I realized a spinning blank can be built as a casting setup but when would you use a casting outfit over a spinning outfit? I was always under the impression a casting reel was for casting shorter distances and for fish in the Bass species sizes. I assume you wouldn't use a casting outfit to cast 100' plus for Salmon or Steelhead but why couldn't you if the two rods can be built on the same blank? Thanks.

My casting setups cast just as far as my spinning outfits. I use casting gear in heavier line weights and when balance and outfit total weight is more critical. Pinpoint accuracy is also easier with a casting outfit ,for me, as it only requires one hand to accomplish in most of my circumstances.

The casting distance records were set with a conventional reel, not a spinning reel.

Tim,
You sure would use a casting rod for casting 100 feet for Salmon and Steelhead. I have been doing it for more years than I can remember and so have thousands of other Salmon and Steelhead fishermen. In my judgment a casting rod will out perform a spinning rod in every category, including casting distance, until the weight being cast gets down to about 1/4 ounce and less where then a spinning rod comes into its own.
It is actually fairly rare to see someone fishing for Salmon in the Northwest using a spinning reel. It was also rare to see someone using a spinning reel fishing Steelhead until the last 8 or 10 years when some of the techniques requiring light terminal tackle started to become popular.
Now if you really want to be a hard case or an anachronism, like me, you use a direct drive casting reel, one with no drag or free spool, you do it all with your thumb. You use the thumb that has the callus, sometimes a blister, on it.

Tim
As Emory stated, Salmon and Steelhead fishing in the NW is almost exclusively casting reels. Spinning reels are now commonly used for two techniques that have grown in popularity here, side drifting and jig fishing for steelhead. Both techniques use very light weights most of the time. Casting reels out perform spinning reels while salmon and steelhead fishing because you can control your line during the drift much more effectively.

Emory is not the only anachronism here, I use an old Abu 5500 DA, direct drive baitcaster, on my steelhead drift fishing rod then swap it over and use it on my mooching rod for salmon. Yes, I have blistered my thumb on a couple of occasions.

Tim; As I said on a previous post, those guys are having all the fun !

Jay

For casting accuracy, a standard conventional casting reel cannot be beat. A fisherman with an "educated thumb" can do things with a casting reel that you would find hard, if not impossible, to do with a spinning reel.

Casting reels excel at casting the heavier weights. Few of the serious surf fishermen who need to throw more than a half pound bother with spinning gear. Spinning outfits were originally intended to be used for light line, light lure fishing - something that casting reels of the 1940's and 1950's were not very adept at.

Modern casting reels do quite well with lighter lures these days. Couple one with a spiral wrapped rod and I suppose you could use it for nearly any type fishing you wanted, and with very few, if any, drawbacks.


............

I swear by casting gear and 9 foot med hvy rods for chucking spoons for Arctic Char, Steelhead & Salmon. The control & power they have makes landing these powerful fish much easier. Steering a big salmonid out of a powerful river is akin to torquing a big ole hawg outa the slop :-)

Regards
Dave

Fishing is Life the rest is just Details

Dave,
Hawg out of slop!!! I cannot imagine doing that with a direct drive reel.

Bob,
Where are you located on the Oregon Coast? I have a small house in Pacific City, a fishing cabin really, but I practically live down there in the Fall when the Fall Chinook are there. But the 500DA is a relatively modern reel compared to what I use. I use the old Pflueger Supremes almost exclusively for Salmon and the Ambassadeur 2600 and even older J. A. Coxe for Steelhead. If you ask anyone within 10 miles of Pacific City about someone who uses the old Pflueger Supremes for Chinook they will immediately know who you are talking about.
If you are anywhere close to me give me a call and I will give you an old Pflueger Supreme and when you use it you will be converted.

