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C LeBo

Back to Our Roots

Spinning Reels  

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Hello,

A lot of us fly fishers had to start somewhere, right? I was wondering just how many of us started our fishing "career" with a good ol' spinning rod and reel. And if so, how long did it take you to turn to fly fishing, how good were you at it, and what did you fish for?

 

 

Thank You,

Carson LeBoeuf

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Took me probably about 15 years to get my first fly rod... used it a few times but another couple years after that to really use it. I fish primarily for bass and panfish but got exposed to the trout streams in Michigans U.P. last year so I will be exploring those some more this year...

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Like lots of folks, I started with a Zebco 33 fishing for bluegill and bass. Have since used spinning gear, baitcasters, cane poles, and hand lines. Even went jugging once, but haven't gotten around to trot lines. Finally settled on the fly rod as my favorite, but still cast a lure on occassion. :rolleyes: Don't want to limit my choices too much. ;)

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Like Polarbear, I started annoying Brook Trout with spinning gear. Hard at it for maybe 10 years before I got a flyrod as a gift. Dabbled with it for a while, then got serious about it. Ihave to say, using spinning gear was a great start, cuz it taught me where to look for the fish. Felt like I had a head start on the fly rod as far as the ability to "read" the water.

I still drag out the spinning gear on occasion, and it still works well for me.

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well im only 25 so my years arent as long but when i was 13 or 14 my best friend and his dad used to take me on fishing trips up into the mountains of new mexico and i would fish a spinning rod while they ran up and down the river with fly poles out fishing me when i turned 14 my grandmother baught me a cheap fly pole from Kmart and i went on a fishing trip with them that year i only caught 2 or 3 rainbows that year and fished for carp and bluegill the next 3 or so years with that same rod till a huge carp snapped my pole :( it tooke me roughly another 10 years before i got another fly pole and now im serious about it its basically all i use unless i am giong to a beach or the lock and dam here in augusta GA other than that i tear up the ponds with my 6wt its all i use :)

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I started on the old bait casters before 'free spool'. I think they were called back lash specials. :rolleyes: WheIn I was 8 or 9 I learned about spin-cast and orderd a shakespear combo for Xmas. I used that until I was about 20 and I bought my forst Flyrod.

 

When I was about 10 or 12 I watched a couple of fellas in a boat work along lilly pad bed on a small lake in northern Indiana with flyrods. I saw them pulling gills and bass outa there and I was converted right then and there but I knew nothing about it and did'nt know who to ask. I still use spinning and bait casting once in a while but much prefer to fling flys though I believe that day in and day out spinning is more productive. I don't fish trout though,

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I started off with a Donald Duck Zebco using balls of Wonder Bread to catch oscars and bluegills in my grandmother's back yard canal. She would always take the fish off for me but she did teach me to bait the hook. I don't remember when I started on spinning gear but it was probably around 8 or so. I got into casting gear around junior high and fly fishing after college.

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Like most pre-schoolers, I didn't jump right into fly casting. (or so my mom always said) We lived on a trout stream, so I was a pretty lucky kid. I started out catching yellow perch and bullheads with a hand-me-down baitcasting reel and a steel rod. Believe it or not, I actually caught trout on a fly using baitcasting gear. (amazing what kids can do before they grow up and get smart) I graduated to a spinning rod and a fly rod when I was about 13; I really can't remember which came first, probably the spinning rod. I rarely pick up a spinning rod these days, but I occasionally use a conventional rig to throw saltwater tins, which I make from scratch.

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Thank God, my Dad put a fishing rod in my hands as soon as I could stand. When I got bit hard by the fishing bug around age 10 or 11, spinning tackle was what I used. It had much to do with the way we often fished together, and Dad's fly fishing days were mostly behind him. We did a lot of walleye and bass fishing from canoes. There was a medium sized river across the road, and streams within a mile in any direction. It truly was a great place for a kid who liked to fish. I started tying bucktail jigs because Dad said he couldn't find any decent ones to buy, like he used to back in the 60s and 70s. It was a stretch of the truth for sure, but he did it on purpose to encourage me. When I saw him catch a very nice walleye from the Allegheny on a jig I tied, I was completely overwhelmed with thankfulness, pride in him, happiness, everything. He was proud of me and he made it a point to talk it up to his friends (in front of me) and I had to tie up a few jigs for them, to be used only on special occasions. Truth be told they were kind of ratty looking, and that walleye might have been the dumbest fish in the river. But to me, it was what other kids might feel if they pitched a no-hitter in a little league game or made a winning touchdown. I didn't know then that it was really much more than that, something which would stay with me forever and not be just a sad memory of a "best day" as a schoolkid. At the same, I was dressing hooks for the spinners I made. That naturally led me into fly tying, and in fact I was tying flies before I ever fly fished. I was bugging Dad about fly fishing because I knew he used to do a lot of it in places like Kinzua Creek which are long gone now. I'd seen the pictures. He had held onto only one fly rod, his best, a Phillipson glass rod which was state-of-the-art in it's era. I think he picked up a new line and some leaders, and basically just turned me loose with instructions to not break it. It was all downhill from there.

