Larry,
Thanks for the advice on the St. Croix/Pleuger combo. Is there a January sale at Eastman's? I had an interesting conversation with a fisherman from Springfield. In May he catches keeper stripers in the Conn, River on 6-7" herring pattern flies, several every morning. He just got back from Montauk, catching 40 albies and many keeper stripers. He claims that there is a large herring run at montauk at thanksgiving, typically yielding 36"+ fish. Sounds too good to be true.