Center Pinning for Trout

[AKSkim]

A few weeks back I was in Michigan on business and happened to get into a discussion on fishing the Muskegon River for steelhead. It has been twenty-five years since I seen that river and being up for any adventure fishing trip, this river came up on my radar.

The one item in the conversation was that he fished the center pin style not only for steelhead, but for trout from a drift boat!

Now this past summer there was a thread on center pinning and I seem to recall something about not fishing for trout with a center pin rig on the Delaware.

Is it illegal to use a center pin rig on the Delaware?
Has anyone ever used a center pin rig from a drift boat before, if so, your experience with it.

Because center pinning is becoming just as popular as spey casting in recent years.

What type of set up do you use for this type of fishing?

As always, just wanting to learn a bit more...

AK Skim

 

[JeffK]

Centerpinning is the modern incarnation of the Nottingham style of fishing developed 200 years ago and often called "trotting" back in the UK. It seems like one of those "old-fashioned" methods of fishing that was run over by the onslaught of spinning tackle 50 years ago and is now being rediscovered.

The terminal end is something suspended by a float that is carefully weighted so just the very tip sticks above the water. This makes a very sensitive strike detector that gives little resistance to the fish. The something on the other end can be bait, a jig, a nymph, a wet fly or whatever and the length to the float is set so the bait just hovers above the bottom. 100's of weighting patterns are used based on water speed, type of bait and personal style. So far this is just like float fishing done for a few millenia across Europe and Asia, and is a deadly way to present a bait. It also isn't all that different than what Southern crappie or English match fishermen do. What centerpinning adds is a free running reel. Floats with a fixed pole have been used for millenia for everything from minnows to salmon, but the range is limited with a fixed line. A centerpin reel allows the float to drift as far as the line can be controlled. A centerpin reel looks like a large arbor fly reel, but it is well balanced and has a smooth bearing so that the reel can follow the float as it drifts downstream. An "educated thumb" is used to control the drift and stop the reel to strike. It is easy for the smooth running reel to overrun. Centerpinning is popular because it is an effective way to get a long dead drift. Many people also enjoy the simplicity of just using a spool on an axle instead of a reel with mechanical advantage. The rod is usually long
(13' - 15', maybe 9' on small streams) to control the drift and be able to strike with a long line out.

I don't see anything generically illegal about the rig, but it isn't fly fishing so doesn't belong in FFO areas and in artificial areas there better not be bait on the end. It works on any fish that feeds near the bottom - even carp and catfish pros use it to their advantage. 20 years ago I saw centerpinners totally outfishing the locals for smallies on the Fox R in Illinois.

Centerpinning is controversial since in good hands it is deadly - it gets a perfect dead drift - and some claim it is too easy a way to get people into fish. I don't exactly buy into those arguments. Any specialized technique is deadly in good hands. The too easy argument usually points to guided parties, but guided parties usually do better than their skills would normally allow. The other controversy is that the technique can fish an entire hole in a single drift. Great if you are alone, but trouble in a crowded area. Some centerpinners need lessons about personal space and sharing popular waters. But that is no different from a great caster having the sense not to cast into someone else's space and is a personal choice, not a characteristic of the tackle.

 

[AKSkim]

Thanks Jeff. I read your response with great interest.

After I posted my questions, I goggled a name of a popular reel and rod that was mentioned to me.

For starters a quality reel; Islander Steelhead CPR for $340.00, Raven Matrix (12'9", 3 pc, IM6) rod for $200.00 puts it into many a fisherman's budget compared to a decent spey rod and reel.

Where you stated it doesn't belong in a fly fishing only areas, I have a question???

From what I have observed, they cast it.. as you mentioned it can be used with a nymph, has a float as a strike indicator. Where does the two differentiate? I am not asking to start a huge debate, I am asking to learn.

I know it is a personal choice.. to center pin or not to... but where is it illegal to be used, what makes it illegal (other than the obvious of using bate), is it being a technique on the famed trout streams?

Because the way the number of fisherman have gone over from a traditional fly rod and reel, spin casters to this type of fishing, it is only a matter of time before you will see it used in KLG or the Musky if it is not already there.

 

[JeffK]

OK, here is my definition of fly fishing - where the weight of the line pulls the lure rather than where the weight of the lure pulls the line.

NYS has an obvious and much debated loop hole in calling chuck-and-duck flyfishing. Not all states and provinces agree. If you chuck-and-duck on a fly fishing only Atlantic salmon river from Maine to Newfoundland prepare to go to jail. Beadheads need not apply for fly fishing for salmon also, but most states will view them as flies. Fly fishing means a lot of things to a lot of people.

Casting a center pin outfit usually means having slack line in your hand and tossing the float rig out - how far depends on how heavy the rig is. It is still throwing the rig and letting the rig pull the line - therefore, not fly fishing IMHO. The cast is just to get the rig into the right current lane, then you let the current do all the work from there on out.

I have successfully centerpinned for trout in NJ and PA (and used canepoles a lot too - especially when it is so cold reels and line guides freeze) and find it an enjoyable alternative. It is only a refinement of the ancient art of fishing below a bobber and doesn't represent anything illegal or unsporting to me. Why a person high sticking a glow bug under a plastic strike indicator with a long pole and a reel with simple spool on a center axle (aka center pin) would look at person fishing a yarn egg under a float with a long rod and a center pin reel as an uncouth and unsporting lout is something of a mystery to me.

The cynical side of me says that this "new" style of fishing is an attempt to sell more takle into a saturated market. High end centerpinning stuff rivals high end fly stuff for cost.

 

[Corndog]

Where you stated it doesn't belong in a fly fishing only areas, I have a question???

Because the way the number of fisherman have gone over from a traditional fly rod and reel, spin casters to this type of fishing, it is only a matter of time before you will see it used in KLG or the Musky if it is not already there.

AK,

Regardless of it's history...it's back.

If you want to get technical about it...the NJ regs on FFO areas states:

Only artificial flies are allowed, which are expressly limited to dry flies, wet flies, bucktails, nymphs and streamers.

I see guys in the BFB FFO area all the time using globugs, egg patterns, sanjaun worms, chartreuse inch worms, etc. Which are not technically part of the above mentioned artificial flies allowed. I pointed this out to our Sussex Co. Super Power Ranger Roger Dodger and he said, "Well it's close enough." When we see pinners in the FFO stretch he'll probably say the same thing. It looks very similar to a fly rod unless you're standing right next to one.

In the NY regs under Special Regulations...(page 23) it does say traditional flyrod, flyreel, and flyline. Yet, I've seen pinners in the Upper and Lower Fly Zones on the SR many times. I wonder if the rangers really care?

In the NY regs under Special Regulations by Region, all I see is "Artificial Lures Only", no mention of traditional flyfod and reel only. But, I could have missed it. Looks like all the WB, EB, BK, and Willow are open to pinners.

Pinning is definitely going to become an everyday site on most of our trout streams. Just go to the Salmoncrazy website. Lots of younger flyfishermen there moving over to the dark side.

If you're in it for the numbers, the pinner definitely out catches the flyrodder. I've seen it many times on the SR myself.

Cdog