I had the same thought... and that has A LOT to do with why I never fished them. On a spinning reel you can be more versitle as far as how deep you want to fish... I don't see you being able to effectively fly fish with one of these any deeper than maybe 6-8ft??? I'm deployed right now but when I get home I'm planning a smallmouth trip in MO somewhere... Does anyone have any ideas or thoughts on using them for smallmouth?