Rod & Reel Equipment Recommendations

[ermike]

Hi,

My name is Michael and I'm a fly fishingaholic. It has been four hours since my last cast. It all started on a trip to Alaska where I met up with an arctic greyling.....now I can't stop thinking about fly fishing (this after a 25 year monogamous relationship with my spinning equipment). I'm turning to this board to seek counselling for the following.

I live in Wisconsin but travel monthly to various parts of Florida. I'd like two rod and reel setups that would allow me to fish for panfish in WI and lady fish in FL as well as larger species in WI and snook/red fish in FL. I'd like both rod & reel combos to be suitable for saltwater and for traveling. I've done a lot of reading and was thinking about a 4 wt and an 8 wt rod/reel combo. I've been looking at the TFO rods and am up in the air about reels.

I've got $350 per set up to spend. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Michael

[capemike88]

If you like the fast rods, the new TFO's(200?) on a pair of Tioga's (aprox 140)

[LeonR]

I would go for a 5wt and 9wt, the 5 is light enough for panfish but you will still be able to cast slightly larger flies for bass including bigger wooly buggers, I've caught Coho when I lived in Wisconsin on my 5wt. In my opinion with the 4wt you'l be very limited.
For the salt I would go for a 9wt, again I think a 8wt will limit the size of some of the flies you would like to cast. Wind is always a factor at the coast and I would assume Florida is no different, not ever having traveled there.

From what I understand you travel to various parts of Florida so that would include inland, if so from what I hear there is good Bass fishing and the 5wt will do in most situations. You could use the 9wt to if you want just use a lighter tippet that will put the challenge back in the game.

A last point if you are splitting the cost as you say $350 each, I would try and spend as much of that as possible on the saltwater outfit, you will use that same one on the Salmon in WI. To me the freshwater outfit could be the cheapie but you don't want to hook into a good fish in the salt and have tackle issues, the saltwater will be a lot harder on the equipment needing more maint and the cheaper stuff will do but only for so long. I often buy cheaper reels knowing that they will only last 2 seasons at most but all my rods are GLoomis, I don't mind replacing the reels more often but the rods are old and still work well.
I don't know what reels you are looking at but I try and stay with something metal, don't trust the Graphite reels.
Hope this helps, like I said I used my 9wt in WI most of the time unless you are going to fish those small streams that are so nice up there, if you are going to spend a lot of time on them then go for the 4wt otherwise the 5wt is better.
I would think a split $200 and $500 would be ideal or $250 and $450

[LeonR]

I don'tknow if I can say this but I just had a look on the Basspro and caballas sites and seems you can get a reasonable 5wt with reel rof around $165. If you shop around a bit more I bet you can do better. The salt outfits was not bad either around $300-350 but again you can probably do better, but those are not bad at all.
I don't know what you like but get a rod with a cork handle the other type can be a lot cheaper but not good. Look for faster action rods, definately for you saltwater rod.
If you can try and get the best line that you can afford, a bad line on a good rod makes for a bad setup, don't go for the cheap shop brand lines. Cortland I think is a good deal allround for price and performance, I like Lee Wulff but there are many good lines out there all with different applications, get the right one for where you are going to fish. Some lines are made for hot weather and that would be Florida and for Wisconsin you would need a cold weather line. Cold water lines get sticky in the heat and warmwater lines will have a lot of memory in the cold weather. Pick something that will work in both.
What CapeMike said is good advise, I've seen them around but never used one so ask the guys that have.

[teflon_jones]

i would say to stick with your 4 and 8 wt idea. or maybe go with the 4 and a 9, if you want to go after bigger saltwater game. a 5 wt isn't heavy enough to cast big bass bugs anyway, in which case you can use the 8 wt for going after those bigger freshwater fish. there's no rule that says you can't use saltwater gear in freshwater!!! :) i have a 4, 5, 7, and 8 wt (the 8 is the only saltwater rig) and i need the 7 to cast the big bass bugs. with the 4, it's like trying to cast a boulder with a piece of wet spaghetti. with the 5, it's not much better. there's just too much wind resistance, plus the bugs weigh too much, to ever get any decent casting distance or accuracy with the 4 or 5 weight. you need at least a 6. and that's in relatively calm conditions!

as for going for panfish, a 1 lb sunfish on a 4 wt is a very fun catch. and you can catch decent-sized bass on that rig too (2+ lbs) without straining your equipment too much. once you get up to a 5 wt, a lot of the smaller fish you tend to catch on a flyrod aren't much fun any more. i go freshwater lake fishing with my 4 wt probably twice a week on average. i picked up a load of new bass bugs at an orvis store a couple of weeks ago, and even the small ones were hard to cast with the 4 wt. another good thing about picking up a 4 wt: it's a perfect trout rod. a 5 is too big for a lot of trout fishing. so with the 4 you'll have a great all-around rod.

oh, forgot one thing: you wanted both to be saltwater. i don't think you should look at it that way. in general, casting distances on saltwater are longer than freshwater, flies are bigger, and so are the fish, so you need a bigger rig. and there's really not a lot of 4 wt rigs for saltwater because they're just not practical.

i'd look at st croix fly rods, they're right in your price range, and they make excellent quality stuff! suggestions: model AFT864 8'6" 4wt 4piece Mod. Fast 2.65oz $210, or if you decide to go with a cheap reel, model U864.4 8'6" 4wt 4piece Fast 2.95 $300. both of these are travel rods. as for reels, personally, i don't really use my freshwater reel except as a place to hold line. pretty much anything you catch on a 4 wt is going to be small enough to reel in by stripping line. for those occassional times you get a bigger fish, a cheap reel does the job just fine. i use a $35 ll bean graphite reel on my $450 orvis pole, and i love the setup. don't scrimp on the pole to get a nice freshwater reel. it's much more important to have a pole that casts well! for saltwater, you'll need a good reel, so try and balance the two, maye $200 for the pole and $150 for the reel will get you an excellent setup.

one important thing: try and cast as many different rods as you can. some people love the way a rod casts, some people hate it. it doesn't matter if it's a $50 or $500 rod, it's all how it feels to YOU. i have a 5 wt $150 cortland that's one of the best rods i've ever used. good luck in your search!!!

[ermike]

Thanks for the advice. I've decided to go with the TFO rods and will use the teton reels. I've also decided to take lessons...Orvis has a school about 1.5 hours from where I live and I figure it will be a fun weekend.

Thanks again for the help.

Michael