Been a while....

[Evan B]

This is soooo true. It boggles my mind how popular Spinning rods are for salmon and steelhead. They are inferior for just about everything, even bobber fishing..
I think it boils down to control of the presentation.

They are technically superior for bobber fishing, but a spinning reel gets the overall nod for most situations just due to castability. The long rod + long leader under a bobber + baitcaster makes for tough casting in tight quarters. If you can't get a full swing to load the rod, the baitcaster gets really tough to use. I really like my centerpin a LOT, but it gets left behind more and more for the same reason.

 

[Rob Allen]

They are technically superior for bobber fishing, but a spinning reel gets the overall nod for most situations just due to castability. The long rod + long leader under a bobber + baitcaster makes for tough casting in tight quarters. If you can't get a full swing to load the rod, the baitcaster gets really tough to use. I really like my centerpin a LOT, but it gets left behind more and more for the same reason.

That's why I like slip bobbers with short leaders. That said I almost never bobber fish for steelhead. I like my gear dragging the bottom for a slow presentation rather than floating over the bottom for a drag free presentation.. except of course for Chinook in slow water.

 

[Evan B]

That's why I like slip bobbers with short leaders. That said I almost never bobber fish for steelhead. I like my gear dragging the bottom for a slow presentation rather than floating over the bottom for a drag free presentation.. except of course for Chinook in slow water.

It's been a very long time since I caught a bobber steelhead. Just about all mine in the last 5-6yrs have been swinging a spey or spoon.

 

[Rob Allen]

It's been a very long time since I caught a bobber steelhead. Just about all mine in the last 5-6yrs have been swinging a spey or spoon.

I think I have caught half a dozen or less on bobbers. The first one on the Klickitat back in the Jim Bradbury days the hard plastic yellow float pegged with a wooden match stick

 

[Hoofer]

I love swinging brass with a 8.5’ rod a caster and mono. Seems about as pure as fishing gets. “Swimming the minnow” I think Haig-Brown called it.

But I fish in the winter with the spinning rod more lately. 10.5’, fixed float, 14lb braid, 1/8oz tungsten barrel weights, small jigs— I just can’t come up with a better way to fish in the coast range. I keep saying that I’ll learn to use a centerpin but it keeps not happening. The spinning rig isn’t very loveable but it works.

Now, if I could still get a dozen plated spoons for $30, or whatever, I’d probably switch back pretty fast. Or if I had more fishing days, or if I saw more fish…

 

[Evan B]

I love swinging brass with a 8.5’ rod a caster and mono. Seems about as pure as fishing gets. “Swimming the minnow” I think Haig-Brown called it.

But I fish in the winter with the spinning rod more lately. 10.5’, fixed float, 14lb braid, 1/8oz tungsten barrel weights, small jigs— I just can’t come up with a better way to fish in the coast range. I keep saying that I’ll learn to use a centerpin but it keeps not happening. The spinning rig isn’t very loveable but it works.

Now, if I could still get a dozen plated spoons for $30, or whatever, I’d probably switch back pretty fast. Or if I had more fishing days, or if I saw more fish…

Not quite the price range you are after, but very fairly priced. This is what I'm using nowadays:

Pro Steel Spoons - P-Line

The Pro Steel lure was designed with the perfect cup and edges to give you the ultimate action. Equipped with a Siwash hook and a treble hook, P-Line has built a spoon which can be fished right out of the package. For best results the spoon should be swung through potential holding water by...

p-line.com

 

[Hoofer]

Not quite the price range you are after, but very fairly priced. This is what I'm using nowadays:

Pro Steel Spoons - P-Line

The Pro Steel lure was designed with the perfect cup and edges to give you the ultimate action. Equipped with a Siwash hook and a treble hook, P-Line has built a spoon which can be fished right out of the package. For best results the spoon should be swung through potential holding water by...

p-line.com

View attachment 74260

Yeah, like those 50/50’s. If I did the math I’d guess it might be closer to tying flies than I want to admit….

 

[clarkman]

Why do you prefer spoons to say, an inline spinner? Just flat out more effective?

 

[Rob Allen]

Why do you prefer spoons to say, an inline spinner? Just flat out more effective?

Spoons you can fish slower and deeper and they don't have to be spinning to work. That said I prefer spinners in summer and spoons in winter.
I also don't swing spoons I typically cast them up and across and reel them in just barely faster than the current to keep them deep plus I get a better feel for what the spoon is doing vs swinging.

Interested in what Evan has to say.

