Light is RIGHT!

An article praising the virtues of light tackle when sea fishing in New Zealand, by Mike Bradstock

I'd forgotten how boring fishing could get. The normally hot spot off the south side of Little Barrier had gone polar cold. Nobody was catching a thing. The snapper had walked off the job. Flash rods lay neglected as normally keen blokes gradually decided they were just wasting bait. Some found consolation in a number of cans or were opening copies of Truth. Those who had jobs to go home to were even talking shop. Things had come to a sorry pass...
But what was this? A few maomao under the boat! They looked pretty small, but anything was worth a try. Quickly I rigged my trusty old Tasma Bushman 4-piece trout rod and tiny spinning reel reel spooled with 3 pound monofilament, clipping on a split shot above a size 12 Kahle hook baited with a bit of pipi.
"Getting ready for the sprats back at Leigh wharf, are we?" quipped one smartie. "Looks like we're taking a kid fishing," said another. Ignoring these cynics, I tossed the line over the side, loosened the drag right off...
...and ZZZZZZZZinngg!!! I was in! A fish not much longer than my hand took ten metres of line in one furious rush. The rod bent the way my home-made Snapper Stick does when there's a twelve-pounder on the end. The blue streak made a second quick run. The deep water gave it plenty of scope to put up a comparatively serious performance. I pumped it towards the surface, but the resistance was still considerable. And when I boated the fish -- all 250 grams of it -- there was no more tittering about tiddlers. Everyone was watching. There was a moment's silence, then they all dived for their tackle boxes.
First they realized none of them had hooks small enough for the job. I generously passed mine around. There were cries of chagrin as most of these snapper monomaniacs discovered their lines were too thick even to go through the eye of my little Kahle hooks. "Can I have a bit of that line of yours for an end trace?" Next they hit me up for split shot. Then they discovered how awkward it is to manage heavy line with tiny end tackle.
They got a few fish, but it's not the same on a 10-kg outfit. I was having 99 percent of the fun. Soon I had about 10 maomao in the fish bin, all destined for the frying pan. (Hard to beat, fried blue maomao.) Then came the crunch.
"Can I have a turn with your rig, Mike?" No sooner did one of them ask this than the others chorused in suit. They were practically climbing over one another to get at the "sprat rig".
I drove a hard bargain."Sure, Ade, be my guest. By the way, your beer's colder than mine, I wouldn't mind a can... That cake of yours was choice, Chris: I could really go another slice... How about you take my turn at cutting the bait, Dallas?"
This anecdote illustrates just one of the delights of fishing with ultralight tackle. It turns tiddlers into sports fish; it can save the day when the big ones aren't biting, and can even give you that wonderful feeling of superiority over your fellows. You smile indulgently as you drink their cold beer and watch them drag tiddlers out of the briny. "Hey, this is just like Take a Kid Fishing," you say. "By the way, any more of that cake left...?"
Looking more broadly at fishing as a sport, it follows from experiences like this that average snapper or trout will be pretty exciting on 2-kg, and big snapper or kingfish or small sharks will give you a heck of a thrill (not to mention a major challenge) on around 6 kg. Which brings me to the whole point: for much of the time we fish with unnecessarily heavy tackle. In fact, if I had to choose just one line class to fish in the sea, it wouldn't be any heavier than 3 kg.
In most situations, fishing as light as you possibly can has big advantages and few drawbacks. Sure, you get more breakages, and the big fish often take you to the cleaners. But look at all the advantages:

• Light tackle is easy to cast. You can throw it against almost any wind you can stand up in. This ensures you can get away from snags that abound close to rocks and wharves. You can also get baits out further away from the boat, where bigger, shyer fish may be circling. The distance you can cast is also a major issue when spinfishing, so a light rig is therefore more versatile.• The line offers less water resistance. This means fish can't feel so much resistance when they strike, ensuring shy biters take more positively. When other anglers are just getting nervous plucking nibbles, you'll get those thrilling, instant, hard takes. Also it's much easier to get your end tackle to the bottom when fishing in a current.

• The fish can't see it so easily. This means you'll get bites when nobody else does. Or, if there are a lot of lines in the water and just one or two fish around, you're more likely to be the one who gets the action. This is especially true when fishing very clear, oceanic water.

• Fishing light sharpens your fish-playing skills. How much more you'll learn from beating a big trevally on 2 kg than if you winched it in on 6 or 10 kg. And as long as you've got enough line to ensure the fish can't bust you at the arbour in the middle of a sizzling run, usually the whole angling experience is enhanced. This skill will also pay off when you go after much larger fish on correspondingly heavier tackle in the future, like kingfish or marlin on 15 or 24 kg tackle.

• You can fish smaller end tackle. This again improves your catch rate because generally, fish like kahawai and small kingfish are more likely to hit a small lure than a big one. When bait fishing, it even means you can save on bait!

Fishing very light tackle does, of course, mean the quality of your tackle is slightly more crucial than when using heavier line. You'll really notice the difference having a good reel makes: one with a quality mechanism including a drag that is finely adjustable. A soft-actioned rod is preferable to help absorb the sudden lunges of strong fish. The line guides should be top quality. And when buying light nylon, be sure to get the best quality brand you can afford, one which will have better response to stretching, better abrasion resistance, and smaller diameter in relation to its breaking strain.
Of course, I'm not saying light tackle is the be-all and end-all. It's not ideal for trolling, jigging, fishing very deep or in situations where you know there are real lunkers about. Nor does it give you a particular advantage in places where the fishing pressure is very low, where the fish are unlikely to be very line-shy. But on balance it's definitely got a place in the keen fisherman's repertoire of methods. And if you're still dubious, try this experiment. It'll only cost you a few dollars. Spool up a light rod and spinning reel with a line about half the breaking strain of what you usually use, and take it along as a spare. Then try it in a situation where the fishing's been hot, but is beginning to slow down. Preferably try this out in the company of other anglers who are using heavier tackle, so you can compare your performance with theirs. Scale down your end tackle, i.e. use smaller hooks and sinkers.
The first time I tried this was the time I became converted to light-tackle fishing. And with that, I will rest my case...

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