My wife and I took our (OK, her) pontoon out to an undisclosed location on Rend Lake Saturday to do a little fishing. Now we've gotten into some sweet bluegill fishing in the spot, so I rigged up my well worn ultralight Ugly Stick spinning rod with a wax worm on a #8 hook. My 4# test mono was well worn and I'd been planning on changing it for a few months.

I let go a long cast towards shore into about a foot and a half of water. Right as my bobber hit the water there was a splash. Having been up since the evening before (we went right after I got off work Saturday morning) it didn't occur to me that the splash was a bit bigger than my little bobber makes when it hits the water. I realized what was going on while trying to put the rod in the rod holder and I realized something big was pulling hard on my line and the rod tip was bending something fierce. I got a good grip on my rod and calmly told Un Hui "I'm gonna need a net." Then the tug-of-war was on.

I was very thankful at this point that I kept the drag set right on this reel because there was quite a bit of time that it was whining as I let the cat wear itself out some. I'd bend the rod back for a while letting the cat work against it, then listen to the drag, then slowly work the fish in a bit more before it would take off again. I finally got it up to where Un Hui could almost get the net under it when it decided it wasn't ready to give up yet. Some more white-knuckled fighting, and slowly getting it to where she could get the net under it.

After she got it into the net, Un Hui decided to lift the line to get a good view of the fish. At that point the line snapped at the hook. Good thing it was in the net.

The cat was 22" long and weighed 5#. It's next stop is the dinner table, but it earned my respect with the fight it put up.

This is one reason I love fishing with ultralight. :D

Thats a fun story! A friend was telling me how much fun it was to fish with an ultra light rod, so I got one at wal-mart. The first fish I caught with it was a 3 and a half pound bass. Until I saw the fish, I thought there was no way I would be able to keep catching bluegill if they put up that much of a fight. Lol. Looking back, I should have known there was no way I was fighting a bluegill.

That sounds like a fun fish to fight on ultralight too. Once you're hooked on fishing with light tackle, it's hard to go back to heavy tackle. The thrill is so much more when you're listening to that reel whine.