2nd Rod - Large Trout, Stripers, Salmon, etc.

[burns]

Good day!

I'm a fairly novice east coast fly-fisherman and my experiences with a fly-rod are mostly limited to trout on small streams up to mid-sized rivers. My first rod was a Sage 6-weight designed for beginners which has a fairly full-flex.

I now do all of my fly-fishing (trout, smallmouth and bluegill) with my other (newer) rod; an Orvis Silver-Label 8'6" 4-weight with a mid flex (6.0) which I like. I've had a very productive summer with it on small trout streams.

I have done some fly-fishing for snook in Florida with a borrowed 8-weight, which is the full extent of my saltwater fishing with a fly-rod.

I'm interested in getting a larger rod and reel at this point. What weight should I consider as a compromise? This would be for trout out west on trips, bass in lakes, with the future possibility of stripers on the east coast and maybe a salmon trip one day. I also visit Florida now and then and may be doing some fishing there for snook or something else. I suppose that is a lot of variety for one rod, but I'm just a frugal guy. I'm looking for the best compromise I can find.

What should I be looking at? I was thinking of a 7 or 8-weight Echo Classic or Echo2 and a Pflueger Trion or Summit Reel. I'm definitely very open for suggestions though. Any informed advice would be appreciated.

Thanks.

 

[Frank Whiton]

Hi burns,

You seem to be doing alright with your 4wt and that should take care of your trout fishing even out west. Since you mentioned Salmon and Strippers I would suggest a 9' 8wt. It would also serve you in Florida. The Echo rods are a good choice and so is the TFO TiCr.

 

[burns]

Thanks for your response Frank. What about the reel - do I need a more expensive reel for Salmon/Stripers, or would the aforementioned Pflueger do the job?

 

[BigCliff]

If you're going to put that reel in saltwater, I would suggest the Ross Cimarron as a starting point. Its not great reel for targeting large permit, or other fast running species, but it works great as a lower cost reel that will hold up well in salt water.

 

[Frank Whiton]

Burns,

I don't share the feelings about reels like many do on this forum. I don't agree that the reel just holds the line. If you are catching big fish like Salmon or Stripers you should play the fish from the reel and then the drag comes into play. I think a $300 reel is well worth the cost for what you get and how long it will last. If I was buying a reel for Stripers, Salmon and Salt Water I would get a Nautilus FW. This will work for any fish that you could catch on a 8wt rod. You can get standard spools or + spools. The + spools increase the backing. This may be more money than you want to spend. I am not familiar with the Pflueger reels you mention so can't comment on them. Another reel you can look at is the Tioga reel by Teton. These are fully machined reels at a good price point. The new SA reels were just reviewed on this forum and it looked like a good reel. I have an older SA standard arbor reel that I caught a bunch of Salmon on in Alaska. It is still working well after many years. There are other fine reels out there but you have to jump in price. There are other posters that use the Pflueger reels and they can comment on their performance.