Welcome To The Small Side

by Herb S.
(Southwest Michigan)

Do your friends give you sidelong looks and sidle away when you laugh and are happy catching small fish? Do they express pity or disdain when you hold up a 2” shiner in triumph. Do they whisper behind your back that “Old Fishbait” is losing it when you show off a baby bass? Do they ask your relatives if you’ve lost your sense of perspective when you become ecstatic over junior perch? Welcome to the Small Side. You are not alone.

Following Chris’s suggestion on his Daiwa Sagiri page I rigged my new Sagiri 39MC with a light monofilament line and a 3/8” Nakazima Ball Float above short length of 6X tippet with a small Aberdeen bait hook. This is similar to an outfit I’ve used for years to catch small fish for bait, a 10’ B’n’M telescoping pole, small Thill float, split shot and hook with wax worms. But the old outfit, while effective, is clunky and crude compared to seiryu rods. Catching bait or just fishing for small fish with tackle built for it is much more fun. Two and three inch bluegills put a nice bend in the Sagiri and it’s a blast feeling them fight. The Nakazima float is extremely sensitive even without a split shot. A winning combination for those on the Small Side.

Happy fishing,
Herb

“The bitterness of poor quality remains long after the sweetness of low price is forgotten” - Benjamin Franklin

"Be sure in casting, that your fly fall first into the water, for if the line fall first, it scares or frightens the fish..." -
Col. Robert Venables 1662

As age slows my pace, I will become more like the heron.