I learned an important lesson at a young age that I must have temporarily forgotten. When asked at a birthday party if one wanted cake or ice cream, the right answer is always – BOTH!
I think the same concept may have helped me to at least partially resolve a fishing related dilemma I’ve been tussling with for a while. I like to fish poppers for bluegills and bass in my local subdivision pond. Since I am shore bound, I’d like to be able to extend my range a bit, even though poppers tend to be a bit wind resistant when it comes to casting. So I’ve been in search of an optimal line to meet my desires.
I like the way normal length furled lines cast and fish. They have the mass to help deliver the bulkiness of the popper. Problem is, they become tedious to both furl and fish as the length of the line increases. The nice thing about level (fluorocarbon) lines, it’s easy to cut off longer lengths to increase range, but they don’t seem to have the mass to consistently cast bulky poppers.
So what is a poor boy to do? For some reason, I woke up the other day thinking about birthday cake and ice cream, and I realized, the fishing gods were talking to me. Why not try a combo line? Even though it was still early in the morning, I got busy tying up a combination line that started out with about a 7’ furled line, with a 12’ length of fluorocarbon. I added a 5-6’ leader/tippet, and was ready to go.
Soon as the sun started to come up, I was off to the pond to give it a whirl. After only a few days of field testing, I do like the way the combo line casts and fishes. I think in a lot of respects, I end up with the best of both worlds. Sort of like having your cake, and ice cream too.
