[pneumatic]

This is my first post here. However, this is no indication of my addiction to fishing and the general outdoors. I do lots of fishing and I would like to move into fly fishing. I expect to be fly fishing for the rest of my healthy life.

As I have already squandered a good deal of money on my other fishing ventures, I am hoping - with proper guidance - to increase my bang for buck. I realize that this is frowned upon for various reasons both real and imaginary. But, in the face of limited financing, hopeless addiction and an appreciation of quality, I would like to see what is possible.

Basically, I'm trying to figure out what will allow me to cover most of the gamut that I have available here in Michigan. I will say right off the bat that I already realize that I won't be banking 30 pound salmon with the same rod that I'll be using for panfish.

To the point:

Primary duty is going to be rainbow and brown trout in small/medium-size rivers (Rifle, Au Sable, Pere Marquette, etc). Secondary duty could possibly be land-locked Eagle Lake strain rainbows (3-5 pound lunkers) and land-locked atlantic salmon, which appear to be having success in limited areas.

I'm wondering if a 6 weight rod would cover this and also provide guarded duty as a Huron-tributary steelhead rod. Most of the Huron tributary steel are in the 5-8 pound range in recent years, with the biggest not much over 10.

Am I dreaming here? A friend of mine picked up one of these Eagle Lake strain trout that were stocked in what seemed like a very small lake (apparently, spring fed and quite deep) and it was 27 inches. After we went out one morning (with conventional spin gear) to fish the sunrise, we became quite frustrated with all the fish eating flies for breakfast - in the middle of the lake.

It would be nice if someone could confirm that I can put my hands on a 6wt that will also allow for some reasonably delicate presentation on a smaller river. Right now, I am thinking that I might be better off with a 4wt for the rivers and save up for a 7wt for steelehead/salmon and those Eagle Lake monsters.

But someone mentioned to me that rod technology has come a long way and a quality, modern 6wt will provide accuracy that is nearly on par with the lighter rods.

Thoughts?