"Spinfishing is more effective"

[salvelinusfontinalis]

sure buddy, sure.

 

[Bamboozle]

One guy on the team was fishing conventionally and the victory was for the TEAM, not the angler, not to mention the conventional fisherman won the big fish prize so it is hardy what it is hyped up to be...

...except of course by fly fishermen... ;-)

 

[Mike]

Sometimes it is and sometimes it isn’t. Same for bait fishing vs both. Should be obvious to anyone who does all three.

 

[pcray1231]

As someone who grew up a hardcore spinning rod, minnow guy, and still tosses a spinning rod around now and then.

The short answer is, it depends on the situation.

For me, a fly rod gets me a better drift and is more accurate. For spooky or parsnickety fish. It also enables dry flies, which, in certain situations will outfish underwater options (yes, a trout may generally feed subsurface for 90% of its food intake, but, its about when. 10% of the time they feed almost exclusively topwater, we can target those times, and when it happens, its easier, because they tell you exactly where they are and what they're eating!) A fly rod is also generally superior on small streams, because you can more effectively fish shallow riffs and tiny pockets, rather than being relegated to pools only.

A spinning rod is superior in bigger water where longer casts are necessary, getting to depths over 6 ft or so, as well as for aggressive fish where working something fast (like spinners) is effective and covering huge swaths of water quickly is advantageous.

Just my 2 cents.

 

[salvelinusfontinalis]

To clarify, Im not claiming it isnt.
I just thought it was a cool article and was tossing out a funny dig like everyone else on the site.

Debate away.

 

[Swattie87]

salvelinusfontinalis wrote:
To clarify, Im not claiming it isnt.
I just thought it was a cool article.

Debate away.

Good to see you didn’t just strike the match and walk away. ;-)

I fish with both. There are times and conditions when one is clearly more effective than the other. Low/clear water and/or during an active hatch, FFing is far for more effective. And overall FFing is more versatile IMO. You have more options to present something that will work in the given conditions.

In higher, off color water they’re both probably equally as effective IMO, assuming you are equally skilled at each. That said, the main advantage to spin gear is it can be fished more quickly and you can cover more water in an equal amount of time. In good off color conditions you catch more fish with spin gear because you cover more water and encounter more fish. Though, my experience is the catch rate per distance of stream fished is relatively equal.

 

[troutbert]

It does depend on the situation.

But if I was fishing for food for survival, I'd pick spinning gear as the obvious choice.

I was reading through some old fishing articles from around the late 1940s and early 1950s. Some people back then felt that spin gear was so effective that it was causing an impact on game fish populations, so decreasing the quality of the fishing.

Since we're fishing for fun, I choose fly fishing. The catch/hour ratio is not as high, but it isn't industrial efficiency that I'm after.

 

[Dave_W]

Agree - good analogy of "fishing for food for survival."

All things considered, I think spin fishing has the advantage for stream trout with a few exceptions, especially in springtime. The advantage spin fishing offers goes up in proportion to the amount and position of tree and brushy cover in which one is fishing (think about it).

In other areas - think surf fishing or muskie fishing - it isn't even close with conventional gear much superior.

Fun debate... Keep it up you FF snobs.

 

[greenghost]

Mike wrote:
Sometimes it is and sometimes it isn’t. Same for bait fishing vs both. Should be obvious to anyone who does all three.

I agree. But I'd like to mention that the skill of the angler in any one of those disciplines plays a large part in the effectiveness too.

My brother was the best bait-spin fishermen I knew. He would outfish me using a fly rod almost every time... with the rare exception of fishing during a heavy hatch. In early season, he'd string up minnow rigs with so many split-shot, it looked like Rosary beads and roll them along the bottom. He cleaned house. Later, when water levels dropped, he'd use 4-lb test with a micro-spinning outfit, no added weight except for the bait (usually redworms) and could cast fairly long and delicately; covering pools, slots, riffs.

 

[Baron]

I like it all but, being new to it, my favorite is fF. It puts me in a zone.

As a kid, up to about 13, I fished with Push button technology and recently I began collecting vintage examples of them. I have a Johnson 100 that I can hardly wait to fish.
I'm not much of a trout guy but by reading about fly fishing for trout I've learned more about habitat, habits and the food chain than ever. Now no matter when I go out I expect to catch something.
Dead summer on a sweltering evening in a sunken stump field is magic for a fly rod. In a farm pond during bluegill spawn a fly rod is much faster and a great way to teach the young folk.
Thanks to you all for being so patient with me during the last year or two as I learned the basics of ff.
Thanks for the prayers during my recovery. Couple weeks to go.

 

[Swattie87]

I was only considering Trout fishing in my post above.

I think spin fishing generally crushes FFing when it comes to WW. I really like fishing WW with fly gear and I haven’t spin fished WW in 7 or 8 years probably. That said, my wife is often standing right next to me WW fishing, and she fishes spin sometimes and fly sometimes, depending on what her mood for the day is. When she spin fishes (usually with a small minnow style Rapala or twister tail grub), she’ll out catch me 3 or 4:1 through the exact same water that I’m tossing a streamer through on fly gear. I suspect the reason is it’s easier to keep the presentation deeper, longer with spin gear. A noted exception is when SMB are looking up and crushing damselflies in fairly fast water. A streamer swung down and across high in the water column will get destroyed cast after cast. Sometimes several times per cast.

