Ultra Light starts

[Butcherboy]

My ultra light journey starts in morning. Quite looking forward to this

 

[John Aston]

You will bloody love it, I bet. Progress reports please.

My tentative view is that this prolonged high pressure weather is making the fish disinclined to move far or fast for a lure. Takes I had in September, with more unstable conditions , were often violent . Now most are very subtle.

 

[ian g]

I'm looking forward to hearing how you go on . I enjoy lure fishing but just don't do enough . Need to remedy that.

 

[Butcherboy]

Will report in gents, out Monday River Hull hopefully

 

[The Sogster]

Look forward to your results in the 'Simon Pavey memorial big perch challenge'

 

[Butcherboy]

Managed a couple of hours this morning. Small Perch and something that felt like a Marlin on this setup unfortunately the big one slipped the hook. Great fun

 

[Butcherboy]

Look forward to your results in the 'Simon Pavey memorial big perch challenge'

I'll try

 

[Butcherboy]

Fantastic scrap on light gear

 

[flightliner]

My ultra light journey starts in morning. Quite looking forward to this
View attachment 32157

View attachment 32158

I have the same pair of scissors.
Good luck with the ultra light setup BB hope you net a few nice fish!

 

[John Aston]

Most fishing involves taking far too much gear- and one of the charms of fly fishing and ultralight lure fishing is how little gear you need. Apart from rod, reel and net , nearly all my ultralight gear is in this zip bag . If your signifcant other buys Clinique stuff at the perfume counter , bags like these are often free. They are brilliant at holding all your stuff for a day's sport. (And terrific for leads, feeders etc too).

I don't like having jigs loose as they can get jumbled up and even damaged. I use these very small snap lid fly boxes , and they are perfect.

My tackle audit shows I have 2 or 3 of these boxes spare. They are all well used but still fit for purpose. It is nearly the season of goodwill , so if anyone wants one , let me know and you can have it FOC .

 

[Keith M]

I use these boxes for keeping some very small 4cm plugs in which I was going to try for Chub; however I haven’t yet got around to replacing the treble hooks with single hooks; so haven’t used them yet.
I also have one for keeping a few of my very small mepp’s spinners in.



Keith

 

[Butcherboy]

Confidence is building

 

[@Clive]

Well done.

This and John's thread had me digging out my own UL outfit. I also dug around in my old fly-tying box and found some long shank lure hooks and copper beads that will come in handy for drop-shotting and adding a bit of weight to small latex paddle tail lures. The temperature is dropping down to low single figures though as the week progresses so it might be a few days beforer they get an airing.

 

[Butcherboy]

Well done.

This and John's thread had me digging out my own UL outfit. I also dug around in my old fly-tying box and found some long shank lure hooks and copper beads that will come in handy for drop-shotting and adding a bit of weight to small latex paddle tail lures. The temperature is dropping down to low single figures though as the week progresses so it might be a few days beforer they get an airing.

Ive been really enjoying it. Might be a bit too cold this week from today though

 

[Butcherboy]

Starting to get addictive now

 

[Butcherboy]

-4'c start to the day today. 35 Perch to a 1lb in a couple of hours. This style of fishing has totally hooked me
The Milfine Ghost Blade is a joy to use, I'm fishing 0.6g jigheads and can't fault it.

 

[John Aston]

Another fun afternoon on the canal . Very cold , iced over in places and I was not optimistic. Fished small jigs for 90 minutes without a take and while having a coffee I enjoyed watching three otters playing -mum and two young 'uns I think.

I moved the half mile to the edge of town, where at least there was no ice and it felt a little warmer. I elected to fish a light dropshot rig with a 4g lead and a size 10 Kamasan B983 with a cut down ballzy worm as the canal is wider and deeper in this area. I used dropshot as you can fish very slowly , or even static, and the cold bright conditions meant the fish wouldn't be moving far or fast .

Bingo - just about a fish or take a chuck for 75 minutes until my hands got too cold (left gloves at home). Nothing remotely sizeable but who cares on such light gear? Takes often very gentle, and apparent only by the line moving at right angles to the direction of retrieve , something I've noticed even with 2lb plus fish .

I have done a lot of dropshot with heavier gear (6-10g leads , size 1 or 1/0 hooks ) for big perch , and done well , but the small fish were made so much more fun by using the ultra light set up.

I still love the ABU Carabus rod but I do wish I had not bought the matching ABU Carabus 1000 reel. It is a thoroughly nasty reel-even on a warm day the reel is far too stiff on retrieve , as if the innards had heavy duty grease . And in today's cold it was unacceptably effortful to wind - and you really don't want that on a lure reel. Avoid . There will be (yet another) Daiwa Legalis soon .

 

[Butcherboy]

Another fun afternoon on the canal . Very cold , iced over in places and I was not optimistic. Fished small jigs for 90 minutes without a take and while having a coffee I enjoyed watching three otters playing -mum and two young 'uns I think.

I moved the half mile to the edge of town, where at least there was no ice and it felt a little warmer. I elected to fish a light dropshot rig with a 4g lead and a size 10 Kamasan B983 with a cut down ballzy worm as the canal is wider and deeper in this area. I used dropshot as you can fish very slowly , or even static, and the cold bright conditions meant the fish wouldn't be moving far or fast .

Bingo - just about a fish or take a chuck for 75 minutes until my hands got too cold (left gloves at home). Nothing remotely sizeable but who cares on such light gear? Takes often very gentle, and apparent only by the line moving at right angles to the direction of retrieve , something I've noticed even with 2lb plus fish .

I have done a lot of dropshot with heavier gear (6-10g leads , size 1 or 1/0 hooks ) for big perch , and done well , but the small fish were made so much more fun by using the ultra light set up.

I still love the ABU Carabus rod but I do wish I had not bought the matching ABU Carabus 1000 reel. It is a thoroughly nasty reel-even on a warm day the reel is far too stiff on retrieve , as if the innards had heavy duty grease . And in today's cold it was unacceptably effortful to wind - and you really don't want that on a lure reel. Avoid . There will be (yet another) Daiwa Legalis soon .

I bought the cheap advanta 1000 reel, £14.99 with braid. Replaced braid with diawa J 6lb. it's very good with 2 years warranty.

https://www.anglingdirect.co.uk/advanta-dropshot-jig-fishing-reel-inc-braid