Hi Guys

Any other "ultra light" fly fishers here ?? I believe the deffinition is 000# to 3#

Im a newbie to Ultra light but im loving it big time ! Been playing with a Sonik 3 8' 3/4# and bought a Vision Cult 9' 3# which i can only describe as "superb" on the river, even taken it float tubing with great sucess.

Ive read decussions this this forum and others and alot of guys seem abit affraid of light gear with posters saying better off sticking with 5# over 3# or get a 4# just to be safe

Take the plunge you will learn alot and love it too

Im already thinking of getting a 8' or 8'6" 2#

Any other Ultra light converts/enthusiast's here ??

Love to hear what tackle you got and what you fishing for ??

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Englander

"Barbless since 2008"

Vision GT Four catapult 9' 6#
Vision GT Four SW 9' 9#
Vision 3 Zone 9' 5#
Vision Cult 9' 3#
Shakespeare Trion 9' 5/6#
Cortland Endurance 9' 6#
Shakespeare Expedition float tube
Vosseler DC3 reel
Okuma Helios 8/9 reel
Greys G series 3/4 reel
Snowbee Geo 3/4 reel

I am not afraid of light tackle and it obviously floats your..ermm..float tube but I have yet to encounter a situation where a 4 was too heavy.And yes, I do fish v small streams.I have tried an ultra light set up and it was like driving a vintage car- great fun but not really fit for purpose.All I learned with fishing a 2 and 3 was that a North York Moors easterly makes the bloody things nigh unusable.Obviously I must be a **** caster.

i too fish ultra light but you must be sensible with it. no use going to avington with my marksman 6ft 2wt. i mainly fish small over grown streams and only light gear will do. as for light gear i have a few bits,
hardy marksman 6ft 2wt
orvis superfine troutbum 6ft 6 4wt
sage TXL 7ft 10 3wt
sage XP 7ft 6 4wt

when fishing these small streams,fishing into the wind you should try overlining the rod by 1. this enables accurate short range casts.

jon.

I use the TXL 0 wt, just come back from using it straight into a stiff north wind, which it copes with really well with a short furled leader and tippet.
Wind I can cope with, but the blustery side stuffs the only b*gger for accuracy.

We are a small stream but fish run to 2 1/2lb and chub to 3 1/2lb (below) the only time I have had trouble fighting a fish is when on a couple of occasions ( out of hundreds) have slipped past down stream and got into some fast water... but my 4 wt would have had a problem there too.
Not happy with the quality of Quiet DT from Sage though swapping to a silk 1 WT soon.



I know I have posted this before but it illustrates a point!

9' Sage VPS #4
7'6" Sage Flight #3
6' Hardy Flyweight #2

They all have their purpose #4's duties have include nymphing larger rivers and stillwater dries. The flight #3 gets used for nearly all my local river fishing and is much better than a lot give it credit for. The little Hardy gets teamed up with a hardy golden flyweight reel and comes out on those sun dappled days spent by woodland streams. I have always enjoyed fishing light gear and being stealthy on the river just seems to go hand in hand. Most fish in my river run to a pound with few and far between being much bigger so there is no need to go in all guns blazing with your 5/6# . Much in the same way people load a 100yrds of backing on their reels which must be more in hope than anything else.

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http://www.fishleven.co.uk/
http://www.edenangling.co.uk/

Being a northern type, I'm with Grayson on this. I had a brief spell of striving for ultra light tackle believing - mistakenly as it happened - that ultra light means ultra presentation.....but too many occasions spent trying to control a 2/3# in a brisk downstreamer on the middle Eden (a good sized, brawling river), convinced me that it was in that particular case, counter-productive. Especially when a good fish was hooked and it took too long to boss for the enterprise to be ethical.

I nowadays never drop below a #4 for general river fishing. Even a small Ribble feeder beck near me is perfectly tackled by a #4, the only concession being that the length of rod needs to be cut from the standard 8'-9', down to 6'6" - 7'.

I cannot understand why someone would consider a #0-2 rod in lengths of 8' plus. If you're odging about on a tiny stream with a seven footer, then fair enough...but please be sensible when fishing bigger waters. It's neither big nor clever to undergun yourself in the name of aesthetics and/or fashion.

Matt

__________________
The sun pushed dark spokes of melt and sparkle
Across the fields of hoar. And the river steamed -
Flint-olive.


http://northcountryangler.blogspot.com

After seeing you in that Hat!!, you are in no position to give fashion tips or aesthetics.

I dont believe that any of the fish in the stream I catch would be out of the water quicker with your average 5 wt ( having fished plenty with both weights, even with the 2 lb+ trout, you just kick your wrist back, point the handle towards you, and use the full bend of the rod against the fish, Rather than the tip to mid section of a 5 wt.
The extra flex also helps protect the tippet. Less break offs.

Touche! That's a valid point Chris

__________________
The sun pushed dark spokes of melt and sparkle
Across the fields of hoar. And the river steamed -
Flint-olive.


http://northcountryangler.blogspot.com

And less trout swimming around with Caddis flies and 2-3ft of co-polymer hanging out their mouths.

On my local stream, I use a 7ft #3 Sage TXL with a cheap mill-end double taper that I picked up from John Norris. Despite the low cost, it actually casts very well. I would however like to start experimenting with cane and silk lines, when I can get round to it.

Ultra light is 000wt to 0wt, with tippets of 7x and lighter, with flies size 18 and smaller. 1wt to 2wt is light, and 3wt to 5wt is medium, and 6wt and above is considered to be heavy..
Ultra light fly fishing is done at a distance of less than 5 meters from the rod tip. Like fishing with cane rods, ultra light fishing is a culture all of its own. It has less to do with the size of fish you are targetting, and the size of the river, but more to do with the techniques requiring delecacy and accuracy.
Light tippets are essestial to the ultra light experience, and are generally able to be fished more successfully than with 2 and 3wt rods. Four and five pound fish, with an 8x tippet, is not unusual with a 000wt.
I simply love it, and is my first choice for pocket water fishing.
The key to successfull ultra light fly fishing, is the critical leader setups you need to give you the balance between presentation and accuracy in differing conditions. For 000wt, there are leader recipes for upstream winds, cross winds, downstream winds, and winds of different streangths. It can all be very technical, but I generally build my own mono leaders, with various belly sections of differing diameter mono, depending on conditions. It is not unusual to use no less than half a dozen different leaders on any given day.
I don't use furled leaders at all for anything under 2wt, as they are limiting in the sense that you are unable to trim them down, to add a heavier or lighter section close to the fly line if you need to.