[Nick Phillips]

This seems to be comming up a lot at the moment and there seems to be a bit of a trend towards this type of plugging.

I have done lots and lots of plugging with these tiny little plugs over the years and not just in saltwater and I would say to anyone thinking of doing it next year to be careful because 'saltwater' fish especially tend to TOTALLY INHALE these little plugs/lures.
This can lead to lots of 'digging deep' with forceps and not pliers to remove the hooks etc.
Ultralite fishing is brilliant fun but very greedy and voratious fish like Pollack and Bass will be hooked very deep down,thats the way it is with these tiny lures.

 

[Keith White]

For me It'll be more about Bream, Trigger's and Wrasse.

If I start getting amongst Gar's and Mackerel and other stuff I won't be too upset.

I've got a variety of stuff ready to go from 1cm through 7cm that are all either very thin or
overall, very small full stop. I guess I'll have around 2 dozen or so lures when I've finished collecting
what i 'think' I need.

 

[Andy Mason]

Perch inhale any kind of bait so I nearly always crush or go barbless these days. Might be worth considering alround when going light.

 

[Retired]

Perch inhale any kind of bait so I nearly always crush or go barbless these days. Might be worth considering alround when going light.

That's a good idea. Thanks.

Andy is it possible to swap a treble for a single? This might affect the action but some tweaking, testing and tuning should fix that?

Have a good weekend.

 

[Retired]

PS Andy do perch feed at night??

 

[Andy Mason]

I've found with crankbaits, Perch will hunt down lures and like to hit from behind so often a single treble on the back works fine, removing the lower one on small crankbaits doesn't affect the action hardly at all. They do have bucket mouths so you'll either lip hook via a treble as it closers it's mouth down or it'll be inside it's mouth if you're slow. When fishing live baits such as maggot or lobworm, they often suck the bait right in, almost down to their guts so watch that for relatively static baits (small SP etc) anything moving tends to hook in the lip or jaw, single or treble hook. Float or light ledger fishing can be frustrating in detecting mouthing or taking the bait often resulting in striking into nothing. Leave the take to develop a bit more and it's down it's gullet. Hard to tell so worth going barbless or being a dab hand with forceps. As for swapping out trebles for singles? i've never tried it to be honest as most hardware is relatively small anyway and even a 6" Perch will hammer a lure nearly it's own size, greedy buggers. I've had great success on circle hooks though, slowly slowly and they self hook through the scissors every time. Doubt it would work on a moving bait but would work a treat on static softies, must try it myself.

Perch feed best at dawn and dusk, the twilight hours, their eye sight is far superior to other fish. They will feed at night but it's usually the big solitary ones that do and I've never seen anything caught on a lure at night. They take fresh bait or dead baits though.

One other tip, get some red knitting wool. Tie a little strand to the odd lure, they seem to love it.

Oh and thank god you've got no PIKE.

 

[Mike Kennard]

A good point Nick.
I fish with ultralight or light lures a lot. Normally I am targetting smaller fish like mackerel, gars or small bass. Occasionally I catch a better size bass when fishing light but not very often. If I was fishing a venue where there were better bass showing then I would likely be fishing bigger lures. Having said that my biggest bass this year was 7lb 5oz and it completely inhaled a Saltiga minnow 14 so only the very tip of the lure was showing, the same has happened with slightly smaller fish and 6in Sidewinder eels.

I don't normally crush my barbs but maybe I will think more about it in future.

 

[Ben Field]

Having said that my biggest bass this year was 7lb 5oz and it completely inhaled a Saltiga minnow 14 so only the very tip of the lure was showing...

I had that happen once this year as well - also on a Saltiga. Couldn't believe it! Must have been (very) hungry!

 

[PatrickG]

Nick, I do quite a bit of ultra lite stuff but all for sea trout. It is incredibly effective, I fish with plugs that range from 2 to around 7g 12lb eight strand braid and 8lb fluro. It makes so much difference it just ain't funny. Yes you can go out and nail the odd sea trout on a toby but there are a lot more trout there than people think and just like there fresh water brothers as they are in fact exactly the same fish they are smart and shy. Micro plugs and high quality fluro hae increased my catch rate by god knows what percentage. I am just waiting for dec/jan to trail a new batch of micro lures from IMA thta look particularly promising.

To be honest I have poached a lot of information and technique from Japanese fresh water trout fishermen who lure fish for trout a lot on ultra fine gear, megabass and smith particularly make some outstanding kit.

The main obstacle I have found has always been the rod that will suit this type of fishing best and afterr checking out a few different pieces of kit I have gone back to a luck craft esg 2, I had the esg and sold it but just got nick from bass lures to drop me off another one, the action on these rods is just right. You need it fast enough to work the plugs but slow enough to cast them so having looked around I find myself back where i started.

 

[Mark Sleep]

Sorry to be a bit off topic, but Patrick, which Lucky Craft rod do you use? I have been looking around for info on the 3-23g 8ft 3 model

 

[jim hendrick]

Try this combo with the SMITH micro lures or even try the SMITH inter boron rods - http://www.probassfisher.com/2008/03/ex ... s-esg.html

 

[Paul Smyth]

Try this combo with the SMITH micro lures or even try the SMITH inter boron rods - http://www.probassfisher.com/2008/03/ex ... s-esg.html

Jim

Where can you buy the Smith inter boron rods?

Which one would you recommend for seatrout?