Spinning definitely has its place - depending on your comfort level fishing it in specific conditions. For example, I can't see it on an ocean drift that requires a 4oz bucktail to get it down 80'. Too much opening and closing the bail to keep in contact with the bottom, or to drop back on light-hitting fish, just mouthing the bait, like they love to do, especially early in the season.
Like PJII wrote, it can be very effective for casting around the boat, regardless of depth, when the drift drops to near-zero. But of course, if one's versed in laying it out there with a good bait casting setup, that advantage pretty much goes away.
In the Bay, or up on the Sound fishing along the beaches, its great! I have a "special" setup for that purpose - a Trevala S "L," carrying a first-gen Stradic Ci4, in the 2500 size. What a fun, lightweight outfit that one is. Its a match to my other North Shore setup - another Trevala S "L" mounting a Curado 200E. So nice and light! Too bad my regular NS fishin' friend sold his boat some 5 seasons ago. I haven't been up there since. And because I rarely fish my local bays anymore, both of those setups remain in my basement, waiting their turn, which seemingly never comes. They must be sad. ☹
I had to cut an inch or so off both of those rod's butts. Just too long for the style of fishing in which I used them. Funny, because my preferred butt length is an extra-long 17-17.5" for an ocean jigging rod, so that I can get it under my armpit to take some of the stress off my aging wrists. This is yet another reason that I've gravitated to slow pitch jigging rods - those long butt lengths are very comfortable, for me, at least.
I will say one thing in spinning's favor - there is no way on God's green Earth that a bait casting setup can match the comfort of having the reel hanging under the rod, rather than having to keep it up top all day long. Gravity is just not your friend, when it comes to holding a revolving spool reel upright through a long day of jigging. Spinning is MUCH easier on the wrists, that's for sure. In fact I started a thread on the old IT&T board some years ago, asking who besides me was an "upside-down" fluke jigger - meaning who holds their bait casting setup by the fore grip, upside-down, in the interest of more comfortable (ergonomic) jigging. If I recall it correctly, that thread had quite a few pages of positive responses. So there's that.
Here's some pix from 12 seasons ago, "upside-down jigging" up on the North Shore, back when it was really something to do. Seems like it was just last season, the memory is so vivid. Funny how time flies . . .
. Now that boat being what it is had many sharpies and lots of custom setups.......but the one guy using a spinner that day won the pool....despite a few snickers I heard about him spinning....the snickers stopped when he pulled up an 8lb fluke
