For instance, instead of using fiberglass to build with, manufacturers are now using high modulus composite graphite to ensure that the next ultralight fishing rod you purchase will be the last rod you buy as well. There are a lot of benefits to the added price tag, like increased rod action, ability to control the fish, as well as feeling every nook and cranny located on the bottom of the pond you’re fishing in. Where ultralight fishing rods have come in the last few years really is incredible.

Even for ultralight fly fishing, the rods have increased in length and action, with more and more manufacturers producing ultralight fly fishing lines. These lightweight lines are great for getting small bugs and nymphs into the tightest of places, where most heavier fly rods can’t attempt to reach, let alone a spinning outfit. This is a great way to unload a pond of her harvest in a real hurry, so make sure that you aren’t practicing your ultralight fly fishing techniques on the same pond too often — the fish will get hook shy!

With ultralight fishing reels, the manufacturers have now increased the drag pressure on the front of the spinning reels to suit up to 10 pounds of drag and more sometimes. While this is too heavy for your ultralight fishing lines, it is good to know that you have the backing behind you if you really need it, and that when the time comes your drag isn’t going to give up on you. Having this heavy of a drag setup means that you aren’t even going to be bothering it while using 4lb or even 6lb test line. Just be careful not to snap lines that short, because you can easily over tighten the drag to a setting that is way too stiff!

As you can see, ultralight fishing gear has come incredible lengths over even the last 5 years. No longer will you see the shelves loaded with junk for sale for under $20 that includes a full tackle box of lures that are guaranteed to work, as well as a rod and reel that would be better used as an antenna for your old box style television.

Now you will find a lot of highly specialized ultralight fishing tackle that does a very good job, but also comes with a bit heftier price tag. The bottom line is that if you expect to catch a lot of fish, instead of playing around with a busted rod, or a broken down reel, then you need to invest some money into some decent ultralight fishing gear. It is proven you catch more fish, now just give yourself the best chances.

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First things first, when the sun sets, bass have limited vision. Yes, their vision is still better than ours, but they rely more on their lateral line to “feel” movements in the water, rather than their eyes, to see it. They also pick up scents better at night, because of the limited vision. All this means, is that when it comes time to pick a lure, make sure you have something with some thump, or scent to it.

Night bass fishing really weighs more toward heavier gear, but you can still catch fish with ultralight tackle at night. Some baits that I highly recommend using are topwaters. You don’t get to see the explosion, but you still hear it, and feel the fish. The reason I say that I prefer ultralight topwaters at night, is because of the noise they make. Almost all topwaters have some type of noise to them, and this helps fish key in on the lure.

Good baits that really stick out in my mind are buzzbaits, and poppers. Use your buzzbait if the fish are very active, and run the popper if they are in a neutral mood. If you are able to see the water, and tell where your strikes are coming from, usually on full moons, or around this period, have a worm or jig rigged up with a rattle, and some scent ready to throw to missed strikes.

A lot of strikes will be heard, and this makes your adrenaline pump for a split second, usually causing you to pull the hook from the fishes mouth. If a second cast to the area doesn’t reveal the fish, this is when you toss the jig or worm to the same spot. Fishing with jigs and worms at night takes extreme concentration to avoid killing fish by gullet hooking. I prefer using braid at night when ultralight fishing because of its sensitivity, and low visibility.

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So what about the ultralight fishing pole? These things have come a long way from the old “buggy whip” rods that people are used to. They now look like a medium action rod, in a smaller frame. A stout backbone, and parabolic tip means you can put pressure on the fish now, using ultralight fishing equipment. Before, you had to actually hold the line between your fingers, and use your fingers as drag to move the fish around. It was complicated. By the way, this is a big NO-NO with ultralight braided fishing line. You WILL need stitches. I promise.

How about these ultralight fishing lures? Well, this is one place that ultralight bass fishing hasn’t changed much. You can still pick up a small lure from the 1950’s and catch fish with it today. However, they have advanced the technology, research, and experience that comes with building better lures. Today’s lures have better action, more functions, better and sharper hooks, better paint jobs and color schemes. The classic lures STILL work. Some of the newer ultralight fishing lures just work better though.

People still say you catch smaller fish with ultralight fishing equipment. This is true, for the most part. What they fail to tell you, is you catch A LOT more fish. On a given day, my fishing partner will take his baitcaster, and a spinning rig. I will take my 6′0″ Pflueger Trion GX, and we both choose a few lures. I usually take a popper, a 6″ worm, and a grub with jig head combo. He brings the typical, buzzbait, spinnerbait, jig and trailer. Colors don’t matter for these tests.

