Why Fish for Trout with Spinning Tackle?

For most of my life, I was under the impression that if you want to catch trout in streams, you need to use fly tackle.  So when I moved to Central Pennsylvania where trout fishing is a major activity, I bought a fly rod and tried to learn to cast it.  This proved to be exceedingly difficult and I only had about month before the start of trout season!

Growing up in Upstate New York, my dad and I had often fished with salmon roe on the opening day of trout season in some of the streams in the Rochester area - with zero success.  Regardless, when opening day came and I had still yet to even become moderately (or even slightly) competent with my fly rod, I fell back on the salmon roe.  And had zero success.



I did notice that other fisherman used a variety of baits.  Some were using worms or corn, while others used artificial lures like spinners.  I had an old Mepps Killer Kit that my grandmother had given me as a kid that gave me some success catching panfish.  The Mepps literature indicated these were also a good size for trout, so I gave it a whirl.

Lo and behold, within the first three casts I had landed my first brown trout!  I caught two more keepers that day and began a lifelong love of catching trout with spinners.  And putting away my fly rod for good!

Fly fishing is a real commitment.  You need to master the art of the cast (very difficult around any kind of trees!), learn when the insect hatches are, and present your bait just so, to fool a fish into taking your hook.  Then playing the fish is whole other problem with gobs of line laying slack in the water in front of you, landing a leaping rainbow can be a very tedious and delicate task!

With spinner fishing, you just need your rod, your lures, and a trustworthy stringer (and maybe a few other things to give you a bit of an edge) and you are ready to catch some fish!