Ultralite Lure Fishing Outfit.

[twitchandjerk]

Personally I can't see the point of going ultra-lite?

Have you:

a) Got so much money you NEED to loose lures?

Hate the fish so much you would rather leave it with a lure and trace hanging from it's mouth than admit you lost it?

c) Kill it through exhaustion whilst taking hours to landing it?

d) Enjoy the take and the fight but are scared to touch a fish?

 

Surely it is best to land the fish as quickly as possible and return it to the water with equal haste?

 

carl

[Peter Waller]

Hi David, reckon you're right re the finances so miss that bit out folks! It is just that there is a scarcity of G.B. U/L material out there and that particular bit was written from a British rather than a US point of view and I posted it for that reason.

 

There is a very dated U.S. book out there called The Ultra-Light Angler by a Mark Feldman. It is still available in the UK and is fairly helpful. The rather dramatic front cover features a shot of a very serious angler, dressed as a typical American angler, in what looks like yellow shorty pyjamas, which to English eyes, looks a tad unusual ! Certainly no self respecting ultra-cult angler would be seen dead on the bankside cat-walk thus dressed, unless he had an extreme sense of humour!!!!!!

[Paul_D]

Twitchandjerk, maybe if you actually read PW's article you'll see that is precisely what modern U/L fishing isn't about. :confused:

[Peter Waller]

twitchandjerk:

Personally I can't see the point of going ultra-lite?

Have you:

a) Got so much money you NEED to loose lures?

Hate the fish so much you would rather leave it with a lure and trace hanging from it's mouth than admit you lost it?

c) Kill it through exhaustion whilst taking hours to landing it?

d) Enjoy the take and the fight but are scared to touch a fish?

 

Surely it is best to land the fish as quickly as possible and return it to the water with equal haste?

 

carl

Twitch mate, have you ever tried Ultra Lite? No, I didn't think you had!!

 

I rarely loose lures, and compared with jerk baits they cost pence!

 

I have never ever left a trace and hook in a pike, whether jerk baiting OR ultra-lighting. The only time I have had a snap off, whilst into a fish, was when I was jerk-baiting. The following day I found the end of the line floating on the surface, reconnected and landed the fish.

 

No, they don't take hours to land. A couple of years ago I landed a pike on conventional gear one day, and a few days later the same fish on Finesse gear. The fight was the same! Three times round the boat, a surge towards the bank and it was over. One thing is for sure, I don't drag pike out of the water before they submit, thus continuing the fight on the bank. A pike on Finesse gear is fought at a jog rather than a sprint.

 

Scared to touch the fish, ******** , whoops, auto censor got me! Try Bow-locks, grrrrrrr! But why touch it if you don't have to? Even when I jerk bait I will roll the hooks out, when possible, with the fish in the water and with minimal handling.

 

So, because I use ultra-lite/finesse techniques I hate the fish eh? I find that deeply offensive, thank you very much :mad: .

 

No, the best way is not to land a fish as quickly as possible. The best way is to land the fish as quickly as reasonable, without undue stress to the fish. A Finesse caught pike, generally, comes alongside with minimal stress or undue exertion.

 

As much as I love pike I fish for them knowing that there is a risk of damaging them. I have to accept that or give up fishing. I reckon the risk is greater with jerk baits than ever it is with finesse gear.

 

[ 13. June 2003, 05:25 PM: Message edited by: Peter Waller ]

[Newt]

"... the point of going ultra lite ..."

 

- For smaller fish, it is the only way that lure fishing is really fun. A one pound fish on "normal" lure tackle is boring.

 

- I normally use lures costing me up to maybe $1 each. And the hook wire on the small ones is light enough it will bend if snagged so I get the lure back.

 

- With the fine wire hooks, trying to horse a large fish in results in a straight hook and a lost fish. No harm to the fish and the light hooks can be bent back into shape at least once and maybe twice.

 

- With a fine wire hook and the barb crushed, any fish that breaks the line (or bites it) will get rid of the lure quickly.

 

- If you want to target smaller species with a lure, you need to use a small lure and those are near-impossible to cast with normal rod/reel/line.

 

- Folks would do well not to bad mouth a technique they've never tried and probably never even seen being done.

 

[ 14. June 2003, 01:25 AM: Message edited by: Newt ]

[The Diamond Geezer]

Got to agree with PW

 

Let TandJerk (appropriate?) stick with his 100lb braid; that's OK

 

Someone's got to get those submerged supermarket trollies out to clear the swims for the rest of us.

