I don't use spinning gear at all. Do you?

Reels are the hottest topic for TackleTour. Everyone wants to know what the latest and greatest is and how they compare to the old guard. What's the best for light stuff, or what's your suggestion for heavy cover. Do we really need different retrieve ratios? It's all in here.

Are you still using Spinning Gear?

Yes
96
79%
No
24
20%
Thinking of getting rid of them
2
2%
 
Total votes: 122

tywithay
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Re: I don't use spinning gear at all. Do you?

Post by tywithay » Wed Jun 24, 2020 5:25 am

Hobie-Wan Kenobi wrote:
Wed Jun 24, 2020 4:28 am
tywithay wrote:
Tue Jun 23, 2020 8:35 pm
Hobie-Wan Kenobi wrote:
Tue Jun 23, 2020 8:06 am
fishonsc wrote:
Tue Jun 23, 2020 6:01 am
I use spinning gear for bush fishing. Been doing more and more of it. There are some nice hidden spots if you are willing to machete your way to them.
I prefer short BFS gear for bush fishing. The one handed casting is really nice in that thick brush.
I cast spinning gear with one hand. Is that not a normal thing?
You have to use your other hand to open the bail
It's less convenient, but I sometimes open the bail with one hand too. If I need my other hand to keep myself stable, it's the only option.

BigG
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Re: I don't use spinning gear at all. Do you?

Post by BigG » Wed Jun 24, 2020 12:09 pm

Got rid of mine, but decided I liked spinning rods more for shakeyheads. So, then I decided to try a longer rod, so I got some more. :lol:
Last edited by BigG on Sat Jun 27, 2020 10:33 am, edited 1 time in total.

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Obz
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Re: I don't use spinning gear at all. Do you?

Post by Obz » Wed Jun 24, 2020 11:18 pm

Spinning gear is great for open water situations, I use spinning setups for smallmouth often as well as walleye and steelhead. Some 15# braid to 10# flouro with an FG knot makes for a sensitive, easy casting set up and you can still kinda bully big fish. The drag systems are smoother allowing you too keep constant pressure and its fun when they run. As long as I'm not trying to pull a fish away from cover or throwing heavier baits I prefer spinning gear. I don't have any high end set ups, St.croix Avids and 100-150 reels. I would like a stradic/legendx or st. But I've been doing more multi species fishing and a couple more combos has priority over 1 fancy. It beats locking down the drag and yanking them out if you can get away with it.

All that said I think my fancy baitcasters are a necessity for bottom contact with anything over 1/2oz total weight and just real nice for anything else around 1/2oz or over when bass fishing.

If you swear spinning gear off you are missing out.

Pastrmka
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Re: I don't use spinning gear at all. Do you?

Post by Pastrmka » Thu Jun 25, 2020 6:57 am

It's definitely matter of preference, for bass fishing you can use either reel and cover all types of fishing techniques. For me I prefer casting, I have 2 spinning combos but rarely gets used. Untill recently you kind of had to use spinning for light, ultralight fishing but with bfs setups there is really no need for it anymore and you can go 100% with casting gear. I do miss drag sound and smoothness of drag with spinning reel which probably will never be achieved with casting reels due to mechanics of it.

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CGrinder
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Re: I don't use spinning gear at all. Do you?

Post by CGrinder » Thu Jun 25, 2020 7:24 am

I'm a no, for now at least. I have a suspicion that spinning gear might improve my shakeyhead and Smallmouth fishing in general. I don't Ned rig at all and that probably should change when the water starts to get cold. Baitfinesse casting didn't really do it for me like I thought it would.

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jvelth74
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Re: I don't use spinning gear at all. Do you?

Post by jvelth74 » Thu Jun 25, 2020 8:24 am

There is species that needs spinning gear. It think GT would be tough to fish with baitcasting reels, and possibility that there's no baitcasting reel for needs like that. Maybe same for Tuna?

But in Finland most common 'sport' species are: Pike, Perch, Zander, Trouts and Salmons. Those species can be fished spinning gear or casting gear.

In my living area is not good fishing waters, and most of fishing is just casting and retrieving a bait and hoping for a bite. With a good baitcasting gear it itself is pleasant to cast and retrieve. Therefore baitcasting reel my choise. I just can't feel same with any spinning gear.

reason162
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Re: I don't use spinning gear at all. Do you?

