The world of light tackle spinning.

In my opinion all spinning rods and reels designed for big fish can be expressly labelled as saltwater and freshwater fishing tackle. For saltwater fishing anglers typically use ultra light fishing poles simply because they are a lot easier to handle in salt waters.

Majority of newly produced fishing rods and reels, with some minor exceptions, are manufactured from such materials so to make them less susceptible to corrosion caused by saltwater. Although most manufacturers still recommend, for reels especially, to be rinsed off in tap water after each use in order to prolong the life of fishing tackle.

Over the years manufactures have developed various technologies which allowed them to introduce materials like fiberglass, graphite and e-glass to the world of tackle. They all have experimented quite a bit with these material and most of the time have come up with remarkable products.

The key to success in the world of so much competition from so many fishing tackle manufacturers is in ability to produce well balanced tackle. Well balanced rods and reels are essential for good casting. For this reason all manufacturers put guidelines on their products advising anglers which lines and lures are best suited to their rods and reels. But if you are new to all this, I have written a series of reports on various spinning reels such as for baitcasting and for light, medium and heavy tackle spinning. This one is mainly about the light tackle spinning reels and rods.

Light tackle spinning reels are reels that are mainly designed for inshore fishing. Line capacity and strength of such reels in the 8 to 15 pound test range make them good for a variety of fish.

These reels have been greatly improved over the years with the introduction of features such as light weight, line rollers, greater gear ratio, more dependable bails and stainless steel ball bearings, of course, to make them far less susceptible to rust. In freshwater, such reels are normally used with fairly basic type rods with short butts for one hand casting. This is also where the weight of the reel makes a huge difference.

One major enemy of light tackle spinning reels is a line twist. But this is not the case for all light tackle spinners because most middle and top range models with better size spools don鈥檛 have this problem. It鈥檚 only the lower range models which have rather narrow spools cannot always seem to cope with the monofil line. One way to eliminate this problem is to take out the line spool from the reel and spray it with a special lubricant which can be purchased from your local fishing shop.

Monofil lines have been used for light tackle spinning for years, but now many anglers are switching to new type of lines – super lines. For starters, super lines are extremely strong, yet very thin. Ten pound test super line has an equivalent diameter of 4 pound test monofil line. This means anglers using such lines can cast tiny lures yet have more line strength for playing fish. You can find these lines probably in any local fishing shop or online.

Which fishing rod to chose for my reel? In saltwater, light spinning reels are better placed on a fishing rod with a longer butt. Mainly because a longer butt can be quite advantages when fighting a large size fish as it can be leaned against the body thus taking off some of the pressure from your hands. Also, even light weight saltwater rods are designed to cope with heavier lures and greater force when compared to freshwater models. Here are some examples of rods available on the market: Greys’ Stalker Specimen Fishing Rods (great spinning rod and perfect for everything that doesn’t call for huge distance work); Shimano Exage Bx Stc Mini Tele Spinning (top quality spinning rods with a minimum of transportation length); Greys Prodigy TX Specimen Rods 11 or 12 feet (plenty of crisp casting and hook setting power).

Over all, light spinning tackle combos are perfect for the casting in bays and rivers for small fish. It can also be used in open saltwater but only when weather and water conditions permit using light tackle. But most of all, light spinning combos are suited for fishing in tropical flat-waters.