Have a Blast Fishing with Ultra-light Fishing Combo’s at Great Prices

With open water fishing season just around the corner here in the great State of Maine, I always start thinking about purchasing new gear whether I need it or not. While you would be far more likely during open water fishing to find me throwing flies delicately out across my favorite spring hole, I do greatly enjoy the occasional ultra-light fishing trip. Anyone who has never “gone ultra-light” really should! It is an enjoyable, sporting and respectable way to have a lot of fun catching smaller fish, and can enliven even the most mundane day of fishing.

What is ultra-light fishing? Well, depending on who you ask, and what their opinion is, you will get many different answers. Typically, I think of it as downsizing my gear to the point where I have to fight even a small fish. My concept of ultra-light fishing is nothing over 4 lb. test, a micro reel or something similar, and a shorter, highly sensitive rod through which you can feel the tiniest nibble.

Some fisherman insist that they need 8 lb test to land a 1 lb trout or smallmouth. This is not only wrong but it is ridiculous. Fisherman like this will never know the joy of releasing a two to 4 lb fish after a difficult fight. Instead they will just winch the fish in, unhook it, and cast again. That is hardly sport if you ask me.

Last year I purchased a Shakespeare “Excursion Combo” from a local discount store, mostly because it was on sale and I couldn’t pass up the deal. Let me tell you, by the time the season was halfway over, almost every person I had fished with was asking me about it or purchasing their own ultra-light setup. In one day long trout fishing trip through a meandering local stream once classified as a river, I landed a smallmouth bass I estimated at close to four pounds, a 20″ pickerel and a 15″ native brook trout! The following day I ran into him at the discount store I had purchased my combo from, he was looking to buy the same one!

Needless to say, I am hopelessly addicted to ultra-light fishing now and I doubt I will have any of my other rod and reels out of the garage more than a handful of times this year. Except, of course, my fly rod, which gets plenty of sunshine.

Below is a brief look at four of the most popular ultra-light fishing combos on the market this year. The Shakespeare Excursion is the one pictured, and is very much like, or exactly the same thing as, the one I have fallen so deeply in love with. If you have never fished ultra-light, I encourage you to give it a try. For as little as $25 you might have the fishing experience of your life!

The Shakespeare Excursion Combo can be readily found for around $50 online, and comes with a carrying case which stows easily in your trunk or behind the seat of your pick-up. It typically will come with a 4′6″ rod, a micro spinning reel pre-spooled with approximately 100 yards of four lb test, and a soft grip handle which is easily held even through the toughest fights. I personally have used this combo, I adore it and recommend it to anybody. My own demonstrations of the Shakespeare Combo have converted no fewer than four of my friends to ultra-light fishing. The reel casts surprisingly well for it’s size, and on one occasion when I had switched it to a 5′ rod made by Quantum because I had damaged the matching Shakespeare rod in a mishap with my tailgate, the reel performed admirably on the new rod. Remember though, don’t be shy about cleaning this reel, where it is close-faced, occasionally a granule of grass or sand finds it’s way into the reel, a regular (once every few outings) cleaning will keep it performing way above it’s price range! PRICE ($25-$50 depending on features)

The Quantum XLSP1000 Ultra-Light Combo is the outfit one of my fishing buddies purchased when he couldn’t purchase the same Shakespeare outfit I was using. He likes the more traditional spin casting reel a little better than mine, but he doesn’t say a lot about it. Although it casts a little shorter than mine on average, it seems like he makes up for that with rod sensitivity. Often I can tell he’s about to hook trout even before the strike, and I see that he lands many more fish with this outfit than he was landing with his old rig. This reel can be spooled with 120 yards of 2 lb test, 80 yards of 4 lb test, or 55 yards of 6 lb test. It has a 5.2:1 ratio and 2 stainless steel ball bearings. The reel itself weighs only 5 ounces, which combined with the feather light rod make this the lightest of the four outfits covered in this article. Price ($40-$50)

A couple of the other ultra-light combos on the market this year that look really good are made by Pflueger. One, the Trion Ultra Light Model #4520GX, comes with a 4′8″ IMG Graphite rod, and a Trion reel holding a spool with a titanium coated lip, a line roller and a sure click bail. The reel has four stainless ball bearings and a 1 way clutch. It also has a 5.2:1 ratio and weighs 6.5 ounces. Pflueger States that the spool capacity is 105 yards of 4 lb. test. But I would estimate it at closer to 95. Price ($40-$50)

Pflueger also has put a Micro Ultra-Light outfit on the market. The primary difference between this and the Trion is that the rod is only 4′6″, 2″ shorter than its larger cousin, and the reel is slightly smaller, which costs you 5-10 yards in line capacity, but saves you 1/2 ounce in weight.This is the second lightest combo covered in this article.

(Price $40-$50)

Remember, if you are going ultra-light and plan on casting lures, you won’t want to be throwing anything much bigger than 1/8 oz. and most likely 1/16 oz. to 1/64 oz. will offer you the best performance and tip sensitivity!