HEY when I was in the reel repair business and a gent would come in wanting a casting reel (this person was a confirmed spinning reelman). The first thing I did was take him out back of my shop. An hand him my old 2500 ABU with a full spool line. The reel was attached to an 81/2 Lamiglas med. light Kenie rod. I would demonstrate how to use thumb control on the spool. Attached to the line was a 3/4 oz plug. After the demo. I would say come back after you can cast 50 times without a birds nest and then well talk about the correct reel for you. At least 75% of the time they would come back in with the spool 3/4 empty. But these guys could see the advantages a casting reel has over a spinning reel. Besides that I hate pumping and reeling. So I totally agree with Emory
Good Wraps Bob

Along the VA/NC coast powerful surf rods are used to launch heavy payloads of lead (8-10oz+) and bait at distant sand bars when fishing for big fish in the surf. In this realm 99% of the reels are conventional. They allow for excellent casting distance, line control, and casting accuracy. Casting these heavy weights while not impossible becomes difficult with a spinning outfit. Some sort of line release becomes necessary since holding the line with the forefinger as usually done with a spinning reel is next to impossible due to the tremendous line tension generated during the cast.

Lou
Va Beach, VA

One other nice aspect of a casting reel when fishing for larger fish that PULL DRAG is thar when you reel in after a run your not putting line twist onto the spool. Yuo can skip a biat easier with a spinning reel, but it can be down with a casting reel also, it just takes that educated thumb as Tom mentioned eariler.

Try this wih a spinning set up - you are fishing for bass. Boat is alongside to a long wide pier about three feet above the water - and you want to "skip" a plastic lizzard way back under the pier by making it bounce and skid a few times on the top of the water to get way back under to catch the big un - If you can do it with spinning gear I would like to watch.

Circumstances can define which may be better for the task at hand. The spinning reel has the advantage of a fast learning curve for casual or new fishermen under normal fishing circumstances without the "birds-nest" problem to overcome. I can not imagine a charter for four new redfish/lspeckled trout fisherman with only baitcasting reels on board - I would not have time to bait up or "pop a top" for them.

My only personal use for spinning gear over casting is small baits or popping corks into a howling wind. The new wiffle spool bait casting reels with precision bearings and easily adjustible external centrufugal brakes are really amazing pieces of equipment that will allow extremely long casts with a minimum of birdsnest problems. There is even a model that will not backlash if you can some how manage to keep your callous from touching the spool while it is doing its computer calculations with the bait in flight.

Emory, I am going to Alaska this June to fish for Kings. They recomend 25 lb test line and a 8 or 9' rod. Do you have any recomendations for a rod (to build) and reel set-up. I would like to build a spiral or revolver rod but have never built one.

Any suggestions as to blanks, guides, spacing, and reels would be appreciated.

Thanks

Ron Jack
Bowdoin, Maine

Well folks,
I have read all of your posts so I will have to be the doubting Thomas. I am a dedicated fly and spin fisherperson. The only time I use a casting reel is when I fish on a party boat for salmon. I have been out only four times since this is not a type of fishing I enjoy. However, when I have visitors from the east coast who want to catch a couple of salmon, I take them out. Under these circumstances a fly or spin system doesn't work (too many people in close proximity).

Bill mentions that the learning curve is much easier for spinning--which I believe is true. Now I have never fished where you have to cast such distances that an 8 Oz lure is needed. I use an 11.5 foot spinning surf rod with a Ru Pacific reel loaded with 12 pound test. I have caught my share of 20+ pound fish with that out fit. It casts 1-2 Oz baits very well and meets or exceeds my need to get the bait to the fish.

When I lived in Michigan I made friends with a fellow who grew up in New Jersey. He wanted to catch a Pacific Salmon and Michigan has a hatchery program for Chinook Salmon. We were going to fish the estuary of one of the coastal rivers and I brought an 8.5 foot spinning rod and spinning reelfor each of us loaded with 12 pound test line mono. On my first hook-up the drag on my spinning reel froze and the fish broke off. I could not get reel to work so I changed to a light Luxor 1S light spinning reel loaded with 4 pound test mono from a trout system I had brought. I didn't expect to be terribly successful, but ended up landing a 26 pound 10 Oz and a 22 pound chinook salmon. I had more fun catching those fish on light tackle than any I have caught on any heavy tackle.