Now what normally happens, is yes, my fishing partner will catch the biggest fish of the day. However, he usually catches only 2-3 fish in a pond fishing trip. That’s fine and dandy if you are fishing for an hour, or going after trophy fish only. If you are tackling trophy fish only, you will be lucky to get 1 quality bite per day. Back to the story. While he is searching for that one big fish, I am search for fish period. It is proven that fish hang out together. Bass, Sunfish, Catfish, all hang out around the same type of structure in ponds.

Once you break out the ultralight fishing lure, you get the smaller, more aggressive and eager fish, to let you know where the big ones are. It just works. Once you are pulling small fish after small fish off of your line, cast after cast, you know that you have found the stock pile. Move up to a little bigger lure, and keep fishing that spot hard. Once you stop catching fish from there, move on down the bank about 10 yards.

So in this 3 hour fishing trip, my partner managed to catch I’d say about 10 pounds worth of fish. 3 fish mind you. I can’t count the number of fish that I caught. Seriously, no exaggeration. The total largemouth bass however, over 1 pound that I caught ended up at 16. Now, when was the last time you caught 16 good fighting sized fish in a 3 hour trip? Not to mention 100+ other fish?

But to top it off, I ended up with the biggest fish of the day on that trip! His biggest fish was in the 4 pound range. I told you that I sometimes switch to a 4″ senko, and that day, the 4″ senko was the ticket. My fishing partner had been throwing a 5″ green pumpkin senko, and got bit by his biggest fish. I knew a cold front just blew through, so that fish may have been luck. The cold front made me realize that if he caught his big fish with a 5″ senko, there must be a bigger, less eager, smarter fish that has a sort of “belly ache” down there, not wanting a bigger meal.

I stuck with the 4″ green pumpkin senko for 45 minutes. My catching diminished, but I expected it… Sunfish and Catfish don’t like senkos for some reason, but I knew this. After about 45 minutes I was getting a little frustrated that my theory wasn’t working out. I was still catching 1/2 – 1lb bass, but I knew that I could get a big one, using my partners same tactic.

I cast the senko out one last time, put the rod between my arm and side, and started to gather the little things on the ground, to get ready to head out. After about 30 seconds, I took the rod back in hand, not even paying attention to the line like I should have. I twitched the bait one time, and felt a solid thump through the ultralight braided fishing line. I knew this was the one.

He instantly started running with the drag. I almost worried about my little Pflueger ultralight fishing reel, but I had faith. Pulling back and forth for 10 minutes, my partner realized that I was going to need a little help getting this one on the bank. He gathered his gear, and came down the bank to where I was located.

The fish and I fought for another few minutes, when I finally got him bank side. My partner grabbed the net to keep the fish from running again, and we got him landed. My partner had the boga grips, so I finally get to weigh one of my fish for the day! After the fight was over, we put her on the lip gripper. A hefty 5 pounds 12 ounces! Big fish of the day, and my season so far!

This just goes to show that Ultralight Bass Fishing does not have to mean whippy weak rods, out of date lures, and small fish!1000 Words About Ultralight Bass Fishing!

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Have you tried tossing a jig lately? They are guaranteed big fish baits, so why haven’t you? In this case, we are going to scale down sizes a bit, instead of targeting just LARGE fish, we’re gonna empty the pond! Find out how to fish it!

Start by lightly flipping one of these baits using a spinning rod. Pick any spot along the bank that is different than the rest. The spots that usually stick out to your eyes are the places where bass are grouping. They like different settings too! Get the jig to softly land in the water, and let it sit for a few seconds. Give it a light hop or two to get it in motion, and then just squeeze your rod handle to make the hairs breathe a bit. The bass are going to eat it up. Most of the time, the fish will just suck the bait up, and you won’t feel anything. Other times, you might feel a light “tick”. Set the hook.

Around standing timber, and docks are also good places to toss the Booyah Bitsy Bug. Letting these lightweight baits fall along pylons, and stick ups are great for thumping bass on top of the nose. The small profile even allows you to skip the jig up underneath the dock to work it back to you. There are many applications, and I have even learned that on some days, the bass just prefer it swimming along the bottom. I prefer using the black/blue and the green/brown colors in both 1/8 and 1/4 oz depending on the wind or current.

We all know that jigs are big bass baits, but what about the smaller versions, like the Booyah Bitsy Bug jig? These smaller 1/8th and 1/4 oz models pack a mighty punch. Throwing them in a few key areas will help you catch a lot more fish. You may not catch all of the trophies in the pond, but you will make up for it in numbers.

