The Spin Caster vs. The Fly Fisher

My son and I packed up the canoe yesterday and visited one of the local ponds where they stock trout. He wanted to spin cast for bass and I wanted to fly fish for anything, although a nice trout would be fun.

I tied a bunch of new flies over the winter and he bought a bunch of new lures. He likes to fly fish also, but when Rapala's new Rappin' Clackin' Smackin' whatever lure is calling and the bass are getting active, it's hard to get him to bring the fly rod.

Bluegill on woven nymph

As we put the canoe in the water, we saw bait fish, a lot of midges and some mayflies. I tied on a woven nymph and he put on his Clackin' Rap. We put the canoe up wind and along a shallow bank and let it drift with the wind along the shoreline.

My first cast towards the bank yielded this nice bluegill.  His third cast yielded a 2 lb. bass that we were not prepared to net and it got off next to the canoe. As we continued to drift along the bank, I landed three more bluegills and he landed two more bass.

Largemouth on a Clackin' Something

Nice action for our first 15 minutes on the water.

We paddled up wind and start the same drift two more times with no luck. We moved to another section of the pond and the bite had slowed.

I tied on a Telephone Box Steamer which looked like the bait fish we saw earlier. He tried a couple of different lures and after about an hour, he got into a another nice bass and I landed a large bluegill.

Nice Largemouth

We continued to paddle up wind and drift through likely holding areas. We saw some nice fish rising, but the wind would have made floating a dry very tricky.

Large Bluegill on Telephone Box Streamer

As we headed back to the boat launch, the wind was dying down and many fish were rising in the shallows.  We headed to calm water and I tied on a size 14 Parachute Adams.

My son started to scare more fish with his noisy lure, but did hook into a nice pickerel.



I had a bunch of fishing rising to my fly, but no takers.  I was still hoping to find one of those stocked trout, but found a decent bass on the end of my line after a short and spirited fight.

So who won the fishing day, the Spin Caster or the Fly Fisher?

He got larger fish, but I landed more. We both landed two different species.

Pickerel on a noisy lure

He used two treble hooks on his lure and I used a single hook on a fly.  His lures where shiny, made funny clicking noises and wiggle like a fish in the water, mine slowly fall and rise as I vary the retrieve.

Is spin casting easier than fly fishing?

Probably, but it really is not a contest when we are both out enjoying the day and fishing together.

Largemouth on a Parachute Adams

I put down my spin caster last year and don't plan to go back, so now I'm challenged by my up-and-coming Kevin VanDam to fish side by side with those "other" fishing guys.

I can deal with it and enjoy it as well.

After all, Fishing is Fishing and a day on the water is always time well spent.