Light Game Fishing

Light Game Fishing

I must admit that the term 'Light Game Fishing' sounds much better than the term 'Ultra Light Fishing'. I mean ultra light can imply almost anything so long as you use very light tackle, whereas light game expresses exactly the kind of fishing you are doing and the type of fish you are targeting and, without specifically mentioning it, that you would be using artificial lures.
Game fish are usually predators and whilst it is possible to catch predators on traditional bait it becomes rather difficult trying to imagine throwing a lead weight, or float, with a big enough piece of bait to attract a predator using very light tackle. It just seems so much more logical to use artificial baits such as minnows, topwaters and soft plastics; most of which mimic an injured baitfish or crustacean. These artificial baits for light game fishing usually weigh in the region of between 0.5-8 grams; actually 8 grams is a bit on the heavy side with most of my fishing done with lures in the region of 2-6 grams.

You don't actually need very light tackle for light game fishing but the lighter your setup the easier it will be to cast the smaller lighter lures that some of the light game fish love (one of my favorites is the Rapala CD-1).
For my last session I wasn't sure of what to expect so I opted for my Maya Feather (3-15g) rod with a Shimano Aernos XT C300 loaded with some of the new Sufix Nanobraid in 4lb (it actually breaks at around 6lb). I wanted to see what the new Nanobraid was like so this swayed me for the 'upper end' of light game fishing. It also allowed me to take some larger lures in the hope that there were going to be some bass or blue fish around. No bass or blue fish but I had this nice grouper on a 12g Megabass X-120 SW in rainbow white:

26cm Grouper

After spending about 3 hours with the larger lures and only the above grouper to show for it, I switched to a smaller lure - a Duo Tetra Works TOTO48 in red and gold. Weighing in at 3.7g with supplied trebles (I replace all my trebles with Decoy 27 singles), it casts great. Although a sinking lure I had no problems fishing it over very rough shallow ground; one of the reasons is probably because I mount the belly hook upwards so that it doesn't snag easily as it bounces over the rocks. It might seem a bit daft to mount it this way as logic would say that the hook point is shielded by the lure's body but as you can see in a couple of the photos there is no problem with hooking fish.

Saddled Bream

This TOTO48 in red and gold was certainly slaying the fish - another saddled bream and a baby grouper:

Small Saddled Bream

Baby Grouper

Why spend your time trying to catch fish that just aren't there most of the time (our part of the Mediterranean is way over fished)? After a while it only starts to get you down. Better to target the fish that are there. They might be smaller but on light tackle they fight just as hard as larger fish do on heavier gear. You might even hook into a beast now and then:

A Lovely Sized and Healthy Looking 1.8Kg Blue Runner

Tight lines!

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