Would you consider fishing a bubble and fly with a spin rod harder than conventional fly fishing a fly?
I ask because of presentation.You can hardly be gentle when you’re slapping a bubble on the water on every cast.
Let’s see what conversation this brings?
Last time I looked the splash never stopped other spin fishermen from catching fish, I don’t see why it would be any different with fly and bubble. If you are in still water then you can just wait for the fish to ‘calm down’ after making a cast and if fishing moving water then just cast farther upstream than you would/could with a fly rod.
I do think there are probably occasions where fly fishermen or other spin fishermen have an advantage over the bubble fisherman, but I also think that the opposite is true.
Most spin fisherman fish subsurface. I was talking about dry flies.
Dear Gramps,
I’ve never seen anyone attempt to fish a dry fly with a spinning rod and a bubble float? How in the world would you control your drift or make an accurate cast?
I have seen plenty of guys wish wet flies and nymphs in lakes using the bubbles and they hammer fish. The greatest fly caster on Earth couldn’t possibly cover 1/2 of the amount of water a spin fisher can cover with a bubble float.
Best Wishes,
Avalon 
I used to do that when I was a kid. It works!
Harder no, different yes
It’s been the way i’ve fished for years. I usually use streamers and wet flies. one of the most effective is using Pistol Petes.
Their is a trend on ultra light fishing now. You use light mono (or floro) 4 lb line, light action short rods (5-6ft), and all the flies you would use in fly fishing. Including all the dry flies.
I guess that’s what my question is. How do you do a delicate dry fly presentation with a bubble and dry fly? How do you avoid drag? The light mono line would be great for drag, but how do you control the drag the bubble will cause?
How do you control the drag a fly line would cause? You mend or you feed line. Use the drag from the bubble to pick up your light spinning line off the water and place it on the water where you want it or maybe just keep feeding line while the bubble and the fly float down river, like you would a flyline to keep your fly from dragging. Flyfishing is all about technique and line handling, just take these principles and apply them to the spin setup. Harder no just different. Nothing is perfect (except maybe a net). Half the fun is playing with a new or different idea and trying to get it to work for you.
Very good. What about the splash from the bubble? cast way up stream, and work it down where you want it?
Probably some situations like a small still pool that you would have to pass up.
I used to do it all the time back in the day. I would sneak upstream of a rising fish, flip the bubble & fly on a long leader, hold it in the current then open the bail and let it drift fly first downstream making sure to click over the bail a few feet before the fly got to the fish’s lie.
Upstream casting was a whole other matter unless it was a wide stream but the boobber in most cases precedes the fly.
been there - done that (oh … a # of years back) … which is one path on how I came to fly fishing.
Evening lines for walleye - calm evening and they were surface feeding. I had some flies in my box ‘just cuz’ and figgured, well, the bait isn’t working. Put the fly about 6 ft past the bobber. Lost the 3 dry flies I had in 10 minutes to walleye (bite-offs). Then thought … hmmms, must be something with this flyfishing stuff …
and the rest - is history
So, is this fly fishing? Pretty close to using an indicator (fly fishings version of a bubble).
Very good. What about the splash from the bubble? cast way up stream, and work it down where you want it?
Probably some situations like a small still pool that you would have to pass up.
Why pass it up. So what you scare some fish. Worse things have happened.
You never know unless you try.
I am an avid backpacker and there is no more effective way to fish high mountain lakes than throwing a bobber and a dry on a spin cast rig. The Uinta mountain range in NE Utah is riddled with lakes above 9,000 ft, but packing in your waders is just out of the question, so this is the way to go. I have also done it twice on small stream while backpacking into King’s Peak. I just picked up the fish at the downstream end of the hole with an adams on a 4 ft. leeder and the bubble never even touched the hole I was fishing. Maybe not ideal, but it was pretty fun and can be done.
Exactly why I brought this up. It was my plan too. Plus something has come up for me that means I should avoid wading at anytime. ( Osteoporosis)
It worked for me. I’ll bet that at least a few of you have been to Lake Louise, and for two years I was the postmaster at an honest-to-God genuine Canada Post Office right there in the hotel.
I had a nice little Wright & McGill 6-piece spinning rod and thought I’d try the bubble float thing … I don’t know how I’d heard of it … in two years of living within spittin’ distance of the lake I’d never seen a fisherman (a quaint old '70’s word) on the lake.
And damn … I caught a nice little trout … we kept it in the sink in the staff residence for a day and then released it.
Trivia question … what was the English translation of the original aboriginal name for Lake Louise?
Ron
Lake of Little Fishes, I think…
Ho-run-num-nay is the Indian name, I think…
Why is every one using a BUBBLE float – Hasn’t anyone heard of the “little” tear drop shaped floats with a screw eye on each end with no water for weight. Tie the line on the small end and leader on the largest. No splash or wake when pulled thru the water. Works great for lakes unger water wets also,when the float moves set the hook. BILL
Is it heavy enough to cast? Not sure i’ve seen one. Got a link?
Hi Pete,
Yup … it’s easily heavy enough to cast … and I was using a stout spinning rod. I don’t know why it was called a bubble float … it wasn’t a sphere. It was translucent, with a round front and a tapering-to-a-point rear.
Or maybe it was the other way around. 
I probably bought it in Banff.
And well-done to Mr. BB (in the earlier post)… have you been there?
Ron