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When I am going bass pond fishing, I take only 2 rods, and 2 baits, in a few different colors. Follow these tips, and you too can carry a small pocket sized tackle box, and unload a pond of its fish!

Pond bass fishing can sometimes be a frustrating game. It doesn’t have to be that way though. Instead of loading up your tacklebox full of lures, getting to the pond, and changing lure after lure, try these few techniques and stick with them for a decent amount of time, and you will have a better catching, with less fishing.

I love using plastic worms. I mean, what bass fishermen doesn’t love a plastic worm? They have been around forever, and will continue to be a staple in many anglers boxes. I have figure out though, that you only need a couple colors. In general, a 6″ size will be perfect for ponds. Not too big, not too small. Even for cold fronts. The colors I prefer to use are: green pumpkin, black, and tequila sunrise. I prefer to use Powerbait because of the scent. I’m not always paying attention to the strike and line, and have missed bites on other baits because the fish will spit the bait out before I get the chance to set the hook. Not so with the Powerbait worms. Try the 6″ and you won’t be sorry.

A topwater popper is an excellent bait, providing insane topwater strikes. There is a kit I found on Amazon a while back (I linked it at the bottom) that had 4 poppers in it. This is all you need for bass pond fishing. If there is a cold front, use one of the smaller sizes. If the frogs are chirpin, use the frog color. If you see wakes coming off the water, and the bass are chasing gills or minnows, use the minnow colored one. Get the drift? Throw a topwater all day long, from sun up til sun down, and back to sun up. When you get a missed strike with the topwater, throw your powerworm a couple feet past the missed strike, and start working it. You will mop up the pond bass fishing!

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This question comes up often. What length rod should I use for ultralight fishing? It isn’t an easy answer though. There is a couple things to consider about length when choosing a new rod. Some people believe that you must use a short rod in the 4 1/2 foot to 5 foot length. They believe that this length gives you the most whip, and backbone for fighting the fish. This is a common misconception however.

Rods of this length are usually used solely for creek fishing, or places where there is a lot of overhead hanging cover for baits to get stuck in. These short rods do provide excellent placement, but they also degrade casting distance severely. These provide the shortest casts of all lengths of rods.

Ultralight fishing rods in the lengths of 5 1/2 foot to 6 foot are found in the middle when thinking about balance. The tip still allows good casting distance, while the backbone gives plenty of strength for fighting the fish. You don’t sacrifice much accuracy with this length, you can still use it as a light action flipping stick, or pitching stick for 1/4oz jigs in tight places. This is a technique for smaller fish on ultralight gear however, use bigger gear for the bigger fish locked into the muck!

This length of rod is considered general use, and most people can get by using a 6 footer. They still give you good accuracy, and lure placement, but you must practice a little longer to achieve the same accuracy that you would with a 4 1/2 footer. The difference is minor, but it does take some adjusting.

The longest of the ultralight rods, 6 1/2 foot and longer provide the longest distance for casts. This is good for throwing spinnerbaits or topwaters, you can get them going so far that it is hard to see the little baits! These long rods kill your accuracy however, which is why they should be used for open water casting and swimming baits. You can really burn spinnerbaits and buzzbaits with these long rods, not to mention unloading your spool from casting so far!

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The next time that you go to the pond for a fishing expedition, make sure that you don’t forget your ultralight gear. When it comes to pond fishing, nothing beats it. The smaller line diameter, and lure sizes pose less of a threat to the fish, making them more eager to bite! These smaller fish are almost what I consider “dumb” and will bite just about anything. Larger fish have learned, normally from people using larger baits.

There are also some decent sized fish in these ponds. One of my biggest fish, a 7lb 14oz monster caught in the spring, was out of a residential retention pond. I caught her while spawning on ultralight fishing gear, using a 6″ plastic worm. Twitching it across her bed, she finally took it to move it away, and I set the hook. Not the biggest fish that I have ever caught, but the biggest one on this small of gear, that is for sure!

You don’t necessarily catch the biggest fish in the pond using ultralight fishing gear, but you do catch a lot of them. Pretty much, you are guaranteed a great time on the water. As long as you are going after more fish, and not worried about the size of the fish, you will have fun. Isn’t it about being out on the water anyways?

Not to mention, is the cost of ultralight fishing. You can get a tackle box, some lures, and a rod and reel combo for less than $50 total. That is the cost of one of my full sized rods! There are a lot more effective ways to catch more fish, than spending $500 on what the professionals say you need. Remember, they get paid to say that!

Technorati Tags: pond fishing, Ultralight Bass Fishing, Ultralight Fishing, Ultralight Fishing Tackle