Thought you fly guys might have missed this on the main NWFB:

A beat-up tobacco tin on a path bordering a trout stream prevented my becoming a dry fly purist. I was twelve years old when I stumbled on it and was a much better student of tapered leaders, model perfect hooks, and insect forms than I was of my school studies. I had started to tie my own dry flies, to the dismay of stray chickens; and in addition, being sharp eyed and as agile as a squirrel, I managed to keep myself supplied with an amazing variety of tackle by retrieving it from trees, bushes, and snags along the well fished stream. Luckily, many of the local fishermen used a dry fly, so they left behind the tackle I wanted. Then I happened across the tobacco tin. I kicked it aside at first, but with the curiosity of a twelve year old turned and picked it up to see if it was full of dead worms as expected.
Instead it contained two dozen brand new Colorado spinners, size 4/0. This was on an eastern metropolitan stream where the spinner was not popular. I wasn't sure just what to make of my find.
During the next few weeks I played with my new spinners curiously to get the feel of them, and actually caught a trout or two. Then in a swirling pool below a little mill dam I sunk one deep and hooked and landed a 2 1/4 pound trout, That did it. It was the biggest trout I had hooked or even seen up to that point, and it took third prize in a local fishing contest.
Catching that trout spoiled my chances of becoming a purist, although I wasn't prepared to admit it. This led to considerable confusion. I was morally and ethically a dry fly man, but instinctively a spinner fisherman. The two didn't jibe. I was sure that the taking of trout on anything other than a floating fly was hardly fair, yet I couldn't resist the knowledge of the spinner's power.
In those days I kept a detailed fishing log, complete from the time of day each and every fish was caught to what he had eaten for breakfast, lunch, and tea. Entries for each day followed the same general pattern: during the morning and evening there might be indicated the taking of small trout on a dry fly, then toward the end of the day would be noted a nice keeper or two followed by the inevitable admission, "spinner." At the height of this battle between that which I felt was right and that which paid off, I made a notation, written obviously by my conscience, that in spite of the appearance of the log I really fished a dry fly most of the time and only after an unsuccessful day resorted to a spinner. Fortunately, about this time we went to fish in the Rockies where the spinner was socially accepted, and this discovery that spinner fishing wasn't quite in a class with robbing the church poor box was a great relief. I took up spinner fishing in earnest.

This was written by Dan Holland in his "Trout Fishermans Bible" way back in 1949. Any truth to this today, boys??....C/22

Nope

Heres the spinner, put it with some size 10-14 drys for scale...C/22

I used a Colorado spinner, usually with a worm, a few times when I was a kid, and caught a few fish, but not many. It wasn't until I tried fly fishing that I began to catch many trout, other than a limit on opening day of lake season. At first I was attracted to what I thought was the poetry of fly fishing, but after observing the dramatic increase in my catch, I figured the reason fly fishing was so elite or high class was because it was the most effective. I never looked back and couldn't imagine fishing for trout other than with flies.

For some reason I expected the same thing to happen with steelhead, but it didn't.

Finally, I think I figured out that knowing how to fish was more important than the choice of gear type.

Sincerely,

Salmo g.

Salmo, I like to fish trout with the fly rod. When I'm fishing with Cam (my 13 year old) we do the power-bait thing, cuz its fun and the action keeps him happy. When its afternoon and I go out by myself, the 6 weight comes out to play while hes in the pool with mom. For some reason I see that little 4/0 colorado on the end of a spey rod, just buried in some nates jaw...C/22

See 22; Kerry knows

Ok, I'll give it to you wet-fly's have come a long way from the late 1940's. You guys can whip-up some killer looking steelie patterns, but there has to be a few line-slingers that sneak in the metal...C/22

My father was a firm believer in the effectiveness of the spinner-and-fly combo, but we used double-bladed Indiana spinners. Back in the shire, all we used were fly rods for everything trout from eggs to worms to grasshoppers to small spoons and, gasp, flies. When things were particularly slow, Dad would pull out the old spinner and fly routine and catch fish.

The fly had to be a ringed-eye model and frequently was my father's own pattern: pheasant wing, yellow body with silver rib, red tail and brown hackle.

While it's undoubtedly a bugger to cast, (we kind of lobbed stuff on our fly rods with level lines rather than cast, and I haven't fished these in decades) you've gotta wonder how effective such a combination might be now. Hmm....

Keith

In Skagit County years ago a gentleman named Wells created a small thin spoon to use with a fly rod. Wells used light thin material for his spoons and because this the spoons had to be cut and shaped by hand. They could not be mass produced with machinery and were, still are, prized by many anglers. Another result of the light thin material is the action of the Wells spoon is far superior to other similar spoons on the market (DickNites).

I have on occasion used a Wells spoon with a fly rod and the combination is deadly.

KerryS, it took a while to get it out of you. But, don't you feel better now??...C/22

Why not just use a spinnging rod?

Don

The reason someone might want to use a fly rod with a spoon is line control. Using a 15' sink tip line a fisherman can mend the line to keep the spoon in the strike zone longer and can control the speed of the drift much better.

As I said before I have used a Wells spoon only a few times with a fly rod. I was fishing for silvers on the Skagit with a 14' spey rod. The combination of the long rod and floating line allowed for some serious line/lure control which made the whole combination very effictive.