[salmonfever]

Hi everybody. I am new to fly fishing although I have used flies for salmon with my spinning rods. I always wanted to get a salmon fly rod. I have a 5/6 trout rod but never used it. This fall i decided to buy a salmon fly rod and go after the big guys. I ordered a cabela's sli 9' 10 wt because it looked of very good qaulity for the money. I wasn't sure what reel to buy so I got a cortland large arbor endurance. Does anyone have any comments about the rod -reel matching. I went out yesterday for casting ( practice) and the two seemed well balanced. Ofcourse i can always send stuff back and get something else.
I appreciate any comments
Tight lines to all of you

[BigCliff]

If you got the #3 model that is intended to hold a 9 or 10 weight line, I think you've got a great set-up. If you ordered a different one, then I would just get ready to swap it out for the larger size. You need the 9-10 weight size to hold the bulky 10wt line, and the weight of it to balance that stout 10wt rod you ordered.

Matching a line up with it gets a little trickier. A weight forward floating line is the most useful type of fly line out there, but may not be of much use for your salmon fishing. I would expect a "teeny" type line, also known as an "integrated shooting head" line to be more effective. Which one you need depends on the conditions and rivers you tend to fish. Welcome to the wonderfully complex and challenging world of salmon fishing. If you already know how to find them and land them you're starting out ahead.

[salmonfever]

Yes it is the #3 model. For fly line I was not sure either. I got a cortland 333ht rocker taper floating. The thing is that i will be fishing root river this week. The water is really fast but it is not very deep. I thought it would be ok with this fly line attaching some weight above the fly or not? Maybe I should get some kind of sink tip line or sink line.

[freeze69]

yes you can attach some split shots on the leader above the fly. i've done this a couple of times while out steelhead fishing. the best of luck to you.

[BigCliff]

In fast shallow water you probably will be better off with split shot than with a sinking line, assuming this fast shallow stream is also not very wide, as they tend to be. You'll probably want some strike indicators as well, as they make it much easier to see when the fish hits. You'll probably want to get soem of the largest indicators out there, as strike indicators in general are made for trout fishing, rather than throwing salmon size flies and loads of shot.