Your Tackle Choice

[Mobasser]

I've always enjoyed using both baitcasting and spinning tackle. On many lakes, both can work well for a variety of different baits.                                                            The lake I fish most often is an old quarry lake. The water is very clear, and deep in spots.                   Years ago, I started fishing this lake with heavier casting gear, and I wasn't doing well catching bass here.                                  At the suggestion of a friend, I started fishing this lake with a spinning rod and lighter line, along with smaller baits. I made this tackle choice out of necessity, trying to improve my catch rates. It's worked out well over the years.                                           Regarding your own tackle, have you chosen your gear out of necessity, or because you prefer one type of tackle over the other? Baitcasting or spinning tackle?

[J Francho]

Some tools work better than others in certain situations.  I prefer to have all the tools.

[A-Jay]

10 minutes ago, J Francho said:

Some tools work better than others in certain situations.  I prefer to have all the tools.

This.

But for what I do,

I'm pretty close to maxing out.

A-Jay

[PressuredFishing]

13 minutes ago, Mobasser said:

I've always enjoyed using both baitcasting and spinning tackle. On many lakes, both can work well for a variety of different baits.                                                            The lake I fish most often is an old quarry lake. The water is very clear, and deep in spots.                   Years ago, I started fishing this lake with heavier casting gear, and I wasn't doing well catching bass here.                                  At the suggestion of a friend, I started fishing this lake with a spinning rod and lighter line, along with smaller baits. I made this tackle choice out of necessity, trying to improve my catch rates. It's worked out well over the years.                                           Regarding your own tackle, have you chosen your gear out of necessity, or because you prefer one type of tackle over the other? Baitcasting or spinning tackle?

I prefer casting, but 70% of the fish I catch are on spinning, simply because my fisheries are clear water. I only use the casting reels when throwing bigger baits and flipping and pitching, my lakes don't require those lure styles as much, so I simply don't throw them as much.

[Mobasser]

16 minutes ago, J Francho said:

Some tools work better than others in certain situations.  I prefer to have all the tools.

J Francho, I think a big part of it for me is the fun factor. The lake I described has a good population of 2lb bass. Catching them on the lighter gear is a blast.

[Mike L]

I don’t like using spinning gear for anything any more. 
I don’t drop, shake, Ned or wack and never felt I was at a disadvantage for not. 
 

Would any of them work at times?

Sure, but not for how and where I like to fish. 
 

 

 

 

 

Mike
 

[Oklahoma Mike]

I prefer baitcasting but I've been using spinning equipment my whole life so I am very comfortable with either. The equipment I choose is always situation dependent, but I always have both types available and probably run about 50/50 for actual use.

[DaubsNU1]

My boat is small, and space is limited....I normally take three bait-casting rods, and three spinning rods. 

 

All my bait-casters are spooled with 30-40lb braid, no leaders. All my spinning rods are spooled with 10lb braid to 8-10lb fluoro leaders.

 

I switch back and forth all day long...

 

The funny thing is all my bait-casters are right hand retrieve....

 

And all my spinning rods are left hand retrieve...I'm pretty good at casting with both hands.  : )

[FishTank]

My personal preference changes from time to time.   This year I have been fishing a wacky rigged senko on spinning gear with great success.   Last year I think I may have used my spinning gear 5 or 6 times.  

[DitchPanda]

I have 2 series of ponds I frequent within 15 minutes of my house and they vary greatly. One is usually fairly stained as it borders a muddy river and is also full of sand,rock and wood. There I do 75% of my fishing with bigger baits, moving baits and casting gear. The other set of ponds is super clear and full of weed patches...I usually finesse fish there mostly which for me means spinning.

[LCG]

I fish from a kayak or from the bank most of the time. Two rods, one baitcasting, one spinning.

 

Hammer and screwdriver. Both have their use.

[Bankc]

I hate spinning gear.  But there are times when I'm casting light lures or need a really light line, and spinning gear wins out.  I almost always opt for baitcasting gear, if I can get away with it, but I usually have at least one spinning rod with light line on me.    

[Jig Man]

I have 2 big rod lockers.  I carry 12 bait caster setups and 8 spinning setups.  I normally use some of both on most every trip.  I don’t really prefer one over the other I let the situation dictate what to use.

