3-weight love

[ILGill]

My brother and I went fishing Saturday evening at a local park in Bloomington, IL. I had recently purchased a new 3-weight combo from Cabelas and had yet to break it in. I fish primarily for bluegill and began catching 5 inchers on a hares ear nymph and a white boa leech (thanks Rick Z). To my great pleasure, bluegill of this size feel considerably bigger on a 3-weight than they do on my 6 weight rod.

I had caught half a dozen bluegill and was fishing the boa leech on a slow retrieve when a fish tapped the fly. I set the hook and my line actually made that whizzing sound off the reel that you always read about. Whatever I had hooked was fighting hard, taking out line in runs and generally acting like a big fish. 5 minutes later, I pull in a 15 inch channel cat that maybe weighed 1 and half pounds. I am now addicted to light line fly fishing and can't wait to hook a big bluegill with my new favorite rod.