I’m nowhere near a good enough caster to even attempt to FF the surf. Surf rods, lead pyramids, and a cooler full of beer (“soda” in DE) is the ticket then.

 

[PennKev]

troutbert wrote:

I was reading through some old fishing articles from around the late 1940s and early 1950s. Some people back then felt that spin gear was so effective that it was causing an impact on game fish populations, so decreasing the quality of the fishing.

I think that the learning curve of spin fishing is such that it makes a population more effective as whole than if fly tackle was the only option. If you have 100 anglers for instance, more of them are likely to become reasonably proficient with spin gear than with fly gear. So even if spin fishing is not more effective in the absolute sense, it is more effective since more anglers can become proficient at it.

It's perfectly understandable for those early spin anglers to seem extremely effective. Spinning gear was a huge leap forward in terms of ease of use. More anglers where indeed likely catching more fish. Also, both fly tackle and bait casting would have presented larger skill challenges and spin gear also filled a niche in which other gear proved inadequate.

Also, catch and release was not the standard at that time so any increase in overall anglers success likely had a more pronounced impact on the fisheries.

 

[salvelinusfontinalis]

Good to see you didn’t just strike the match and walk away. ?

Ha! Well to be fair, anyone that would get worked up over something so silly should burn their computer to begin with.

 

[wildtrout2]

Are "bait fishing" and "spin fishing" considered one and the same? I ask because I believe a half of a night crawler will out-fish a spinner, almost every time.

 

[Bamboozle]

I pretty much gave up conventional fishing and my gear and became a fly snob when I started fly-fishing. One of things I slowly came to realize was I was no longer fishing with my old childhood buddies who fished bait or conventionally because I was on fly fishing only streams or we didn’t share a commonality of tackle & methods (more likely because I was full of myself).

I fixed that years later by returning to my roots and the company of long neglected friends because life is too short to be a snob…

These days I use the fly rod exclusively for trout and throwing smaller offerings in warm water like during a hatch or fishing smaller streamers or poppers for smallies. 100% of my largemouth bass fishing is done with conventional gear because I’d rather fish with a casting rod & reel for bass than a fly rod any day. Not just because I find it 1000 times more efficient & effective, but I actually enjoy it more than flinging big flies on big rods and to me fishing is about enjoying the ACT of fishing, not just catching fish.

I really don’t enjoy spin fishing as much because I don’t enjoy using a spinning reel as much, but it is a necessity for some of the fishing I enjoy so I do that too. I occasionally use spinning gear for trout in streams but that is more about using some of the cool vintage spinning tackle I have than a preference. I still prefer a fly rod for trout fishing because I find THAT more fun than spinning.

Moreover, I still consider fishing bait under a bobber for sunfish as one of my favorite ways to spend a day or afternoon and if that is all I can do when I get older, I’ll die a happy man…

 

[Swattie87]

wildtrout2 wrote:
Are "bait fishing" and "spin fishing" considered one and the same? I ask because I believe a half of a night crawler will out-fish a spinner, almost every time.

Though both can and are often fished on spin tackle, I consider them to be different techniques.

I think in some conditions a spinner will out-fish a night crawler. This is again mostly attributable to the speed at which a spinner can be fished and cover water versus drifting a night crawler. When fish are active, and the fishing conditions are good, it catches more fish by enabling the angler to cover more water and fish to more fish. Not necessarily that it’s actually catching a higher percentage of the fish it encounters. Fished over the same distance of stream the bait does probably win most times. Again, assuming equal angler skill at each technique.

I’d be the least confident in fishing bait, versus a spinner or fly in any conditions, as I’ve done it by far the least.

 

[wildtrout2]

Maybe I should have asked if fishing with worms (spinning rod) is considered spin fishing? Do you need to be using spinners to be spin fishing?
Either way, I can still put a fly anywhere I can put a worm or spinner.

 

[Wild_Trouter]

I still fish with both though I FF much more. I make my own inline spinners and there is definitely a time during the year when I break out the ultralight. Personally, I like hitting Fishing Creek when the water is near chocolate milk. You would be surprised what you can catch there in those conditions on a heavy spinner or crankbait. Same is true for Logan Branch or Spring Creek. I wouldn't go as far as to say that one style is superior no matter what. I do believe that one method can be superior to the other given certain conditions, or at least that is what my personal catch rate has shown me when conditions would be near unfishable with a fly rod.

 

[Brown71]

I fish with both, but definitely prefer spin fishing. I think its more about what each individual likes, and I got no problem with that.

I do feel that, for really large browns, which is what I spend the majority of my time targeting, spinfishing, well "finesse spinfishing" I call it, (long rod, light line) is a definite advantage. And yea I like to use bait lol.

I like fishing/catching large trout, I don't care how I get them, just want it to be the most effective way.

Theres a lot of ways to skin a cat, and its all fishing so its all good in my eyes.

 

[GeneBeam]

I do not own spin gear. Don’t deny spinning is effective, but IMO dangerous to the fish. I’m a fly fisherman, I fly fish for pleasure not for meat or glory.