Fly Rods vs Types Of Fishing

[Swattie87]

Bamboozle wrote:

it takes too much time

I think that's my biggest knock on FFing equipment. Relative to other tackle options, it's slow. During a hatch, when presenting a matched fly is the only game in town to catch a fish, it doesn't matter that it's slow. It's still the best option. Other times, in other conditions, the fact that you can probably cast/retrieve 2 or 3 times with a spinning outfit for every one cast/retrieve with a fly rod makes it more effective:

Take the example of high, off water conditions I mentioned earlier. I bet I actually get about the same number of strikes and land the same number of fish on a per cast basis with a fly rod and a streamer or an UL spin rod with a spinner. Over a given period of time however, I can make more casts with the spinning outfit though.

Don't get me wrong. I enjoy the fishing experience with FFing tackle the most, and all else being equal, I'd rather FF. But sometimes, in certain conditions, I want to be able to fish faster and cover more water...Those are the times when I grab the spin rod.

 

[afishinado]

Swattie87 wrote:

Bamboozle wrote:

it takes too much time

I think that's my biggest knock on FFing equipment. Relative to other tackle options, it's slow. During a hatch, when presenting a matched fly is the only game in town to catch a fish, it doesn't matter that it's slow. It's still the best option. Other times, in other conditions, the fact that you can probably cast/retrieve 2 or 3 times with a spinning outfit for every one cast/retrieve with a fly rod makes it more effective:

Take the example of high, off water conditions I mentioned earlier. I bet I actually get about the same number of strikes and land the same number of fish on a per cast basis with a fly rod and a streamer or an UL spin rod with a spinner. Over a given period of time however, I can make more casts with the spinning outfit though.

Don't get me wrong. I enjoy the fishing experience with FFing tackle the most, and all else being equal, I'd rather FF. But sometimes, in certain conditions, I want to be able to fish faster and cover more water...Those are the times when I grab the spin rod.

Not always true ^

I had a bass boat and ended up FFing from it.

My favorite lake featured many stumps, logs, lily pads and weed beds.

When I had a spin guy on board he would cast to a target near the bank, and have to reel all the way in through dead water to recast.

When FFing I would cast to a log, pick up hit another good looking piece of cover, pick up cast into a void in the pads, pick up and hit 3 or 4 spots to my spin partner's one cast.

Plus I was able to cast into a void in the middle of weeds or pads and just pick up my line and recast to another spot while a spin guy has cast and reel his lure through the weeds to recast if that was even possible.

Fly-fishing for bass or panfish in heavy cover is one of my favorite ways to fish.

 

[Swattie87]

^That's a fair counterpoint. Can't say I've ever fished from a Bass boat, but that makes good sense. Kind of reminds me of when hatch fishing and you have the amount of line out dialed in to drift over a specific fish that's rising. You drift over him, pick up the line and in one back and forth drop it back in front of him again. In that specific situation too, FFing is probably quicker than spin fishing. (Not that spin gear works particularly effectively to a rising fish in the first place.)

Should have clarified better that my example was mainly based on small stream Trout fishing with streamers. When fishing streamers in that situation you end up stripping most of your line back to your feet on the retrieve. Sometimes the current pulls it downstream of you, and sometimes it gets tangled in sticks and debris at your feet. You have to gather it back it up, and false cast it back out of the rod tip to make your next cast. On spinning tackle, after you're done on a retrieve, you flip the bail, and flip your wrist.

 

[SteveG]

This whole argument really just comes down to physics and each specific scenario. Outside of deep water, fly rods have an abundance of different casts, retrieves, mending, and flies in which to present various offerings. Curve and parallel sidearm casts alone are worth their weight in gold on a majority of the water I fish.

 

[JeffK]

I generally shy away from too heavy or too deep, but have had these experiences where fly rod beat spinning for bass and pike. I don't fly fish for shad below the Gap or try to get a lake trout on fly gear in PA, NJ, or NY (a gimmick in the mid Atlantic states IMHO)

Fishing in Currituck Sound NC, a shallow, brackish weed choked water when fished like the post above. The water is 4 to 5 ft deep and solid weeds. There are table to car sized holes that one casts to. The traditional casting a deer hair bug from the front of a jonboat allows one to hit a pocket, then backcast out of the pocket and hit the next one on the forecast. Covers a lot of water fast. Normal casting yields a weed clogged lure on the return; pitching jigs (the popular way) needs the boat to be closer. Fly covers the water better, but when I was there last only a few old-timers had it down.

Post spawn pike fishing in Cranberry Lake, NY. Post spawn pike are hungry for big baits, but still in the very shallow back bays. Casting a large plug scares them. Throwing a large streamer allows a soft landing. Need to throw a big streamer a long way, but the fly presentation doesn't spook the fish.

Also when I was in NC flies killed for crappie when the lakes got low and clear in the fall. Regular local spring time rigs weren't always subtle enough (but some jig pros dialed that in as well) . That left good fishing for tiny streamers on light fly gear.

Then 2 spinning ways to use flies. Out in CO using spinning bubbles to toss flies in high altitude lakes is still popular. In OR alkali lakes saw guys using wet flies by taking a piece of lead core trolling line (or a sinking fly head) and adding a leader and appropriate wet fly - often an olive bugger. This could be cast far and let sink to the right depth and then retrieved very slowly over submerged weed beds. Took practice to get the weight of the rig optimized, but when it was dialed in it really helped spin fishermen fish nymphs and buggers. At one time I obtained a weird system from a machinist who made aluminum weights of various sizes to do the same thing. Didn't catch on, but it worked.

