Ultralight fishing: spinning equipment, choice of baits. Video
Ultralight fishing gives the angler the chance to catch fish in any conditions. This becomes possible thanks to the use of ultra-small baits.
Ultralight fishing is especially relevant in reservoirs and rivers with strong pressure from spinning anglers. It’s better to catch a few small fish than not feel a bite while fishing.
- Rod
- Coil
- fishing line
- Lures
- Search for fish
- Techniques and tactics of ultralight fishing. Video
In addition, ultra-light tackle gives the fisherman exciting moments of fighting with the caught fish, when every jerk is transferred to the hand of the spinner. It is clear that a special place in the ultralight is given to the equipment of the spinning rod.
Rod
The basis of ultralight tackle is the rod. To choose the right ultra-light “stick”, you need to decide on the range of baits that will be used for fishing.
For fishing with spinners and wobblers, a rod with a length of 2.1-2.4 m and a cast weight of up to 8 g is suitable. It is best to choose a medium-fast spinning rod. But some spinning anglers successfully cope with “parabolics”.
Fishing with small twitching wobblers gives special pleasure to ultralight lovers. Fishing can be considered as a true aesthetics or art. For beginner spinning rods, ultra-fast or fast-action rods with a hollow tip and large taper are suitable. The length of the “stick” should be 1.8-2.1 m.
Microjig fans require a different type of spinning rod. Firstly, it must be made of high-modulus carbon, which ensures high sensitivity of the gear. Secondly, the rod is chosen with a fast action, and the thin tip glued in works as a nod. Thirdly, the length of the spinning rod is selected within the range of 1.8-2.4 m with a test weight of up to 10 g.
Fishing with poppers.
You can find a video and article on this topic here. And here you will learn how to properly place live bait on a hook.
Coil
When choosing a reel, you must have at hand the rod on which it will be installed. The determining factor is not the size of the “meat grinder”, but the balancing of the gear. Models of sizes 1000, 1500 and 2000 are suitable for ultralight. The reel is installed on the spinning rod and checked where the balance point of the tackle is located. The center of gravity should be in the area of the handle near the front foot of the reel.
When purchasing a reel, you should check the following performance characteristics:
- smoothness and softness of movement;
- minimum spool capacity (ultralight requires small spools);
- Is the thin line laid well?
It is generally accepted that only predators can be caught with spinning rods and artificial baits.
Experienced spinning players with extensive experience will not agree with such a categorical statement. Well, first of all, where is the line between the so-called. semi-predatory fish (chub, ide...) and purely peaceful ones (carp, crucian carp, bream, roach, etc.)? As practice shows, there is no such limit. And under certain conditions, the most peaceful fish can be caught with a spinning rod. Moreover, without any self-cuts, but clearly by the mouth. I haven’t caught peaceful fish with a spinning rod very often. Even less often did I do it on purpose. But I would like to present some of my comments on this issue in this post.
There are hungry periods in the year (spring, late autumn), when peaceful fish feed so greedily that they can easily grab a fry. This is fact number one.
There are reservoirs with low feeding potential. When there is little food, large individuals of peaceful fish easily become cannibals, switching to a diet of their own smaller counterparts. This is fact number two.
The larger the individual peaceful fish, the greater the likelihood of its predatory tendencies. This is fact number three.
And simply a large fish can aggressively drive away smaller fish vying for its food. Having hit such a fish, in whose place there was a wobbler, it is far from a predator that sits on the hook of a spinning rod... This is fact number four.
Spinning baits can imitate not only fish fry, but also beetles, crustaceans, worms and other natural food for peaceful fish. This is fact number five.
Based on the above facts, there is such a mysterious area of spinning fishing - hunting for peaceful fish with artificial baits.
Which of the peaceful fish is caught on a spinning rod most often? These are: rudd, ide, bream, gudgeon. This is typical for relatively large specimens, but throughout almost the entire open water season. In the spring, after a hungry winter, many peaceful fish are caught on a spinning rod: crucian carp, carp, carp, roach, etc.
And now, about the gear and techniques that give the greatest chance of catching peaceful fish with a spinning rod. To try to purposefully hunt for peaceful fish with a spinning rod, it is worth using ultralight and light spinning rods in the test range from 0 to 8g. Since playing the bait with a rod will play an important role in such fishing, you need fast-action gear and quite short - 1.8-2.1 m. The reel is small, with a smooth running and ideal line laying of 1000 or 2000 series. Cord or monofilament? You need to have both (a reel with a few spare spools to help). If the sensitivity of the tackle is critical (mainly when tapping the bottom), then you should fish with a line of 0.08-0.12mm. If the fish is especially careful, then use a good monofilament line of 0.16-0.18mm. A leash made of rigid monofilament or no leash at all. Placing even the thinnest steel string leashes in fear of a pike biting is unacceptable.
Now, the fun part: the bait. As you might guess, peaceful fish are most likely to be caught using the smallest baits. First of all, this is a microjig; turntables No. 0 and No. 00; small oscillators and, of course, miniwobblers.
In this case, a microjig can be considered a head load weighing from 1 to 5 grams. The hooks are accordingly small and thin. It is better to use microtwisters (inch and half-inch) as baits, and foam fish of the same size in the current. When fishing for carp and crucian carp, it is worth trying various silicone imitations of crustaceans, worms and other natural food.
Number zero spinners are especially loved by crucian carp and roach in the spring. The rudd does not refuse either.
Miniwobblers, mainly cranks, are, along with microjigs, the most promising spinning baits when hunting for ide, rudd, roach, and gudgeon.
As for the styles of posting and animation of baits, there is simply no point in advising anything here. There is a complete flight of fantasy and sheer creativity here. From banal monotonous wiring in different water horizons, to complex tricks with an almost immovable bait. One thing I can say is that when catching peaceful fish with a spinning rod, the slowest retrieves often produce results, with long pauses in the action of the bait.
Practical benefits of peaceful fish
The big advantage of peaceful fish is that it grows quickly and is quite fatty. It makes delicious dishes, and it is good in almost any form: fried, dried, smoked, stewed, baked, etc. One cannot help but highlight fried crucian carp, smoked bream, dried sabrefish, roach and silver bream. Carp makes very tasty and nutritious dishes. Tench baked in the oven can generally be called a delicacy.
Predators, of course, are also tasty, especially pike perch, catfish, eels and burbot, and fish soup is the best of them. But in stores you most often find carp, crucian carp, silver carp, and bream. That is, in this industrial context, peaceful fish is a more popular product.
There is a separate category of fish that are used to clean water bodies of algae and reeds. These are, of course, cupids and silver carp. These are heat-loving fish that quickly destroy underwater vegetation and reed shoots. In many artificial closed reservoirs, these fish are released so that they are suitable for the life of other fish: carp, perch, roach and other fish. Silver carp have such a structure of the mouthparts that the water passing through it is cleared of greens and turbidity. It becomes transparent. That is, in this case, the large white fish acts as a water filter.
There is another distinctive feature of peaceful fish associated with their sense of smell. It is very well developed. For example, bream, carp, crucian carp and roach distinguish sweet odors very well. In warm weather, fishermen add vanillin, chocolate, and fruit flavors to baits and baits. Unlike many predators, almost all peaceful fish have a sense of touch that allows them to detect a wide range of odors. This is very important to remember when fishing. Don't be afraid to experiment with scents. At the same time, be sure to dose attractants so as not to oversaturate the baits and baits and not scare away the fish.
