Looking for UL fishing info fly or spin

Where will you be fishing? Sometimes location will dictate which is best.

Mostly Washington State but I also have trips planned to Utah, Montana, Colerado and Wyoming this summer and just want one rod. Dont tell my family but I might actually prefer a spinning set up. I just wanted to hear reccomendations on both to see if I could be swayed to the fly side. Ali

Sorry if everything is spelled wrong here. I have become infinately dumber today. :)

For pure lightness fly reels are slightly lighter. But I haven't put in the effort to learn how to fly fish. It is certainly beautiful to watch it done right.

I have a 6' telescopic rod from cabelas that weighs a little over 3 ounces and a spinning real at 6 oz. The tiny pen rod kit by comparison weighs 7 oz for rod and reel so not much savings for a much less functional item.

Add 1 oz worth spinners and flies and I have a 10 oz kit that I've been very successful with.

Ali- on this one, for me it isn't about weight. I haven't used a spinning rod since I started fly fishing. I guess I should be writing this on the "Why" thread. It is the whole experience that I'm after. The difference between the two “fly vs spin” can be seen on TV. You watch the Bass guys "chuck" out there lures and then speed them back in until they get a fish, then really crank on the reel when they get a fish. The fish (some time up to 5 lbs), almost skips across the water like a skipped rock as they speed reel it in, there’s not a lot finesse in it.
If you tried that with a trout and fly line you wouldn’t bring much to hand. Fly fishing is for me a total experience from tying the flies I use to releasing the beautiful fish.
If its food I was after I have had better luck with the fly- but there have been times when a live worm would have been nice. Good thing I had some back up.

I was going to mention the pen rod & reel combo (spin), but Nia beat me to it, and elsewhere I heard that it wasn't all that great. In any event, I'd still like to get the website, as I've lost it.

Another suggestion is a very short (2'), light combo you can find at Big 5. I've no experience with it, but you can check it out yourself, although I like Nia's Cabela's suggestion.

Used to fish the Blackfoot out of Missoula back in the day, but most of the trout are now gone, not to overfishing, but to toxic, heavy metal runoff from the defunct copper mines around Butte and Anaconda. It's now a Superfund site. Norman MacLean never saw that coming!

Monty, you can get the pen rod from gofastandlight.com. But I definitely wouldn’t recommend it. I thought it was a slight downgrade from hand lining.

Thanks Nia! that's pretty much what I heard…it's more of a novelty item.

I wasted my money on one of those pen rods. Tip broke off first time I used it. Total and utter junk.

I'm a dedicated fly fisherman, to the point of planning backpacks around angling opportunities. But when I'm camping near a lake I often wish I'd brought a spinning rig. You can cover so much more water with spinning gear, and don't have to worry about brush or trees on shore snagging your fly on the back cast. I pack my front country rod and reel, usually a four- or five- piece rod that carries easily under the compression straps on my pack. Someone recently posted a note (I think in Gear Deals) about Cabela's travel rods, which are highly regarded, light weight, and inexpensive. I'm going to check out what Cabela's has in the way of spinning gear.

Here's more than you probably want to know, but it's specific to Washington mountain fishing. If you're looking for weekend, car-based fishing, you can ignore it. If you're looking to add to a BACKPACKING experience, I think it's pretty solid.

You probably don't want to go with fly fishing only. That might not be a popular statement and I'm sure some will disagree, but in Washington's mountains (where I do 99% of my backpacking) you will catch a lot of vegetation and not a lot of fish. Washington's mountain lakes are so lush and often in steep bowls and you have either cliffs or trees or high bushes on virtually all shoreline in the mountains. You will have a very frustrating time since it's nearly impossible for even modified backcasting. Pretty much every high lake fly fisherman I know of uses a raft or float of some type. That's a much larger commitment of gear and weight. Absolutely a blast if that's what you're into, but it sounds like you don't want to make the fishing the center of your trips, right?

That said, I do believe flies are a superior way to fish and nothing frustrates me more than catching a fish that has a bunch of neon, glitter-covered playdough in its belly.

There is a high lake hybrid setup that basically uses a fly rod, flies, but a spin reel and "bubble" that can be filled with water. This setup was dialed in by a bunch of Rocky mountain fisherman in the 60s that were frustrated because they could see fish rising and feeding but they were always out of range. The setup is built for incredibly long casts. I can assure you that if done right and once you get the hang of it, it's amazing how far you can cast a fly with this setup. I am by no means the world's greatest fisherman, but I can honestly say that I have NEVER been fishing with someone who can even come close to the distances I'm casting. Typically they have trouble getting even half of what I am, and that's with a regular spin setup. This is important because you might only have a few square yards of standing space to fish from and unless the water you want to reach is right in front of you (rare), you need distance to get to fishable water.

Check Amazon or eBay for a book called "Fish Don't Think". It's cheap and is probably the best book on this setup that exists. It's got a lot of great info for applicable fly fishing mountain lakes as well. The setup is light, too. I use a 2.9oz rod, a reel that's a bit under 6oz. Add some flies, a couple bubbles and as much extra stuff as you want and you have a setup that will rival most fly setups for weight. Grab a 3-4oz. fly reel and if you do happen to find magic water you can have the best of both worlds for a pretty small weight penalty.

