I've learned to fly fish at a VERY early age, and have also been an unapologetic spin fisherman for just as long. I know there are many who think fly fishing is the holy grail of fishing, but I honestly have always slightly preferred spin fishing to fly fishing, but could never put my finger on why. Until yesterday, on the Yampa, with a fly rod in my hand.
This winter, I decided to concentrate on streamer fishing. I've never really streamer fished very much, even though I've been fly fishing well over 50 years. Yesterday, in 15 degree temps and dam cold water I figured out why I prefer spin fishing. As I was working a streamer, I had a very large brown almost yank the fly rod out of my hand as it hit a big orange ugly fly. That's when I realized that what I really enjoy most about fishing is the HIT. Typically with dries or nymphs or wets it's all about sight but not the feel of the hit. With streamers or spin gear it's about that slam. Sorry, but a subtle take of a nymph just doesn't get my blood churning like a good bone jarring hit. Just my 2 pennies.
The pic is a stringer of hard-hitting and fighting sockeyes I caught fly fishing with my daughter and son-in-law this summer. Sockeyes hit!