 

[Evan B]

Spoons you can fish slower and deeper and they don't have to be spinning to work. That said I prefer spinners in summer and spoons in winter.
I also don't swing spoons I typically cast them up and across and reel them in just barely faster than the current to keep them deep plus I get a better feel for what the spoon is doing vs swinging.

Interested in what Evan has to say.

No that's about how I fish spoons, too. I've gotten WAY more spoon eats while doing almost a dead drift through a slot and just barely keeping the tension on it. Where the "swing" seems to work is in tailouts. But I seem to miss a lot of those fish. They hit and don't seem to convert as well.

I'm just not a spinner guy when it comes to steelhead. Too limiting. The spoon can fish so much different stuff and the spinner just seems to not be quite right in a number of spots. Love spinners for salmon though.

 

[TicTokCroc]

Don't forget the Wells spoon thread. Seems pretty easy to make your own. I want to try this.

Making the Wells Spoon

Porting this over from corporate. I've had several inquiries about the Wells Spoons that I use for Coho so I thought I'd put up a step by step on how I make them. Not being a fly I'm sure this won't be for everybody. These lures can be thrown with a fly rod and fly line, especially a spey rod...

pnwflyfishing.com

 

[DanielOcean]

The real question is...
did @DanielOcean land a steelhead?

Nope, I have alot of rowing to catchup on and thats pretty much what I did. I consider years of front seat rides a debt that I want to pay back for a while. So, watching someone else catch fish on front of my boat while I am on the sticks feels freaken awesome, and brings me a ton of satisfaction.

 

[Evan B]

Nope, I have alot of rowing to catchup on and thats pretty much what I did. I consider years of front seat rides a debt that I want to pay back for a while. So, watching someone else catch fish on front of my boat while I am on the sticks feels freaken awesome, and brings me a ton of satisfaction.

You also didn't eff up the net job

 

[DanielOcean]

You also didn't eff up the net job

You can say Fuck Evan. Its your site. LOL

 

[Evan B]

You can say Fuck Evan. Its your site. LOL

I can, but I didn't. I say "eff up" in person a lot, too. Just to change things up once in a while.

 

[Yard Sale]

A little higher up on that river, where you launch from a bridge, there was a nice run right below one of the bigger rapids in that stretch. Like standing waves 4' tall kinda rapid that always got you wet. There was a guy who had property right in the middle of that rapid and would usually be out there throwing spoons. Big ones! The river was only about 20' wide there and he'd throw that spoon straight upstream and in the middle, let it dead drift back to him, then come tight and swing it back in to him. I'd keep an eye on him as I swung the "good" water below him unsuccessfully, and I swear he'd get a fish more times than not while I was there. Must have been a big boulder in the middle of it that the fish would stack up behind and he knew exactly how to get that spoon in there. Something I still think about when reading steelhead water, especially when I feel like water is too fast for winter fishing.

 

[Evan B]

A little higher up on that river, where you launch from a bridge, there was a nice run right below one of the bigger rapids in that stretch. Like standing waves 4' tall kinda rapid that always got you wet. There was a guy who had property right in the middle of that rapid and would usually be out there throwing spoons. Big ones! The river was only about 20' wide there and he'd throw that spoon straight upstream and in the middle, let it dead drift back to him, then come tight and swing it back in to him. I'd keep an eye on him as I swung the "good" water below him unsuccessfully, and I swear he'd get a fish more times than not while I was there. Must have been a big boulder in the middle of it that the fish would stack up behind and he knew exactly how to get that spoon in there. Something I still think about when reading steelhead water, especially when I feel like water is too fast for winter fishing.

Different river, but that's good to know

 

[Tim L]

@DanielOcean did you just find a legal and acceptable way to say Fuck Evan? I can see the potential for a new game here. Oops, did I just go second?

 

[DanielOcean]

@DanielOcean did you just find a legal and acceptable way to say Fuck Evan? I can see the potential for a new game here. Oops, did I just go second?

Well, your message is over an hour old so maybe there is a loop hole if you want to say fuck evan! I personally would never say such a thing in such context.

 

[Matt B]

I guess if there were going to be a game about who can say Fuck Evan, which I do not think there should be a game about who can say Fuck Evan, but if there were such a game (the "say Fuck Evan game"), then I guess the competition could be about who is first and second to say Fuck Evan, and so on, and then who can work the words "Fuck Evan" into a single reply, the most times. That is one way I could imagine the say Fuck Evan and get away with it game going. But I agree with DO, personally I would never engage in such behavior.