So you think you’ve done ultralight fishing, I bet you haven’t. I say that because

of my trip to the World Fishing Championships in Coimbra, Portugal where

learned the true meaning of ultralight. When I fished against 185 anglers out of 37

different nations, I learned that ultralight means line that weighs about 1/2 pound,

fish a hook the size of an eyelash, using a bait the thickness of 2 eyelashes –

microlight!

Okay, so you haven’t fished ultralight, I’ll win the bet. When I was fishing in the world

Championships, I also thought of a small 4′ ultralight at 4 lbs. wow proof of gold, 2 lbs. Test

it was the stealthy way to fish. This quickly dissipated when I fished in local competitions.

with 1 pound fishing line and until my trip to Portugal, which was pretty stealthy.

The competition in Portugal was vs. the best fishermen in the world, guys who

make our Bassmasters look like AmeteurMasters – (lots of them). Fishing

the competitions there are intense with the 185 fishermen who line the banks of this canal and

many use 42 foot 1/2 lb. poles. test line The fish that were available to us

they were quite delicate feeders eating very small organisms. Yes, there were bigger fish.

in the river, but those that were available in great numbers were the smaller fish.

The world level competitions last 3 hours and are fished from the coast where the fishermen

try to fill their maintenance nets (bags of live fish that are submerged in the water) with

as much weight as possible. A place to fish, catch as many fish as you can to

build your weight. If these anglers tried to go only for big fish, the results would be

bad for most.

When using ultralight hooks, we use size 22 and 24 hooks. Hook sizes get

smaller as the numbers increase, so to get an idea of ​​how small this hook is, find

your largest tab. The hooks we used were very thin wire and yes, they are very

delicate. Twice during my first 3 hours of competing for the World Championship, I broke

the point of my hook and had to get a new hook and rigged leader. A good

idea when you are catching a lot of fish- i had 36 the first day, change your hooks

often to keep them very sharp when using ultralight hooks. One of the main factors

on the hooks the hard beaks that the mullets had were broken. Their jaws are built

to pinch and tear off bits of food from between the rocks-

The line was a completely different story. When people say your line is as thin as

spider web, they have never really fished microlight. The line we used was so thin

that a hit from the post would split it in half. The diameter of the line was .07

and his average 4 lbs. the line is .20 and falls outside of the ultralight category. This is

not to say that 4 pounds. the test is not light when it comes to shrouded, toothy or larger fish

fish, but for my money the .20 line is a really thick line.

Why is the need for ultralight equipment so extreme? He wanted to go fly fishing. Not,

not with a giant hairy fly, but with an actual fly larva. The larva of the midge fly or “blood worm” was

the key bait in our competition. I said before that the hook was thinner than an eyelash,

the bait was not much thicker than an eyelash. These tiny red larvae are delicate

to put on the hook. While I didn’t need a microscope, I did need to bend down and

get really close to snag a partner. Getting the hook without popping

his skin was key as a successful connection meant the bait would move

and the fish would respond. A midge fly larva closely resembles a mosquito larva and

If you’ve never seen that, imagine half the lead of a (ultralight) pencil.

While the average angler will never experience ultralight fishing, there are many

tactics and techniques that are available to you. One thing I learned was not to get

installed with my knowledge of fishing and always keep looking for new ways to go

fishing. The only thing I learned is that sometimes if you fish a lot, you can be

tipping the fish. When I fish near my home in Chicago, I now fish lightly and some

my biggest fish caught including a 9lb fish. Walleye were taken at 3 lbs. line and size 14

hook-ultralight.