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Fishing in New Zealand > Getting started > Spin Fishing
Spin Fishing
Spin fishing is an ideal way to begin trout fishing as the skills involved are easily mastered. A basic outfit of rod, reel and line, plus a few lures are all that is necessary to give the novice a chance of catching trout. Watercraft and knowledge of trout habits learned while spin fishing are equally useful in other forms of trout fishing such as fly-fishing.
Spin fishing, or to use its common name, threadlining, is fishing for trout with lures that imitate small fish. These lures are cast with a threadline outfit consisting of a mixed spool reel loaded with suitable monofilament line, and a short, single-handed spinning rod, ideally between 1.80m and 2.40m long.
Tackle
Reel
The reel is the most important part of a spinning outfit and, like most things in life, you get what you pay for. Buy the best you can afford. Reels are available in right or left-hand wind or ambidextrous models. Buy a right or left hand wind model as suits you. There is no point in paying for an ambidextrous model if you are going to use the handle on the same side all the time.
The essentials for a good reel are trouble-free operation, lightness but large enough to carry sufficient line, but not so big as to be cumbersome.
Rod
The rod should be from 1.80m to 2.40m long and as light at possible but with enough power to cast the weight of lure you will regularly use. The handle should be comfortable to hold and the reel fitting secure. Guides lined with a tough ceramic material are preferable to chromed wire ones as they won’t wear out or develop sharp edges to chafe the line.
The price of rod varies according to the material it is made from, glass being the cheapest, and boron the dearest and carbon fibre somewhere in between. The quality of reel fitting and guides adds to the price, too. Again buy the best you can afford.
Line
Use a nylon fibre monofilament line of 3-4kg breaking strain. Such a line should be capable of landing most fish in all but the most adverse conditions.
Trace
A small spool of nylon of slightly lower breaking strain than the main line is advisable. A short piece of this thinner line is connected to the main line by a swivel, which also prevents spinning lures from kinking the main line. The other end of the trace is tied directly to the lure. This prevents the loss of the main line when a lure becomes irretrievably snagged, as this weak link will break first.
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