Fish heads will always find a way to dial in a way to catch more than their neighbors,

 

[Bamboozle]

afishinado wrote:
Not always true ^

I had a bass boat and ended up FFing from it.

My favorite lake featured many stumps, logs, lily pads and weed beds.

When I had a spin guy on board he would cast to a target near the bank, and have to reel all the way in through dead water to recast.

When FFing I would cast to a log, pick up hit another good looking piece of cover, pick up cast into a void in the pads, pick up and hit 3 or 4 spots to my spin partner's one cast.

Plus I was able to cast into a void in the middle of weeds or pads and just pick up my line and recast to another spot while a spin guy has cast and reel his lure through the weeds to recast if that was even possible.

Fly-fishing for bass or panfish in heavy cover is one of my favorite ways to fish.

It's no so much the time lost picking up and recasting (and quite frankly, that's what high speed retrieve reels are for) it's the time lost when you HOOK a fish.

Casting and spinning gear can retrieve a hooked fish way faster than any practical method of stripping in a fly line. Time is everything in tournaments which is why the tournament pros are all about bringing the fish in fast.

Don't believe me, I'll race you sometime with a 5 pound bass on my Shimano Metanium ;-)

 

[afishinado]

Bamboozle wrote:

afishinado wrote:
Not always true ^

I had a bass boat and ended up FFing from it.

My favorite lake featured many stumps, logs, lily pads and weed beds.

When I had a spin guy on board he would cast to a target near the bank, and have to reel all the way in through dead water to recast.

When FFing I would cast to a log, pick up hit another good looking piece of cover, pick up cast into a void in the pads, pick up and hit 3 or 4 spots to my spin partner's one cast.

Plus I was able to cast into a void in the middle of weeds or pads and just pick up my line and recast to another spot while a spin guy has cast and reel his lure through the weeds to recast if that was even possible.

Fly-fishing for bass or panfish in heavy cover is one of my favorite ways to fish.

It's no so much the time lost picking up and recasting (and quite frankly, that's what high speed retrieve reels are for) it's the time lost when you HOOK a fish.

Casting and spinning gear can retrieve a hooked fish way faster than any practical method of stripping in a fly line. Time is everything in tournaments which is why the tournament pros are all about bringing the fish in fast.

Don't believe me, I'll race you sometime with a 5 pound bass on my Shimano Metanium ;-)

It's really all about having fun fishing. I like to fly-fish and you like to spin fish.

But to answer your post above > Cast to a log or stumps 30 feet away and reel in 30' of line with your high gear ratio baitcasting outfit.

Now fly cast, hit the target pick up your line and hit the next one and the next one. No doubt a FFer can cast and pickup and hit more target spots than any spin guy can reeling 30' and recasting each time.

More targets hit more fish. Been there, done it hundreds of days to thousands of targets.

But again, who cares. The object of the game is to have fun whatever method or tackle you choose.

 

[wbranch]

I perform 99% of my trout fishing with a fly rod and 100% of my streamer fishing with a fly rod. I have really put time in streamer fishing since 2000. I throw up to #1 streamers with a 9' #7 rod. I just slow down the casting stroke for those larger flies. I prefer to use a 9' #6 for all streamer work #4 and smaller.

Once in a blue moon I might use a 10' noodle rod to drift nymphs under a float in higher water. I do all of my steelhead fishing with a fly rod. I've tried various length noodle rods I own and the experience just isn't the same. I can make at least two casts, probably three, for every cast I make with the spinning rod. Yes, the drifts are shorter but I don't care and still catch lots of steelhead.

I have a boat and prefer to use the spinning rods for smallmouth. I bring a fly rod but only use it if I see bass chasing bait and the boils are within fly rod casting distance. I love to live line minnows for smallmouth - and no tackle I am aware of comes close to meeting my needs to do that.

I prefer to inshore salt water fish with a fly rod and when I do pursue bonefish or other warm water salt water fish I bring 2 - 3 9' fly rods and always bring a 7' 4 piece 6# - 10# line spinning rod. The wind can be so brutal that having only a fly rod can mean you will not hook up and the guide won't be able to put you within fly rod casting distance. I've turned impossible fly rod days into exciting days with the spin rod.

 

[tomgamber]

Trolling wet flies behind a canoe with trolling motor for Kokanee is a classic, old school and very effective technique I've seen used in Idaho. Lots of spin fishermen in Pa. use Joe-flies in a similar method with spinning gear with great succes.


My buddies dad used to say the trick was the same as good bbq. Low and slow. He kept his rod tip just off the surface and trolled wet flies with old braided sinking line and long leaders, going as slow as possible in the canoe. He said his wife used to paddle for him in the old days but the electric motor as quieter.

Similarly, I basically do the same thing from the float tube on occasion.

 

[gulfgreyhound]

From a salt water angler there are rods for various types of fishing.
fRom light inshore spinning to offshore broom stick trolling rods.
An old rule of thumb was if you go to the Keys it was 7 rods / man.plus a fly rod. Covered all the bases fish wise. GG

 

[blueheron]

You all realize fly fishing is seldom the most productive way to catch fish and almost never the reason we all ended up here. Merry Christmas

 

[larkmark]

Dynamite works well