I really don't think I have any special fishing powers, but I fish almost every trip I go on and in the past 3-4 years I have not been on a mountain lake where I have been out-fished by a friend or anyone else on the same lake. I don't want to sound competitive about it, because I actually like the super mellowness of fishing high lakes, but just as an observation, it's pretty obvious this setup is uniquely tailored to mountain lake fishing. It'll get the flies to the places the fish are – you just have to get the right fly and get them in!

Happy to answer any specific questions. Definitely try something out – it really adds to the backcountry experience!

-Curt

>There is a high lake hybrid setup that basically uses a fly rod, flies, but a spin reel and "bubble" that can be filled with water.

That's how I grew up fishing in Colorado in the summers. Hey, it was even in the 60's. Works great, just wait until they start hitting the surface, use about a 6' leader, and reel slow. I've had better luck with a spinning rod in the streams in Northern NM too, since they are so overgrown with brush. Need a good fire, I guess. And I'll offend a lot of fisherman by saying this, but it doesn't have to cost a lot. I went in to Gander Mountain (chain store kind of like Cabela's, without the waterfall), and got one of their better reels on closeout for $20, and a 4 piece pack rod for $20.

But really Ali, shouldn't you be sailing?

Thanks guys, all awesome posts. I am living by a new rule that I will only have one of anything so rather than just use both I have to decide.
I had stopped fishing years ago with thinking that fish are far too beautiful to kill just to feed me. While my prefered method is tuna witha spear I am going to attemp to fish again this year and see how I handle it.
In California my stomping grounds were so tight I used a 3' ice rod mabe 1.5 ounce with tiny reel. I far prefer to use a fly for all the reasons mentioned above but if its for food fishing with a spinner can be a one cast wonder.

Ahhh Sailing after 20 months in the boat yard doing a complete refit we have a launch date of May 29th. We will be sailing the San Juans and backpacking all the islands this summer if all works out. We are just moving into summer mode which is 24/7 outdoors and its going to be awesome. Last year I put 200 nights in my Western Mountianeering bag and hope to beat that this year.

Thanks again for everything. Ali

What weight line are you guys using on your UL rods?

I'm using 3#.

9' 4 wt

For line, I usually use 4lb on the reel and a 3lb leader. Sometimes I'll go with 6lb on the reel depending on the behavior of the line. Sometimes even a 2lb leader. I like a really limp line with as little memory as possible. I've tried out a bunch over the last few years and even rigged some up side-by-side on identical setups to compare casting distance and tangles, etc. I've pretty much settled on the Maxima Ultragreen. It's thin, tough enough, pretty limp, and fairly low memory. It's not perfect, but it does those things okay and is nearly invisible, which matters with the incredibly clear mountain lakes we have here.

This is the 6'6" 4-piece eagle claw fiberglass pack rod that's been my go-to rod for trout fishing last 6 years or so – i think it's around 2 oz or so

it's about $20 or so – various sources & has a nice light action, much more delicate tip than graphite rods, so even tiny trout are still a good ride, but it has enough spine to handle large trout, too (i've caught some browns close to 5lbs)

i usually use a 4lb test line & have had great success with the fly & bubble technique

a couple times i've brought both fly & spin rods, but when i only bring one, it's this one – the spin rod is just a lot more versatile and is much easier to use in high winds or heavy brush

the reel is the smallest reel made by pflueger & one of the lightest on the market – i think 5.4 oz

if i remember right, i was around 11 oz or so with rod/reel/line & tackle last few trips

nice golden trout!

have caught a few much larger that were just amazing, but before I started bringing the digital camera with me all the time – wish I had a picture or two of them. Saw one once that was impossibly huge, like a golden submariner dirigible, floating around in a crystaline lake at over 11000 feet. Apparently, submariner dirigibles do not bite flies or lures, ever, though they will slowly follow them a bit, bobbing along lazily.

"Saw one once that was impossibly huge, like a golden submariner dirigible, floating around in a crystaline lake at over 11000 feet."

Cary,

Just curious, have you ever fished Middle Crabtree Lake? The part of your post I copied got me to remembering…..

but i've heard of and seen pictures of some really big fish from there – isn't that where chuck yeager used to like to go?

Yes, Crabtree Lakes were reputed to be a favorite haunt of Chuck Yeager. One of mine as well when I was still fishing.
Your post made me think of the fish I saw there, as well as several 17-18 inchers I landed. Most of the fish, though, were 10-14" golden rainbow hybrids, slab sided, bullet headed little devils that would put on the kind of aerial display I associate with rainbows. Very well fed, full of energy, strips of fat clinging to their body cavities when I gutted them, and deep red flesh similar to Sockeye Salmon.
A fish and game guy I knew said they were probably feeding on fresh water shrimp. Whatever, baked in foil with garlic teriyaki and wild onions, they were the best tasting fish I ever came across in the Sierra. If you ever go there, the wild onions can be found along the outlet stream of Lower Crabtree lake a couple hundred yards below the lake.