Home Forums Fishing Freshwater braided lines and ultra light equipment

I was screwing around last month and setting up a rod for a couple kids that are friends with my son. They don't have fishing gear and don't actually go fishing unless with me.

I decided that I might have less trouble with the amount of help they need if I used braided line.

This will pull free, and straighten the little hooks if they tangle, or just break off and pull in whatever they are snagged on. I use little Mitchell 308 reels and 5.5ft ugly stick rods for these loaner setup for the kids.

Those old mitchell reels were never designed for braided line but they hold a ton and work okay for them, on the small fish we target with ultra light gear.

Now........ I caught a SM bass on one of these rods about 5 lbs that blew my mind with the battle that took place with a light rod and a powerful fish. The hooks came out when that fish got to shore so I did not land it, but the equipment was probably not a factor. Just the way it was hooked.

The really was a great fishing experience. I have a newer Shimano Stradic 1000FJ that is a higher end reel. It's mounted on an older St Croix 5.5' ultra light rod. I'm absolutely going to load that with 100 yards of 15lb braid now. The line is no longer the weak link in ultralight fishing. Take that worry out of the mix and you can really have a great battle with a good fish on light gear.

The real problem is hook setting power with ultra light gear. However using a live bait with a circle hook on the meaty fleshy mouth of channel cats is no problem.

Probably not as easy to get a good hook set with a pike or walleye. Bass fall someplace in the middle. I've lost plenty of bass with heavy equipment having them shake the hooks loose. Probably more small mouths then largemouths, but the SM bass are out of the water so much the line goes slack quite often letting the hooks fly!