I do not doubt that there are situations where you need to make very long casts which may necessitate the us of much heavier lures/baits. In this case the standard casting reel may be necessary along with a 14 or 15 foot rod. However, given a choice, I will always use light weight tackle. I am now building a fly rod for my personal use to be used in saltwater fly fishing in the Pacific Ocean. I may not be able to cast nearly as far, but surf and rock fishing for ocean species with a flyrod sounds like a lot more fun than casting 8 ounces. I am making a trip to the mouth of the Columbia River in March to fish from the jetties for Cabezon, Rock Fish, Surf Perch, and even Lingcod. I have heard that some even try for big Pacific Halibut with a fly. I don't know if they do it in the east, but here in the west people even fish for striped bass with a fly rod.

Anyway, each of us to his/her own. I love my light weight tackle which I have used for Smallmouth Bass, Largemouth Bass, and Northern Pike in Minnesota (Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness Area) as well as for salmonids. I would love to hear from folks in Europe who have used spinning reels. Spinning was developed in Europe and was known as Thread-line Fishing (I think). I think spin fishing may have come over to the United States some time in the 1900s.

Mike Blomme

Ron if you are going to fish the Kenai and charter. What a hoot for a swamp boy. Trolling means you stake out your spot in the fast running river and hold position with the boat motor running at about half throttle to maintain position, in formation with many, many other boats and watch the eagles fly while the heavy weighted salmon egg bait bumps the bottom. The big boy rods are in rodholders and when you see them double you think you have snagged bottom. I should have taken one of my snapper rods - the Kings do not a lot of run but are powerful and beautiful fish. The mount may cost as much as the charter - Enjoy, I did! All the charter guys working the rivers out of boats use the 8 & 9 foot rods for some reason that is not evident to me. It may be that it just takes the longer length rod to get a decent spread of baits from such small boats.

Ron,
It will depend a lot on where in Alaska you are going and whether you will be fishing from the bank or from a boat. If you are going to the Kenai and fishing from a boat I think that you want a shorter and more powerful rod and with 25 lb. line you will get your string stretched.
Assuming that you will not be fishing from a boat there are Salmon blanks made by all of the major blank manufacturers that will work. However, the fishing in Alaska can be tough on equipment so I would stick with the lower modulus and tougher blanks. The ones that I am most familiar with that meet your requirements are the Lamiglas 1000 series, the GSA102 2H or GSH108 2H or a Forecast blank from Batson like the SH1026-2.
As far as guide types and positioning are concerned I would look at the articles in the Library section above. There are several good articles there and every blank is going to be a little different.
With reels you are asking the wrong guy because all I use are very old direct drive reels that you probably do not want any part of. Maybe someone else will speak up about reels.

Michael,
March will be the beginning of the Spring Chinook run at the mouth of the Columbia which are in most peoples opinion the best eating of all of the Salmon. But I would not try to use your spinning reel and 12 lb. line or a fly rod or you are unlikely to see any of them. Also you will not catch any Halibut from the jetties. You have to get out in the ocean on the Halibut beds to catch them.

TIM...
I would use a conventional reel for trolling versus a spinning reel any day of the week.

RON:
As a 20+ year Alaskan, I would like to echo with what Emory has stated-he could not have said it any better-100% accurate.

Paul

Emory
I live just south of Tillamook. I fished a bit this fall at Woods, Hannemans vacinity, I probably saw you out there. I usually spend most of my time fishing for fall fish in the Trask tide water although I usually fish the Nehalem a few times as well. I might have to take you up on that Pflueger . I try to stay out of PC, that dang Pelican lightens my wallet every time through. Might be drifting 6th bridge down on Friday. Are you going to be around?

Bob

Bob Are you going to the Woodland rod get together in April?
Good Wraps Bob