Showing posts with label Micro Light Spinning rods. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Micro Light Spinning rods. Show all posts

Saturday, August 2, 2025

The Spawn is Still On!!

Cathey and I have become quite a team when it comes to fishing with Micro Light combos. One of the combos is 7 1/2- and the other is an 8-foot rod. We used both micro-lights this past week while fishing on Smith Lake during the last bluegill spawning cycle of July. There may be another spawn in August if the lake level does not drop too quickly. I hope we get to fish that cycle as well.
I've been using both micro combos for over 30 years. When I purchased the rods, they had a half-dollar-size front guide, which I removed and replaced with a quarter-size guide, resulting in increased casting speed and distance. At the time I purchased the rods and reels, I didn't realize I was fishing with a 3/4-weight fly rod. Thirty years ago, I was into baitcasting reels and spinning reels, fishing for bass. The reason I purchased the micro-light rods and reels was to use them to fish for the super-sized bluegills I kept catching with my bait-casting and spinning reels combos. Little did I know at the time that these micro light combos would become a massive part of my fishing experience for the rest of my fishing days. 
Cathey would rather use the 8-foot micro-light instead of the fly rod. She isn't into fly fishing because of the line management and casting. I'm good with that, because she is landing fish!
We caught these bluegill early last Tuesday morning. We were using crickets with the hook tipped with a red crappie nibblet. Fishing with crickets is Cathey's favorite way to fish Smith Lake. One thing I haven't been able to do is get her to bait her hook and remove the fish from the hook; I'm still working on that. We always look forward to the spawn on Smith. I fillet all the bluegill I land on Smith, and we freeze them to eat in the winter months. 
We landed this group of gills on Thursday morning early. The fight this size bluegill exerts is unbelievable, using a micro-light rod. As I said, it's like fishing and landing bluegill using a fly rod. We landed all these fish in water 10 to 12 ft. deep. One never finds this size bluegill in shallow-water fishing at Smith Lake. The reason is the clarity of the water. We never use corks. We are tight-lining and waiting for that light hit. They never slam the bait. Slowly raise and drop the bait, working it back to the boat; most of the time, they hit the cricket on the fall. Loads of fun, especially fishing with your wife!!
Guys, I wanted to share this image of our youngest grandson, who landed this monster carp in one of the small ponds in the subdivision where they live. Cash is really into fishing. He turned eleven on July 10th and got a spinning combo from his parents for his birthday. What a way to break in the combo. He had the reel spooled with 8lb test line, and fought the carp for a while before he finally got to whole the fish. Congrats, Cash, you're on your way to becoming a great fisherman!!


Friday, May 17, 2019

Cathey's Largert Bass and Bluegill Fishing Ryan Creek

I've been fishing a lot since March and most of it was alone on Walker Lake and the rest of the time was on Smith Lake with some of my buddies. A few trips to the tailrace were worked in when the generators were not running. Hopefully, most of the rains are gone and the tailrace will start to fish well in the coming months. 
One of my fishing buddies couldn't make the fishing trip we had planned for this past Tuesday so I started looking for a replacement. To my surprise my wife said she wanted to go, so we headed to Smith Lake for four or five hours of fishing. It turned out to be a special trip for both of us because it had been 25 years since she had been in the boat with me. She wanted to fish for the bluegill using live bait in the form of crickets. The only rule I had to follow was; she wasn't going to bait her hook, touch the fish or touch a crappie nibblet. In other words, I was her guide which was fine with. I was just glad to have her on board!
This largemouth put up quite a fight. I was really proud of how well Cathey handled this fish. She finally landed the fish using a 7 1/2 ft. Microlight with 4 lb. test line. We released the fish to fight another day. 
Hopefully, I can get her into fly fishing in the coming months. She has agreed to give fly fishing a try---really a special day for both of us, one that I will remember!! 

Monday, March 19, 2018

Fishing the Micro Light Spinning Rod


The blooming of the Dogwood Trees are always the sign that the crappie has begun to spawn here in the Deep South. I’ve been noticing the Dogwood buds but no bloom yet. That didn’t keep me from joining one of my fishing buddies the other day to test the waters for some slab crappie.
My 7 ½ ft. microlight spinning rod paired with the Pflueger President XT spinning reel is perfect to handle big crappie. I’m using 4 lb. test vanish line with a small curly tail shad jig to duplicate small minnows. The balance of this rod makes it effortless to cast for distance and accuracy. Using the micro light combo parallels the light 7 ½ to 8 ft. fly rods.
The dark male crappie is one beautiful fish in the early spring.  All the crappie today was landed using the micro. I had the 4 wt. fly rod with me but the wind was too strong to get a dissent case in place; in other words, my patience has worn thin dealing with the gust coming from all directions.
The in results, using my new fish cleaning table from Bass Pro Shops; these ten beauties yielded 40 mouth-watering fillets.