 

But there's nowt wrong with light-weight lure-fishing using 20 lb braid.

 

Also agree with PW that many of the anglers who voice strong negative opinions and try give advice about ultra-light lure-fishing (note: not ultra-light line or tackle fishing ... it's the lures that are UL! ) really demonstrate that they just don't know what they're talking about and clearly couldn't cast an ultra-light lure to save their lives.

 

In another posting elsewhere (not in Elt's Forums) I actually read someone (a jerk?) suggesting that a budding UL angler should add swan-shot to help with casting a light lure Shows what they (don't) know! Clearly they have no idea what tackle to use, unlike Peter Waller who clearly does know what he's doing when it comes to lure-fishing, all round, not just UL.

 

If you want some good advice and the true facts about UL lure-fishing in the UK, like I said before, you could do a lot worse than read Chas Crosby's ace article here

 

DG

[Steve Burke]

Peter, in your article you mentioned the Drennan Spinflex rod, whose action I was very impressed with when I handled it in a shop a few years back. Have the other rods you recommend got similar actions?

[The Diamond Geezer]

quote:

---

Originally posted by Steve Burke:

Peter, in your article you mentioned the Drennan Spinflex rod, whose action I was very impressed with when I handled it in a shop a few years back. Have the other rods you recommend got similar actions?

---

Steve

 

I have heard about your medical condition and views on lure-rod (un)balance but I own one of these Drennan Spinflex rods and the balance is cr*p! :mad: Wannah buy it? :confused: It's nice & tip-heavy so it should suit you .. oh, it's the 7 footer BTW Maybe a tad too long for boat fishing though :confused:

DG :cool:

 

[ 15. June 2003, 08:30 PM: Message edited by: The Diamond Geezer ]

[The Diamond Geezer]

</font>

<font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial">quote:</font><hr /><font size="2" face="Verdana, Arial">Originally posted by Peter Waller:

Thanks Chas for the accolade! I think it dates back to an article that I had published in the now defunct Pike Fisherman magazine. Also had a bit on U/L in Pikelines. Somewhere out there in the ether I have an article on U/L but heavens knows where it is.

 

Looking back at it there was probably nothing of any quality in there but the timing, quite unwittingly, was right. Fireline had just hit the market and commercially available U/L rods were beginning to appear, people were beginning to show an interest. A well known and long time ultra-light enthusiast called John Worzencraft was also hard at it and was quick to endorse what I had said. I don't know what has happened to John but for many years he wrote in various mags and was, and possibly still is, the U.K.'s number one U/L angler. John was adamant, rightly so, that the extreme line class U/L fishing from America had no place in the U.K. In its place John coined the phrase 'Finesse' rather than U/L. A twenty pound pike on two pound line is quite possible but a twenty pound pike on 15 pound braid is a tad more reasonable. Essentially the tackle, rod and reel, is accepted U/L but the line is not. Line thickness might match but not the breaking strain. The Samurai is hardly extreme U/L either, but it is a sensible rod for 'finesse' piking. Another rod, slighty more beefy than the Samurai, that's well worth looking at is the Shimanno Diaflash EX 210ML. Not U/L but designed to cast lures from 5 to 20 gms. This, like Chas, I couple with the smallest Severan CD reel for a perfect outfit for Finesse piking. Hardly a budget outfit though! Depending on where you buy them between £150 and £200 the pair.

</font><hr />

<font size="2" face="Verdana, Arial">Peter

Just to let you know that I've heard via Nick & Chas that John Worzencraft is fine and still fishing furiously (or should that be 'finessely' ), and he says "Hi! and All The Very Best to everyone for the new season and beyond"

 

There are a couple of articles by John on Nick's lure-fishing website including this one

DG

[Newt]

7ft is fine for boat work. Unless it is a very short boat and you are fishing with a partner. In that case, you do have to be a little careful of your backswing.

 

I routinely use lure rods to 7½ from my boat.

 

You can probably fix the balance by adding just the right amount of weight to the butt to make it feel like you want. Find a rubber piece (like a crutch/cane tip but as light as possible) that will fit tightly over the butt and add weights until you like the feel.

 

The better US lure rods have a threaded butt and you can buy weight kits that are made for balancing the rig but I haven't heard that any UK rods are built that way.

 

 

[ 15. June 2003, 10:05 PM: Message edited by: Newt ]