Post by reason162 » Thu Jun 25, 2020 8:41 am

It comes down to quicker drops with lighter weights in deeper water. BFS is fun, but it will never be as efficient as spinning gear when it comes to feeding line off the spool for deep finesse stuff. Drag will also never be as smooth.

ss30378
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Re: I don't use spinning gear at all. Do you?

Post by ss30378 » Thu Jun 25, 2020 8:54 am

I have a total of 2 spinning combos, one is for my little girl to use.

My only spinner setup I use is for UL fishing. 6'3" MC days UL super fine solid tip rod with a shimano soare 500s reel. Super fun combo that compliments my BFS stuff.

fffishing
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Re: I don't use spinning gear at all. Do you?

Post by fffishing » Thu Jun 25, 2020 2:07 pm

Baitcaster only!

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Re: I don't use spinning gear at all. Do you?

Post by Markymarc » Thu Jun 25, 2020 7:26 pm

I live in Montreal, an island on the St Lawrence river surounded by monsters smallmouths. Yes spinning!

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Re: I don't use spinning gear at all. Do you?

Post by boatinpete » Fri Jun 26, 2020 4:29 pm

Only jig n pig rod has baitcaster, all other outfits are spinning.

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TravisNY
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Re: I don't use spinning gear at all. Do you?

Post by TravisNY » Sat Jun 27, 2020 4:57 pm

All I fish are smallmouth. Been that way since the early/mid 90’s after a TON of multi species fishing growing up. Upper end spins for me. That’s where my $ has went for years now and will continue to do so. No rights no wrongs here as we all use the best tools we can.

mthao105
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Re: I don't use spinning gear at all. Do you?

Post by mthao105 » Sun Jun 28, 2020 9:21 am

Yes, I think some techniques are just better on a spinning rod. Call them fairy wands, but sometimes you need a little magic.

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Jason Penn
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Re: I don't use spinning gear at all. Do you?

Post by Jason Penn » Mon Jun 29, 2020 2:17 am

for the past 25 years all i've done in bass fish. i keep 6 combos in the boat, and 1 of them is spinning. i use it for the normal stuff...shakeyhead, ned, and dropshot.

in the past month, i've been crappie fishing more than anything else for some reason. i'm not really crappie fishing as much as i am using crappie baits. i'm pitching into cover just like i would a t-rig or jig. for this reason, i'm trying to put together a bfs-type setup. i'm much more accurate with a caster than spinning.

i never used spinning gear as a kid. it was always spincast. i would walk local ponds fishing for crappie. i guess that's the reason i'm still partial to casting gear at almost 50.

i do still plan to keep a spinning setup for anything under 1/8oz.

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bwjay
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Re: I don't use spinning gear at all. Do you?

Post by bwjay » Mon Jun 29, 2020 8:30 am

I used spinning reels my entire life (being an almost non-fisherman) until last year when I dove headfirst into fishing and found out I really love it. I had to try baitcasters, and found out out how much more enjoyable they are when making tons of casts, using heavier lures, and for placing baits near cover. I pretty quickly upgraded from my SLX to a Bantam and fell in love with it. All of my previous points became more evident as I used baitcasters, and I basically stopped using spinning gear entirely. I actually got pretty bad at casting with spinning gear and had to re-train myself (mostly when to let go of the line). I am still working on perfecting my spinning cast technique but I'm a lot better than I used to be. I find spinning gear more versatile and I can share it with my girlfriend when the situation arises, so I'll never get rid of it.

For the thick MN summer vegetation, I've been bringing 3 rods out on my kayak, and they're all baitcasters. I need to do some offshore structure fishing and mess around with a spinning drop shot setup (have yet to try it but I have everything I need) but it's hard to want to go try to stay on top of some structure when I can just beat the bank with a frog, jig, and worm. I know there are some big fish to be had offshore, but without spot lock or any of that (no good anchor setup yet), again it makes more sense to hit the bank, and I definitely need heavier tackle for that with our milfoil and pad situation here.

For clear water smallmouth fishing, spinning tackle just seems "right". I still use baitcasters with straight fluoro, but I had an absolute blast on a canoe trip earlier this month catching smallie after smallie on a little silver popper with 30lb MaxCuatro to 12lb mono on my Stradic Ci4+/LMH Helium3. It helped me bomb that thing out to the boulders I figured they'd be sitting by. Give it a couple big and little bloops, let it sit for 10-20 seconds, and they'd just suck it under with almost no ripple. Set the hook and enjoy that buttery smooth drag as they take off :)

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