Here goes an article by my friend and great fisherman Tomislav Jukic about Mediterranen light game, hope you enjoy.
ULTRALIGHT FUN
No surprise, my
favourite type of fishing is spinning, casting artificial lures and
retriving them back, trying to mimic bait and attract target fish to
bite. I dont like to sit arround and wait for fish to come, i like to
walk and find them by myself, and offcourse at the end catch them.
So many different
spinning options and techniques, from saltwater to freshwater, from
the biggest bluefin tunas and monster GTs to small stream trouts.
Million of different posibilities.
I have done many
offshore fishing trips in my fishing career all over the world and
my favourite type of
spinning is 110% popping for GTs, but with limited time and resources
i cannot spend all year fishing for them in far away oceans.
So like many others
i have to adapt to my close to home waters and species.
I live in Slovenia,
and we have amazing rivers, streams and lakes. I spend also a lot of
time in Croatia all year round where i do mostly saltwater fishing.
Many anglers are
using very strong rods for small fish that are the most common catch
arround areas where I fish, and I dont see where is the point. Why
not enjoy fighting small fish with light rod? It is not like fighting
a 100 kilo fish with big and heavy fishing gear, but you will still
have crazy fun fights and you will definatelly hear a lot of
screaming drag. Isnt that the best noise there is in the world?
Better noise than exaust of a sports car thats for sure.
You should feel the
adrenalin when you hook 1kg fish on 0-5gr rod. And still with some
experience fish will be easily pulled out.
All this began 5-6
years ago, when i bought my first ultralight spinning rod for fun,
casting weight 0-5 grams. I didnt even know what im going to fish
with this rod as it seemed to light for everything. I paired it with
small shimano 1000 size reel, thin braid and leader, small jig hooks
and some soft plastics. And the result was something i didnt think it
will happen, crazy addiction, crazy fun and a lot of adrenalin.
On the beginning, i
used this setup for small ponds filled with trouts, for fishing in
small harbours and from docks, using small woblers and soft plastic
smelly worms. Many fish were cought and more and more lures tested.
Later i found schools of bonitos offshore, and i was sure i will not
land any as rods were to light. But i tried, and bonitos from 1-1.5
kilos were landed on small 5-7gr casting jigs, the fights and runs
were amazing, sometimes we even had to follow hooked bonito with boat
as we were almost getting spooled. Crazy crazy fun. Than we were
fishing for seabass from shore, top water strikes, biggest were up to
2 kilo! You should see bended rod, on the limit, but rod did pull the
fish out. On sandy terrain many different type of breams were cought
on Gulp sandworms, one of my favourite lures for ultra light
spinning. Mackarels and horse versions of them in unlimited numbers.
We also had great topwater action when fishing for bluefish, 2 kilo
was the biggest. Great topwater lure is comming from Croatia, hand
made Monarch Dok Sparky 10gr. This lure is also great for seabass,
bonitos, bluefish, trouts and also pike.
If i think good i
have cought almost all species that are at least a little bit
predatory in their nature that live in areas where i fish.
There is no water
where you will not be able to use ultra light fishing gear, except if
fishing is not allowed.
I never, never leave
home without one of my ultralight spinning setups in my car.
Im spending my
summer free time in Croatia, from Istria to Dalmatia, and this rods
will always catch fish. Specially in pike of the season when water
gets very hot and fishing gets slow, this small lures will still
catch you many many great fishes.
What is also great
when fishing ultralight, with right lures on right terrain you will
have excelent results also from shore in any time of day. Check the
conditions, currents, wind, any kind of topwater action, bottom
structure, try different lures and you are on for sure.
Now after so many
years of ultra light spinning my arsenal of ultralight rods is
getting bigger and bigger, more and more different species are
getting cought, and im realising how many possibilities ultra light
spinning actually has.
At the moment I’m using Yamaga Blanks
Blue Current series of rods, and my opinion is they are one of the
best rods for ultralight spinning on the market at the moment. I
tried many different brands and almost all of them were good, but the
Blue Current from Yamaga are diamonds. I have four and I use them all
(well one is new and not tested yet). I use different length rods,
6.10Ti 0.4-6gr, 7.2Ti 0.5-8gr, 7.6Ti 0.8-10gr and the new 7.7Tz
2-9gr, that I’ve heard is best of them all. Old version of Yamaga
Blanks Blue Current series named Ti (Titanium guides), is now
replaced with Tz series (latest Torzite guides) and that means even
sharper action and sensibility due to lighter guides and at the end
even lighter rod. Short 6.10ft rod I use mostly in harbors, as rod is
short I have advantage of controlling the fish when maneuvering her
around some structures, ropes and other things that could cut through
my line. Is also very good if we are crowded on a small boat. Long
7.6ft version I use mostly from shore, where casting distance is
important. Also sometimes from boat, when there is top water action
but fish are very careful and as soon as you come close they will
disappear in deep water, again, longer rod more casting distance. My
most used and my favorite of all is 7.2ft, its perfect all round rod,
with good casting distance and still not to long when we are a few
anglers fishing from boat. I use it 90% of my time. So nice rods with
a lot of power, but still so light you can enjoy fighting even the
smallest predatory fish. And they will bend good on all size fish. I
use Shimano Stella 2500, Shimano Rarenium 2500 and Daiwa Theory 2508.
Varivas Sea Bass braided line PE0.6, all kind of leaders from
0.12-0.25, all sorts of small wobblers, casting jigs, surface lures
and soft baits mounted on jig hooks. If there is a moment when I find
bigger fish, when my PE0.6 is not enough, I have spare spools with a
bit stronger line, and problem is solved. I only did it one time, so
there are really small chances you will ever have to do this.
Like all kind of spinning, leader is a
must. I connect 1.5m long fluorocarbon leader with my braid using
Albright knot, and than on the end of my leader comes small snap tied
with Palomar knot. All these knots are very easy to tie and will take
very short time to complete.
When landing the fish I like to use
mini lip grip, and small pliers for taking hooks out of fishes mouth.
As I release almost all fish I try to fish without barbs most of the
time, I only take fish that I know I’m going to eat it fresh. And I
think that is what everybody should do.
Few fishing
stores that are close to me and can supply me with all the gear I
need for ultralight spinning are Maguro Pro Shop in Croatia, Carpio
and Monster Bite fishing tackle from Slovenia, Vagabond Fisherman
from Italy.
Tight lines to all!
Tomislav Jukić
