Lets the ultra-light leader thrill begin!

[okumasheffield]

It seems there is a trend of using ultra-light leader nowadays

 

1-lb fish with 6-lb leader = 1/6x thrill

2-lb fish with 2-lb leader = 1x thrill

6-lb fish with 6-lb leader = 1x thrill

 

15lb fish with 3-lb leader = ...... 5x thrill!

 

Sorry, Kelfun, hate to but have to put you on the spot, ha

[okumasheffield]

BTW, forgot to tell the story ...

 

It was another gin clear day and couldnt hook onto anything since 7:00am ...

 

Out of my desperation ... slowly put on my 3-lb FC leader with size 14 hook

 

First drift ... my fishing buddy called me and my float WENT DOWN HARD!

For sure I set the hardest hook ever in my life and FISH ON!

 

Hung up on him and my reel started spinning like crazy!

 

After 10 seconds ... no more head shake or movement ... damn! probably got snagged ...

Guess what? It started running again!

 

After landing it ... I can say is ............... SPRING is HERE!

 

Hope you enjoy the pic

[rover1.5dx]

While I understand your thrill of landing fish on light line I just wanted to reiterate that one should always use the heaviest line possible to land the fish as fast as possible so as to minimize stress on the fish. I'm not sure if everyone takes this into consideration.

 

I know you have to go superlight to get finicky fish, but whenever possible go with the heaviest line that still enables hook-ups.

 

This is especially important for fish such as resident trout during the warm water months of July and August (e.g. Grand River). As well, fighting a post-spawn (or pre-spawn) rainbow for greater than 10 minutes ain't cool in my books.

 

Nice carp! Tight-lines,

 

Rover

Edited March 26, 2009 by rover1.5dx

[Spiel]

Actually I've witnessed the trend move steadily away from light leaders. Thirty years back long rods/float rods were buggy whips and boiled spaghetti wands and were designed to handle very light leaders for trout/salmon and guys would regularly use very light leads. Todays long rods are much better designed and for the most part (not always) are rated for heavier lines thus heavier leads (this is good for the fish). I seldom drop below a 4lb. lead these days but there are occasions when gun shy trout will shy away from anything but the thinnest of leads.

[MJL]

Like Rover mentioned, I always try to use the heaviest line possible to minimize the length of time needed to bring in the fish. With that said, when I started steelheading, dropping down to 2lb mono was fairly common. With float rods like the old House of Hardy or Lews, you could literally bend them into an 'O' without snapping the line. Nowadays when the fishing gets tough, I either drop down to 4-5lb leads or break out the spinning tackle and toss spinners to the fish (I often carry 2 rods with me).

 

I wouldn't call 1 guy using 2lb leads a trend.LOL If anything, a lot of the guys I see out on the rivers are using 6-8lb leads and faster tapered rods.