Non-Fly Ultralight spinning gear fishing

J

John Dude

Smolt
Found an interesting book on ultralight spingear fishing at the library book sale for 50 cents. Interesting book, but it dates from the early 1990s and the gear recommendations are quite out of date.

I'm interested in what modern gear is used for this style now. I'm thinking of using this on mountain creeks or small lakes that have too much brush to cast flies.

The book recommends rods and reels to accommodate 10/1000 size reels and 2-4 lb lines, but the examples they give are stuff that hasn't been made in years.
 
John Dude said:
Found an interesting book on ultralight spingear fishing at the library book sale for 50 cents. Interesting book, but it dates from the early 1990s and the gear recommendations are quite out of date.

I'm interested in what modern gear is used for this style now. I'm thinking of using this on mountain creeks or small lakes that have too much brush to cast flies.

The book recommends rods and reels to accommodate 10/1000 size reels and 2-4 lb lines, but the examples they give are stuff that hasn't been made in years.
Click to expand...
While I'm partial to Ugly Stick spinning rods with closed silver Zebco reels, this is a nice affordable option:

Okuma Celilo ultralight rod:PXL_20250612_171048654.MP~2.jpg

Kastking Zephyr 1000 spinning reel:
PXL_20250612_171058491.jpg
 

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Don't overlook BFS (bait finesse system) casting gear. It's big in Japan for trout fishing mountain streams. Has some advantages over spinning gear. This article brings them up.

BFS Trout
 
I have several ultralight set ups. A few ultralight ugly sticks with various 1000 size spinning reels. I also have a 5’ okuma celilo paired with an okuma ceymar c-10 which is a 1000 size spinning reel. I’ve found the okuma celilo rods and okuma ceymar reels to be very good products at very reasonable prices.
 
Zak said:
While I'm partial to Ugly Stick spinning rods with closed silver Zebco reels, this is a nice affordable option:

Okuma Celilo ultralight rod:View attachment 156821

Kastking Zephyr 1000 spinning reel:
View attachment 156820
Click to expand...
I have this exact setup and love it. I also have an UglyStik with a Sienna 2500, it's great, versatile, and also more of a light than a true ultralight. I gave it to my uncle who was thinking about doing some fishing but I might pick up a few more as boat flounder rods
 
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Samesies on the Okuma Celilo. I have a couple of them strung up with 4# test. Mostly I use em for chucking curlytail grubs for smallmouth. A 2# smallie on those rods is a hoot!

edit: In case you're ever wondering about the ability of those lil UL Celilos, here's a little fella my wife caught on the aforementioned setup. With 4# test. It drug her around in her kayak for a good 10 minutes.

cahp.jpg
 
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I have an ugly stick UL rod with a Pfluger spinning reel filled with 2lb test that is the go to for the kids at the lake. Growing up in Hawaii I always had a UL ugly stick with 2 or 4lb test.

My dad still has 2 UL fiberglass rods he made with Fenwick blanks a long time ago. Those rods are soooo much fun, and they can handle bigger fish when needed.
 
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John Dude said:
Found an interesting book on ultralight spingear fishing at the library book sale for 50 cents. Interesting book, but it dates from the early 1990s and the gear recommendations are quite out of date. The book recommends rods and reels to accommodate 10/1000 size reels and 2-4 lb lines, but the examples they give are stuff that hasn't been made in years.
Click to expand...
Likely has a picture of my old school LCI (Loomis Composites Industries) 5' ultralight one piece spinning rod with its Shimano MLZ 10.

Still a great stick BTW, the reel not so much

c/22
 
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