Changing Gears (and Gear)

Today I'm trading 12-inch worms for 1/32-ounce hair jigs, 50-pound braid for 4-pound Nanofil, and a Revo Beast and heavy baitcaster for an ultralight spinning outfit. Last week's fishing was from a boat for jumbo largemouths in Mexico's Sierra Madre Mountains. This weekend, my boys and I are head for the Great Smoky Mountains, where we'll wade clear mountain streams and cast for trout and smallmouth bass.

I enjoy fishing for everything that swims, and variety in the gear, the techniques, the terrain and the fish themselves is part of what keeps every trip interesting. In Mexico's fertile lakes, my lure disappeared a foot or so down in the water column. In the Smokies, I'll be able to count rocks on the bottom of a 10-foot deep pool.

I actually haven't figured out our specific plan yet. We may do a little smallmouth fishing in the North Carolina mountains before we get to the national park. Within the park, we may fish bigger streams for browns and rainbows or visit some headwaters branch with wild brook trout in mind. If we do go for brookies, any fish we catch is apt to be smaller than most of the lures I used in Mexico!

We're staying two nights in Townsend, Tennessee, where Nathaniel will play music on the Pickin' Porch at Wood'n'Strings Dulcimer Shop on Saturday evening, and we'll fish our way there, spend some time in creeks on Saturday, and then fish our way home on Sunday.

Smaller Nanofil Spooled & Ready

"Do you think it's the rod, reel or line?" Nathaniel asked me about my casts, which were consistently traveling a seriously long distance. We were fishing jerkbaits across broad bars, where longer casts simply met more time with the bait in the zone, and my casts were consistently traveling farther than his (which isn't normal when we are rigged similarly."

"Maybe rod and then line," I suggested. I wasn't sure though, because our rods were similar in length in action and both well balanced, so between casts, we traded.

We again cast toward the same bank and his cast traveled a good 20 feet farther than mine. "It's the line!" we stated simultaneously and with equal certainty. He was struck by how effortlessly my line flew of the reel. I felt his line grabbing when I cast.

Nathaniel's line wasn't stiff or old. It was a soft, light copolymer that handles well and is actually quite castable. I was fishing with Berkley Nanofil, though, and we were both amazed by just how well it cast. I've been fishing with 8-pound Nanofil on a couple of rods for a while now, and have really been happy with its performance. However, that was the first time I had a direct comparison with another rod rigged the same -- other than the line type -- and I'm absolutely sold.

Castability is the no. 1 selling point of Nanofil, a relatively new "uni-filament" that was designed for spinning reels and offers tremendously small diameter, relative to break strength.

So far, I've only fished 8-pound test and have only used a highly visible white version, which definitely requires a leader for trout or other clear-water fish. I just spooled a couple of my trout reels with 4- and 6-pound low-vis green Nanofil and am eager to put those reels and that line to work! Looks like that opportunity might come tomorrow, so I'd better get some fish stories finished and some other trout junk gathered!