Baitfinesse trout 進撃の巨人

Some days while hunting for rabbits, you may just stumble upon the lion's den. That's how it felt today when a big fat Haruan decided to make my day. I had a few hours to spare before going to work in the evening so what better way to spend it than to go for a short fishing trip.

Just 2 days back, i had about 10mins on the water before a thunderstorm came in and had me scrambling back to the car. But lucky for me i somehow managed 1 fish before the rain fell.

Today started out slow, the sun was hiding behind the clouds but the hight humidity level left the air feeling stale and sticky. Off we went though, rigged up with a 2" Jackall Peke Peke mebaru rubber on a 1g Daiwa jighead. I bounced the jig on the bottom slowly and was soon rewarded with several nice cichilids.

After arriving at an area where peacocks were more prone to lurk i decided to go with a lure swap. I made several casts and on a particular retrieve i decided to slow the lure down about 4 feets away from me and made short hard jerks. As the lure came within no more than 50cm from my feet, a dark shadow appeared from nowhere, snatched the lure, and went on it's first run taking over 20m of line out of the spool. The fish wasn't shy to show itself and leaped into the air fully clearing it's entire body while giving me a good look at the behemoth. "Owh fuck here we go.." i muttered under my breath.

I had a tiny lure with tiny and thin stock hooks, 5lb fluoro line at 0.185mm thick (or thin) and a noodly soft rod. A recipe for disaster i guess. But 10mins or so later with  countless runs, many heart stopping moments and several close shaves, i somehow managed to land the bugger. And behold...

#tatfatbelly

The lure that did the trick

After a few mugshots, shakey hands and a sigh of relief, the beauty was slid gently back into the water and off it went. What a great day.

BFS troutin?

With the recent craze of trout fishing in Japanese rivers with BFS gears, a world of soft noodly rods have opened itself up to. While there isn't any trouts to be caught locally, there sure is a lot fun that can be had with these ultalight tackles.

Locally there are plenty of fishes that can be targeted with ultralight luring, some of these fishes could be too small to be caught on conventional setups and only few, such as, ultralight anglers and fly fishermen actually bothered to give it a go, while the other part of the angling community are more likely to see these fishes as baits.

Introducing...

Abu Garcia Diplomat Boron DBC-602ULS MGS

6 Foot

Line: 3-8lb 

Lure: 2-7g

The rod is way softer than the specs suggest. Behaves like a 3wt Fly rod

Ultra light, Pun intended.

 The chosen partner due to sheer weight, or rather the lack of it. My 138g Aldebaran BFS XG Tuned

The combination

And so, the main objective of coming up with this setup was ultimately to maximize the enjoyment that sometimes small fishes can actually give, but not on your usual tackles. And whilst there is no trouts here, there are plenty of small feisty fishes that could put a nice bend on this noodly rod.

Superb FC line of choice

Outfit for the day, sticking to the lightweight theme.

Off we went...

First fish of the day!

Than, a nice Haruan decided to show up and put up a spectacular fight with some aerial displays

A fish i've not seen in a long time, a Jaguar Cichilid. What a beauty.

I've dialed down the drag on my reel to nearly non-existent, with just enough to retrieve line and relied on using my thumb to feather the pressure when a fish was on. Boy was it fun! These little fishes were able to bend the blank into a beautiful and deep bow and coupled with the low drag they were more than able to make many surprisingly entertaining runs. 

By using ultralight setups, any fish hooked up feels like a good fish. You become less conscious about what hits the lure and lose the pressure of constantly needing a big fish to keep you entertained. The simple appeal of such is often lost in the modern angling world where everyone is striving to outdo one another with the biggest catch. 

For me this form of fishing is a great way to relax and take a slower pace in fishing. Appreciating the beauty of everything this wonderful sport has got to offer, the sights and sounds of nature, and of course, the sheer beauty of our favorite finned friends, even if it's the little ones.