The 3 inch sluggos with light wire sluggo hooks can be cast much further with a fly rod than a spin rod. During the worm swarm this spring a friend and I compared casting little sluggos using ultra lite spin and fly rods, and the fly rods won by an easy 2 to 1 one margin.
A lot of Maine's laws are steeped in tradition. The no Sunday hunting law is a good example. From their old lawbook definitions:
"Fly means a single-pointed hook with feathers, hair, thread, tinsel or similar material to which no additional weight, hook, spinner, spoon, or similar device is added."
"It is unlawful to fish in fly fishing waters with additional weight added to a fly OR line for the purpose of sinking the fly, OR casting a fly on a spinning rod & reel."
"Fly Fishing means casting upon water and retrieving in a manner in which the weight of the fly line propels the fly."
It's pretty clear that Maine previously didn't consider weighted flies proper for fly fishing only...but they have bowed to current popular demand.
Putting dumbell eyes on a fly changes the whole dynamic of the fly, and it will fish differently from a heavy hook fly tied clouser style. The dumbell eyes turn the hook upside down, and weight the front end down so the fly acts like a jig. Put a heavy hook clouser sans eyes, and a regular one in your sink and drop them. The heavy hook will sink evenly hook point down, and the clouser hook up.
Let's muddy the waters some more. The IGFA says in its' rules book:
"The lure must be a recognized type of artificial fly...The fact that a lure can be cast with a fly rod is not evidence in itself that it fits the definition of a fly."
Some help they are. My guess is they accept clousers as a recognized fly. I wonder if they would take the plastic curlytail flies...
