The Spin/Cast way to Fly Fish
Written by Dale Y the Fishin' Guy, Tuesday January 27 2009
If you don't have enough room to send out a fly, or never got into the sport but always wanted to try it anyway, here is a nice little technique to fly fish using a spinning, spincast, or light casting reel.
To those of us that enjoy fly fishing, there are few pleasures greater than the art itself. Rivers and streams seem have always been the staple for the fly fishing art, as long as there are open spaces behind to allow a good loop in the line, and therefore a good cast from the rod.
One can generally find that type of space on a stream or a lake, as long as you are willing to don waders and get out a little way from the shore. Sometimes, however, that isn’t practical, so here is a way to fly fish by only using spinning or spin-cast rods and reels.
My father taught me this very simple and easy technique when I was a boy, and I have been using it ever since. It is actually a quicker way to get your fly in the water, and I have outfished dedicated fly fisherman on several occasions when we were fishing at the same lake.
Rig up a spinning reel or a modern low drag spin-cast reel with a clear elongated bobber. These are generally found in sporting goods or bait stores, and they more or less taper to a point on one end. You want to put the line through both the top and the bottom snap guides, with the fatter side of the bobber facing the rod, about 5 feet from the end of the line.
Now, tie your favorite fly or popper on the end of the line, and do not add any weight. That’s it! It can now be cast out virtually anywhere with only a minimum of clearance, unlike the clearance needed for a good fly cast, and you can fish this set-up just like any casting rig.
The action works exactly like a fly rod would, twitching your bug across the surface, letting a current take it into a hot spot, or even reeling it in at a slow pace and running it through weed beds or over cribs.
This type of fly rod action is mainly due to the elongated bobber. Not that a classic red and white striped bobber wouldn’t work, but an elongated kind passes down the action of the rod to the bait much more efficiently. It allows you to twitch and dance your fly exactly as you would be able to do on a fly rod, and just like a fly rod, the longer the better. I use a 7’6” light spinning rod, and the action so closely mimics a fly rod and reel combo, that people or fish generally cannot tell the difference.
This system works very well around piers, logs, and reeds, exactly where a fly rod would, and you never have to worry about needing enough space, since you can cast this rig with almost zero room to spare, either sidearm or overhead, this rig isn’t fussy about how you get it out into the water.
So, for those times when the fly-fishing bug hits but there isn’t enough room, this just may be the ticket to landing top feeding bass, trout, bluegills and crappies!
Thanks For Joinin' Me!
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2 comments
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Hi Aaron! I live in Wisconsin, and I primarily hit the lakes in the state. Unless you get into the Wisconsin fishing scene, I am not going to be able to help you much with places around the country. But thanks for reading and commenting on the article, and since I am just beginning to do this, as well as wroking out the bugs, I will be posting amny more to come. Thanks again and Take care Dale
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Hey Dale, thanks for the tips! I really appreciate the tutorial as I'm starting to get into the sport. Please keep them coming. Do you have any favorite spots in the U.S.?