you able fit an adequate amount of fishing line on a smaller fishing reel but the line stays on the reel better because it tends to have less memory . Have you ever had your line want to spring off your spinning reel as soon as you flip the bail ? The next thing you know your lines all wrapped up around the handle or back of the bail. Making note of this factor will helps reduce those types of tangles. A smaller diameter fishing line also offers less resistance as it travels through the guides on the fishing pole and as it travels through the water. With less resistance a very small presentation such as a 1/64 ounce jig or a hook and a very small split shot can be cast with much less effort. With less resistance a small presentation is now able to pull the line through the guides without having to overcast to get your bait out there. It’s nice not having to throw so hard you live bait comes off every other cast. Learn more about fishing light tackle in West Michigan at www.michiganfishguide.com.

Ernest Miller
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