[soflabasser]

I have 2 main goals when I fish which are to have fun and to catch whatever fish I am fishing for on a particular day. Based on this I decide what tackle I use. With that said I prefer using spinning gear over bait casting gear so I mostly use spinning gear which has helped me catch lots of nice fish. 

[Eric 26]

I agree with soflabasser on the two goals, but I think J Francho said it best. I know you’re referring to catching bass but when I target panfish it’s always with an ultralight spinning combo with bass as a welcome bonus catch but when targeting bass I enjoy bait casting combos a wee bit more. I say this because there are many people on this forum who enjoy catching bass, trout and I’ve seen pictures of crappie, on bfs gear ( bulldog1935) comes to mind. I have a bfs spool but never spooled it with line and after reading all the advice on here never did get around to purchasing a bfs appropriate rod.

[new2BC4bass]

I don't hate spinning gear as that is what I used for most of my life.  However, once I tried a baitcast reel it was love at first cast.    So I choose baitcast whenever possible.  Actually I previously would avoid a technique where I really needed spinning because I like baitcasting reels that much.  (I'm not capable...yet...of using 1/8 oz. or less on a baitcast reel.)

 

It wasn't until about a year ago that I decided to start using spinning gear again because I wanted to seriously downsize my lures in hopes of catching a few fish.  But life (and health issues) kept me from from following thru this past year.  Maybe next year.

 

But as stated by others, I don't mind missing out on a few fish for the pleasure of using my preferred reels.  I'm actually hoping to add another option next year.  A fly rod.    I already have an old 8wt.  Just need to find where I stored the reel for it. 

[Log Catcher]

I always prefer to use my baitcasters as much as possible. I usually have 4 or 5 baitcasters and 2 spinning setups with me when I go fishing. I won't get the spinning setups out until nothing else is working and I have to try finesse tactics to catch a fish.

[Columbia Craw]

Bait casting lends itself to certain lures/techniques than spinning and spinning versus bait casting. My ratio of time fishing for smallmouth over largemouth has increased dramatically so I’ve added several spinning rods over the past several years.

[WRB]

My bass fishing the first 30 years was all baiting casting.

The past 30 years it slowly evolved from 1 finesse spinning outfit to today it’s 75% spinning 25% casting. Back seating spinning rules at the lakes I fish.

Tom

[king fisher]

I fish with bait casters, spinning and fly rods. 

I use BC. most of the time, because I fish crankbaits, spinnerbaits, and other large lures most of the time.

I fish with spinning gear, when I need to down size.

I fish with fly gear, when I want to make life more difficult.

[ATA]

It might sound odd, But I choose tackle that I enjoy using and catch fish on them.

for example I know if I use spinning gear with mojo rig, I can catch sallies in certain lake all day long, Instead I use my casting gear and cast tx rig and bed rig all day and catch one or two smallie. So thats the gear I enjoy using not how many fish.

I dont know about you but the days I catch 7 to 20 fishes it will wear me off and ill get really tired. 

[Boomstick]

I largely prefer casting over spinning when possible, but there are some exceptions. For example, I use casting for 1/4oz poppers - mainly because I'm constantly casting those. But for small tubes (and even sometimes larger ones) and lightweight small plastics, I'll comfortably throw them on my M/F spinning rod.

[ironbjorn]

The only things I use spinning gear for are Ned Rigs and 4" Senkos.

[QED]

My nearest lake (~4 mi) doesn't have a lot of rigid submerged stuff for fish to wrap you up and break you off on so I can get away with UL to light gear most of the time.  Watercraft of all types are prohibited so it's bank fishing only.  Thanks to covid, we (SV tech company) are still mostly working from home with flexible hours, so except for scheduled zoom meetings, I can go fishing pretty much any time I like.

 

I've been splitting usage of rigs 50/50 between UL/light spinning gear and UL/BFS casting gear, just to keep both types of casting skills part of recent muscle memory. Shimano made some true UL carbon fiber casting rods way back when with beautiful cold forged aluminum pistol grips.  Coupled with modern, compact, low-mass-spool casting reels, 4lb line and 1/16oz baits handle just fine, so the spinning and casting rigs have a fair bit of overlap in the UL/light/BFS/finesse range, but I'm relatively indifferent as between spinning vs casting, because I like them both.

[Hammer 4]

I use whatever the situation calls for. I do very little finesse fishing, so my spinning set up is down to 1. My Grandson was given the rest of what I had.