1. You can cover more water with less time. 2. You can throw further out with the spinning rod. 3 You can easily manage the depth of your presentation with the bubble. 4. It is easier to use when it is windy . 5 and last but not least I can sit on my rear cast all day without working at it.Originally Posted by Fly Goddess
How so? Just asking
Lots of the above can be negated by fishing from a floating device however I don't prefer them.
Tim
I have been an avid fisherman since I was 7 years old, starting with baitcasting, then adding spinning in my later teens. I am now almost 64 & just got into flyfishing after the age of 50. I gave away all my baitcasting gear & MAY use spinning gear once or twice a year in the salt or fishing deep for walleye & perch from a boat in Lake Erie. I simply have become addicted to the "non mechanical", artistic beauty & simplicity of fly fishing.
Mike
FAOL..All about caring, sharing, & good friends!!
I live on a river a 1/4 mile from Lake Erie and fish the lake with spinning gear like Mike (we almost got out together a couple months ago but 30 kt wind stopped that) Ill troll also for steelhead and walleye or saltwater fish with spinning or baitcasting gear. But I love to flyfish for anything i can catch in fresh or saltwater. I've fished as long as i can remember--- flyfished for 52 yrs and spinfished a little longer than that. I love all kinds of flyfishing from carp, bass and crappie in the marina to tarpon and bones on the flats and from albies to steelhead. I just love fishing.
"She had hooks to make a fish think twice!" ---Chris Smither-"Lola"
FlyGoddess,
My first rod was a bamboo fly rod. As a young kid it was much more practical to switch back and forth between spinning gear and fly gear to fish the different waters and species of fish we fished for. Most lake fishing was with the spinning rod & fly bubble, and I still use this method when fish are beyond fly rod range. I had lots of fun in the past, throwing a bubble/fly combo with a muddler minnow(fished dry, like a hopper) far up into the heavy riffles. I did a lot of spin fishing for pike in the U.P. of Michigan. I also like to night fish for catfish on the Susquehanna river - forked stick & live minnows. Usually I go with my brothers and some of their wives night fishing. We've come up with a whole bunch of inane rules for night fishing. We are constantly threatening "to check the rule book" if we think someone is outside the agreed rules, although no one has ever been able to produce said 'rule book'. For instance, if someone yells "fish on!" and they reel in a snapping turtle, that's an infraction of the rules, and its announced that the 'rule book' will have to be checked. Good fun. One of the reasons I prefer to fish with the fly rod is because you can redirect your fly in an instant, where spin fishing, you've got to reel your lure/fly bubble all the way in before you can cast again. You can also manipulate a fly line while casting and on the water. Spin fishing is way less complicated/involved than fly fishing, but thats what I like about fly fishing! I pretty much know everything I NEED to know about spin fishing, but after 44+ years of fly fishing I learn something new almost every day!!!
Best regards, Dave S.
I'll break out the spinning and baitcasting gear when the fishing is secondary. By that I mean night fishing for cats with a bunch of friends, where I'd actually rather NOT catch because I'm busy talking, eating, drinking, and having a good time. Also, I'll take along a spinning and a casting rod when I float a nearby river in my buddy's canoe. First of all I don't want to be responsible for a high-speed piercing, and secondly, I'm there more to enjoy the float and the time outdoors with my buddy. If I catch something, great (or TWO somethings, like in the doubles thread, also great), but I like not having to think about loops, backcasts, etc. Cast rapala. Reel in rapala. Lather, rinse, repeat. Beauty in simplicity.
Also, on water with no current (or near non-existent current, like the river in question), most of the benefits I gain with a fly rod become null and void. I don't have to drift, I'm not using small offerings, I'm fishing 6-12 feet down, the fish are more smell and vibration triggered, and accuracy becomes less an issue of placing an offering in the correct drift lane softly and more a matter of hitting gaps between dead tree trunks in the water 60-70 feet away. Can I do it with a fly rod? Ususally, yes. But it isn't fun for me. Can I do it with a baitcaster? Sure. Without thinking about it, nearly every time, with 1/4 oz. of lead.
I started with a spincast rod, then a spinning rod, then a fly rod and finally a casting rod. Now, I switch back and forth between them all depending on what I'm fishing for and when.
Last edited by DaveP63; 10-22-2010 at 03:14 PM.
"They say you forget your troubles on a trout stream, but that's not quite it. What happens is that you begin to see where your troubles fit into the grand scheme of things, and suddenly they're just not such a big deal anymore." - John Gierach
I have been doing both for the last 8 years. Flyfish on the stillwaters and some for Steelhead and throw some gear for steelhead. It is all fun.
Truthfully 2 years ago, I took the whole year off from EVERYTHING fly fishing (Still checked the board but not as much). My wife and I moved to a smaller house and I had been moving stuff around and saw my jig molds and jig tying stuff and decided I wanted to pour, made a bunch of jigs, tied a few and the rest got plastics and for a year I did nothing but spin fish, bait fish, and had a great time. It was like I had forgiven an old friend and we were hanging out having a good time.
I got the fly rod and tying stuff out again after the above year off and got back into it. My overall fishing is now a 50/50 mix of the fly rod and spinning rod. I'll never be a 100% fly fish only as I love to tinker with and make tackle. Besides with some of the places here in Vermont that I fish you couldn't get a fly rod into anyway, so a spin rod with a bubble gets used. For my enjoyment and fishing relaxation this 50/50 split makes me perfectly happy.
Fatman
I'm fairly new to fly fishing (8 years now) but have been fishing since I was a little boy. I just enjoy fishing. I only fish for trout with fly, but I'll break out the spinning rod occaisionally for some smallmouth action. Not that I don't fish for them also with the fly but sometimes they want a tube jig, and only a tube jig! If I go home to Florida and hit the salt looking for some table fare, I might even resort to throwing a live finger mullet out there for a flounder or black snapper. I can understand why some guys only flyfish, an dI respect that decision, but I prefer a fish on the line over calling myself a purist.
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