Fly Vs. Spin (2 of 21)

If you've done any salt water fishing, you may have caught fish with a lure, like I'm doing here. Fly fishing in salt water is just another way of fishing, just another way of getting a lure to the fish. In spin fishing, you have a weighted lure. This is a lead jig, and you have skinny monofilament line. The weight of the lure pulls the skinny line off the reel and takes it out there.

In fly fishing, it's not that much different. You've got a lure attached to a piece of monofilament line, except I can't get this lure very far by itself, it won't pull line off a reel. So, instead, I cast this thick fly line. It has mass, and this is actually what I cast. I cast the line, not the fly. So, the term 'casting a fly' is really a misnomer, you're casting the line. The fly just goes along for the ride.

You can cast farther and cover more water with a lure on a spin rod, but we can imitate the same prey on a fly rod. Because you can't get as much distance with a fly rod, it's more of a stalking game; where you try to get close to the fish and make short, accurate casts. That's part of the excitement of fly fishing. It's a more intimate and challenging way of catching fish in salt water.