 

I absolutely still use spinning tackle. There are times, places, and conditions where fly fishing just won't work or which would be silly. I do prefer to use fly tackle. Whenever I'm catching fish with spinning gear, a little piece of my brain wonders if I could be using fly gear. I'm not a fly snob although I would almost always prefer to fly fish. If I determine that I will have more fun using spinning tackle, then that's what I do. It's all about relaxing and having fun. In my kayak, I almost always have a spinning rod and a fly rod appropriate for the time. There are a whole lot of times I never touch the spinning rod.

 

IMO the folks which say "I ONLY use fly tackle" have some issues: seriously limiting themselves as to what they fish for, the environments they fish, or they just have some personal need for that in their lives.

 

The moment I perceive an air of superiority from a fly fisherman towards anyone else, is the moment I understand they have something important in their life which is totally inadequate and they are compensating, or they're just a douchebag all around. How many folks remember that Lefty Kreh is an absolute master at both spinning tackle and baitcasting tackle in addition to fly?

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I started out with a spin rod when I was about 4/5 yrs old. Used the spin rod till I was about 18 years old and then I came across my grandpa's old Silplex fly rod after he passed away and that was when I picked up a fly rod. Now for the past 22 yrs I am 99.9% a fly rod user. The only time I will use a spin rod is maybe one or two days during vacation when I will do some lazy fishing and just kick back on a river bank with a crawdad on the end of a long spin rod.

 

I wouldn't say that people that "only" use fly gear have any issues though, hell I pretty much only use fly gear and I certainly don't have any issues. Some people just enjoy to do things a certain way. I find I get much more enjoyment catching a fish on a fly rod than I do on any other sort of rod. Just a personal preference sort of thing.

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I still fish with all types of tackle. Fly rod, spinning, baitcasting & trolling. Won't be too long my two grandson's will be old enough to start fishing, so I see a couple Zebco's in my future & theirs too! :D

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perhaps saying "issues" is too harsh. I do know that fish I catch on a fly rod taste better! :lol:

 

I don't get to spend nearly as much time on the water as I should, AND I enjoy catching fish, so there are times when I put away the fly rods in favor of spinning. These days it's probably 75%-25% or so.

 

If I'm fishing 25 feet deep for walleyes (for example) and only have a half day to fish, I'd rather spin and catch a meal than goof around trying to catch them on a fly rod and maybe catch nothing or maybe catch a whole bunch. If things are going extremely well, I'll switch and see what I can do.

 

To quote Ray Bergman "There are bug days, and there are plug days."

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I use whichever method I decide I feel like using at the time. I'm still a noob to fly fishing, but I love it. But I also love using my 13 foot match rod, on the river, with maggot bait under a float, or sometimes using hard lures for the fish that will take them :) If it's fishing, I love it, hahaha

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Got started with a cane pole and a worm. At eight years I got a bait caster that did not have a free spool (didn't know there was such a thing) mounted on a steel casting rod, fishing was a two day event with grand dad who liked to seine "soft craw" on one day and the next we would take the craws and catch smallmouth bass from our local creeks. That is where I first saw a closed face spinning reel had to have one (grand dad said they were junk). I was already cutting grass for $ and used the money for a true temper deluxe closed face spinning reel I loved it. At about twelve the man next door introduced me to the fly rod! had to have one! I put that old Shakespeare Wonder Rod in layaway at the local sporting goods stores and paid it off in about a month. I was hell on any creeks, rivers or gravel pits in southwest Ohio that I could get to on my bicycle. I still have that rod bought in "1966" It I must have caught thousands of fish on it. It went with me in the Navy to MD, NY, SC, VA,...I was devastated when the fiberglass at the tip parted after only about 30 years, It doesn't seem to cast straight after the repair. Been through lots of rods since, seems I break about one a year (putz huh?). Amazingly I didn't start tying flies until almost a year after I retired in "2009." I love It. Also have made two custom rods.

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When I first started fishing, I was taught to use a fiberglass fly rod to catch Trout in the streams flowing off the East side of the Sierra Nevadas...my brother and I would slither through the under growth and present our bait on a # 18 gold treble hook using a 12" leader. Most often that bait would be Velveeta cheese, red salmon eggs, worms or grasshoppers.

 

When I taught my kids how to fish, it was mostly on high alpine lakes in the Sierras. I started them out with "Powerbait" then, graduated them to this method:

 

http://planettrout.wordpress.com/2010/08/03/pppties-that-bind/

 

Using this technique, one can cover a lot more water than using a fly rod. We still use this method from time to time and it provides a lot of memorable "hook-ups"...it is a great way to get kids into fly fishing because they are busy casting all the time...unlike staring at a bobber in a lake...

 

 

PT/TB ;)

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