Definition of a ultra light

[GRiver]

Hi everyone,

What is your definition of an ultra light combo…let me explain why I need this. 
A few fishing friends and I got together, and wanted to start a contest, who can catch the biggest or heaviest fish on the lightest gear and tackle. 
We figured we get a pot together, winner take all kinda thing, it started out with put your best rig, combo, rod and reel in the pot. I said “ I’m out” right away. I don’t have top end gear by far, but I like what I’ve got, a few others said “no way too”.  Then it was put some tackle in the pot…. It was all stuff we didn’t want anyway and everyone was saying they did want to do it for half bags of old plastics. So we finally settled on a cash pot.

Now we can’t all agree on what defines an ultra light rig. So after much discussion ( arguing) … we called it a night, but days later, we are still debating ( arguing). 
So my question is, what is your definition of an ultra light rig?  Mine is a med-light rod, 6ft or under with a 1000 size or under reel, with 4-6 lb line.

This might not get off the ground, we debated… argued …. For over an hour on how to spell ultra light or is it Ultra lite..

[Tim Kelly]

No idea, you can set your own rules!

I love using my Daiwa Presso AGS XUL with a 2000 reel and 2.1lb  polyester line. Caught fish up to about 4 or 5lb on it, including a couple of mad seatrout. Wild ride in the river current, but surprising how big a fish you can land on light gear, as long as it's balanced.

[WRB]

Ultra Light

Light

Medium Light

Medium 

Medium Heavy

Heavy

Ultra Light is the lowest power rating or under 1 pound lifting power.

Line rating 1 lb -4 lbs.

Very few bass anglers use UL rods, popular with stream trout anglers.

Tom

[MiceNReets]

My ultralight combo is a 6’9 UL SC Panfish series rod with Stradic FL 1000 and 2lbs braid.   Blast to use.   

[crypt]

for me  4 lb. test is light.....1-2 lb. test is ultralight...

[GreenPig]

4 lb line and under with a rod and reel rated for that line is UL, IMHO.

[Hulkster]

37 minutes ago, GreenPig said:

4 lb line and under with a rod and reel rated for that line is UL, IMHO.

agreed. my UL combo is a Loomis TSR 791 rod rated for 2 to 6 pound line with a Sustain 1000 reel rated for 2 to 6 pound line lol

[garroyo130]

*true 4lb line and under

 

Use whatever rod and reel you want, the line will be the limiting factor either way

[Mobasser]

I have some that I use for panfish and stocked trout. Between the three are St Croix Premiere, and old Berkeley Hank Parker rod, and a Falcon 5'6 ultralight. The St Croix is 6'6 with a soft whippy tip. The others are much faster action. I use four pound mono with all of them. I like the fast action ultralights the best.

[Bird]

I only own one rod that is rated UL and is used for panfish/ Crappie, 4lb sunline sniper.

Hooking the occasional bass is a blast.

 

[QUAKEnSHAKE]

Coworker bought an XUL Diawa Presso AGS it's real nice.

Have seen ratings of SUL and XXUL

 

Here a quick read https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.ultralightanglers.com/what-are-xul-and-sul-ratings-on-ultralight-rods/amp/

[bulldog1935]

Traditional UL is a a short para-taper rod matched with a small- or micron-frame spinning reel.  The taper is intended to bend deep into the handle, making small fish feel like big fish feel on heavier tackle. 

5' Falcon UL (1990)

Modern finesse rods, along with traditional threadline rods, are longer progressive taper, and can be rated UL or XUL (sub-gram low end, and on to M in longer rods) - the taper gives powerful butt for turning fish.  

I have a few XUL spinning rods, 7-1/2' to 8', in salt finesse - these are rated down to 2-lb line, but I've never fished lighter than 4-lb salt copolymer, and can fish farther with PE#0.5 or #0.6.  

Takamiya 7'9" Rockfish XUL (2010)

UL stream casting rod rated 1 to 7 g - if I was using mono, it would be 5-lb, but I fish PE#1 (same dia. as 4-lb mono), which is 20-lb breaking strength, and 8-lb leader - I set my drag to 1.5 lbs for the rod rating.  Note 1- to 7-g rating on this progressive taper is much wider than the 1- to 2-g rating of the the traditional Falcon UL spinner above.  

Smith Dagger Stream 5'5" UL

 

Addressed the differences between UL and finesse rod in this essay:  

which also dispelled the idea of "true BFS", though some balked.  

