"You have much more control and accuracey of your casts with a spinning rod over a baitcaster."

For people who aren't very good casters, or if you have a boat full of people side drifting who aren't all of fairly equal (and very proficent) ability at casting...perhaps.

The danger of a poor cast screwing with the set up of the boat is dependent on the caster, not the reel.

However, if anyone gets a backlash, it's done, and that problem is minimized with a spinning reel.

But generally speaking, baitcasting is much more accurate, and no way does a spinning reel have more control than does a baitcaster.

With a baitcaster you have pinpoint line control, you can control how much "belly" is purposely cast into the line much easier, and you can literally "cast around corners" with a baitcaster, and casting distance control is a brush of the thumb away.

I find that spinning rods are best for 1. rookies (no annoying backlashes), and 2. casting very light packages, like a small float and jig with no additional weight, or free drifting small egg clusters, or driftfishing a fly with a few split shot, no float jigging for coho/pinks, or 3. fishing in very confined areas where your backcast room is very limited, or non-existent.

And that's just the casting part...even with the great strides in design and engineering of spinning reels over the last decade, good casting reels have better drags, much better line capacity, and hands down are better in every way for float fishing (except for the above example of a very light jig, float, and no weight).

Float fishing, you can let out line at precisely the rate you want, have exactly NO slack in the belly, and clamp with your thumb and set the hook at a moment's notice. They also handle braided line much better (and anyone who has yet to discover the virtues of braided line when float fishing really, really needs to...it's the most revolutionary advance in float fishing since the long rod).

Spinning reels, of course, are much easier to master...but won't get you nearly as far as being proficient with a bait caster. I learned to cast as a young buck with a bait caster, and it's one of the best things I could have done for myself as a young steelheader...


Fish on...

Todd