Ultra Light Fishing - I Bet you Don't Know What that is!

So you think you have done ultra-light fishing- I betthe first day, change your hooks
you haven't. I say that becauseoften to keep them very sharp when using ultralight
of my trip to the World Championships of fishing inhooks. One of the major factors
Coimbra, Portugal where Iin the hooks breaking was the tough beaks that the
learned the true meaning of ultralight. When I fishedmullets had. Their jaws are built
against 185 anglers from 37for pinching and plucking bits of food from between
different nations, I learned that ultralight meant linerocks-The line was an entirely different story. When
that is around 1/2 pound,people say their line is as thin as
fishing a hook the size of an eyelash, using a baitspider-web, they have never truly fished ultralight.
the thickness of 2 eyelashes -The line we used was so thin
ultralight !Ok, so you have not fished ultralight, I winthat one bump of the pole would snap it in half. The
the bet. When I fished in the Worlddiameter of the line was .07
Championships, I too thought a little 4' ultralight withand your average 4 lb. line is .20 and falls outside of
4 lb. test or wow, 2 lb. testthe ultralight category. This is
was the stealth way to fish. This was quicklynot to say that 4 lb. test is not light when dealing
dispelled as I fished local competitionswith cover, toothy fish or larger
with 1 lb. fishing line and until my trip to Portugal, thatfish, but for my money, .20 line is really thick
was pretty stealthy.The competition in Portugal wasline.Why the need for ultralight equipment so
vs. the top anglers in the world- guys that wouldextreme? I wanted to go fly fishing. No,
make our Bassmasters look like AmeteurMasters -not with a giant hairy fly, but an actual fly larva.
(many of them). The fishingMidge fly larva or "bloodworm" were
competions there are intense with all 185 anglersthe key bait in our competition. I said earlier the
lining the shores of this canal andhook was thinner than an eyelash,
many using 42 foot poles with 1/2 lb. test line. Thethe bait was not much more thick than an eyelash.
fish that were available to usThese tiny red larvae are delicate
were pretty delicate feeders that eat very tinyto put on the hook. While I didn't need a
organisms. Yes, there were larger fishmicroscope- I did need to lean over and
in the river, but those that were available in largeget real close to put a couple on the hook. Getting
numbers, were the smaller fish.World-levelthe hook in without popping
competitions are 3 hours long and are fished fromtheir skin was key as a successful hookup meant
shore where anglersthat the bait would wiggle around
attempt to fill their keep nets (live fish bags that goand the fish would respond. A midge fly larva looks
down into the water) with asmuch like a mosquito larva and
much weight as possible. One spot to fish from,if you have never seen that- picture a half a pencil
catch as many fish as you can tolead (ultralight).While the average angler will never
build your weight. If these anglers tried to go justexperience ultralight fishing, out there lies many
for big fish, the results would betactics and techniques that are available to you. One
bad for most.When using ultralight hooks, wething I did learn was to not get
employed size 22 & size 24 hooks. Hook sizes getsettled in with my fishing knowledge and to always
smaller as the numbers go higher so to get an ideakeep looking for new ways to go
of how small this hook is- findfishing. The one thing I did learn is that sometimes if
your largest eyelash. The hooks we used were ayou fish heavy, you may be
very thin wire and yes, they are verytipping off the fish. When I fish near home in
delicate. Twice during my first 3 hours of WorldChicago, I now fish light and some of
Championship competition, I brokemy biggest fish caught including a 9 lb. walleye were
the point off of my hook and had to get a freshtaken on 3 lb. line and size 14
hook and leader rigged up. A goodhook- ultralight.
idea when you are catching a lot of fish- I had 36