[Bigbox99]

UL is UL but even then there is a huge difference.  A traditional UL rod in spinning or stream casting will cast quite low while something like a Majorcraft BFS UL rod such as a Benkei UL is significantly more powerful and can collapse weed guards on 1/16 oz Bitst Bugs and weedless Zman Ned rig heads with ease because that's what it is designed to do as a bass rod.  If you were to take it stream fishing using trout magnets you would be quite disappointed despite its UL rating.

[Bankc]

When I think ultra light, I'm thinking of rods made for panfish and crappie.  Something capable of casting like a 1/16oz. marabou jig or even smaller.  And something with a soft enough tip not to rip the mouth of a crappie when you try to retrieve it.  These setups are typically not suitable for bass.  You can catch bass on them, just like you can catch a 40lb blue or flathead cat on bass fishing gear, but it's not the optimal setup. 

 

The lightest gear you typically want to fish for bass on is medium light.  That's light enough to cast something as small as a Ned rig, yet still strong enough to land a double digit bass, if you're careful.  

 

Line pound test doesn't really mean much to me.  Line diameter means more, but even then, it's really the lure rating that matters most to me when choosing a rod.  And the reel... well I've used all different sizes of reels, and while some certainly work better than others, it's generally not a big deal to me.   

[MN Fisher]

UL to me is light line, small reels...rod length is not a consideration

 

My current UL rig for panfish is an Okuma Celilo 7'6" UL/F - 1/32oz-3/8oz with an Ultegra FC-1000 reel, line is 6# Sufix 832 with 4# Sufix Siege leader of 8'-10' length.

[Kev-mo]

Let the industry decide for you....meaning you guys look up 5 or so different rod companies and take and average of what they define as ultra light. Then everyone's rod needs to fall between those parameters. Same for the reel. Now you guys just need to decide on the companies and how many.

 

More stuff to debate (argue about) hahaha

[thunderblack]

A rod that doubles over when you hook a bluegill

[bulldog1935]

@Kev-mo nah, the person who would argue about this got banned last year.  

[Tackleholic]

I have my first BFS setup on back order;  Daiwa PX series rod and reel.  Going to begin with 6# Tatsu and plan to drop down once I get the feel of things.  I'm accustomed to using light setups, but this should familiarize me with ultra light.  Something to do when things get tough or boring.

[GRiver]

15 hours ago, Kev-mo said:

Let the industry decide for you....meaning you guys look up 5 or so different rod companies and take and average of what they define as ultra light. Then everyone's rod needs to fall between those parameters. Same for the reel. Now you guys just need to decide on the companies and how many.

 

More stuff to debate (argue about) hahaha

I’m going to propose this to them, maybe with as little as possibly debating ( arguing). 
@GreenPig suggested 4lb or under line, I’ll suggest that to them too, let-’em use a pop bottle for a reel, if they want, just stay under 4lb mono.

[WRB]

Ultra Light is the rod not the reel.

I caught a WR Pacific Yellowtail using 4 lb mono definitely not Ultra Light rod 7’ MHM rod.

Tom

[GRiver]

Well everyone, we could never agree on the guidelines of what equipment we could use. We squashed the whole idea, ghee’s…what started as a simple little game, turned sideways quick, oh well “ Que sera,sera”.

 

[bulldog1935]

@GRiver nah, a fun thread, no tears, no bad blood, everybody throwing out ideas - the purpose of discussion.  

 

Adding a datapoint, NS Black Hole rockfish marked UL and rated 1 to 5 g - this rod is really fast and feels like a rocket, even with the solid tip.  I go to this rod for soft plastics, especially tandem rigs.  

Loaned this rod to my bud Stevo on a tide pass trip, and he liked it so much he went home and ordered both this rod and the 8'9" M version, and matched them with a pair of small-frame Stradic.  He's already a Black Hole fan, since IRT sells their rods in heavier sizes to match his US-built spinning reel.  

[GRiver]

@bulldog1935, everyone here, on the forum was good , it was the bunch here that couldn’t agree. 
It was a fun thread though. 

[F14A-B]

Right. Folks have different ideals on fishing items.. 🤣

 

For the record my personal best Indiana LMB came on a 5’6” rod, a 500 size Shimano reel with 4pound line. Bait was 1/8 ounce roadrunner. 1992. Nearly 7 pound female. I guess that’s ultra light. Nowadays I use a 7’ two piece light/fast rod made by Edge. A 2500 Vanguard w shallow spool and it holds roughly 100 yards of 4 pound I’m about to give 2 pound test a try but idk… 

wish me luck 🤪