Made a trip to the Town Pond this morning. Would have preferred lake McIntosh, but when I left the house at 10 this morning, it was 80 degrees and a bright sun .
At least at the pond ,none side has shade . Unfortunately the 7mph wind was out of west and constantly blowing into the shaded area , making casting and fishing tough .
But I wanted to try out my new reel , a Shimano Soare XR 500SPG .
A tiny reel with a short handle . Shorter than my Soare 500 BB .
It’s a very smooth reel and I like it , but it’s not one that will become a go to reel .
I was also wanting to try out my homemade jigheads made from size 12 streamer fly hooks and brass beads epoxied to the hook .
The two part epoxy didn’t hold , I had one bead slide back , but the plastic body would hold it forward making it fishable.
Between the sun , and the wind fishing was tough , but I managed to catch four gills , a small shellcracker and a decent UL bass that gave the new reel’s drag a workout .
About half of the fish were caught on a micro spinner including the shellcracker and the bass .
The Soare XR complimented my 5’6” Avid making a super lightweight combo .
For some reason I’m catching more on spinners lately than I am on jigs . Maybe I should just concentrate on spinner and spoon fishing for awhile and give the jigs a rest .
