Did anyone buy any NEW rod's or reels to fish w/ this comming season? Im getting to fish w/ the Redington NANO, an ARI-T-HART reel for this season. What are you up to?
"GOOD LUCK GOOD TYIN"

Looks like im the only one thats fishing new stuff ? WOW! guess you be able to see me comming for miles away . Ill have wear an OLD shirt, to cover up in!
"GOOD LUCK GOOD TYIN"

Hey Saltydog,

I ordered an 8wt. white river classic from Bass Pro Shops. The reel is their conservationalist model.

Its a nice little starter outfit and should be fun with schoolies.

The outfit ships with a weight forward floating line (bright green). Not sure how stripers react to the flyline. I'm not crazy about the color... I always fished with more natural colors for trout and always use invisible green mono in my casting and spinning. What's your take on flyline color?

What about leader length in the salt? I was figuring on tying some 9 ft. leaders with an 8lb. tippet section... maybe tying on a short shock leader of 15-20lb if I'm around heavy structure ... does that sound right? I'm really just guessing.

Thanks again.

Well I bought a new outfit at the Wilmington show. I have never fly fished before, and wanted to try. I bought a 9w Cortland rod and Cortland CLX reel. Now I need some flies. Any recommendations, places or people who tie their own to buy from???

Saltydog,

If I were looking to build an 8 or 9wt beginners rod (trying to keep costs down in addition to enjoying building my own rods) what direction would you steer me in for a fly rod and reel. And how well would this work with albies & bonito??

Schankuberymuch

Hi John,
I don't know about saltydog, but I would recommend using a 9 or 10 wt. rod built on a St. Croix blank. Plenty of bang for the buck. Old JeffS and I were casting my 9 wt. rod built on a St. Croix SC IV blank and his Sage RPLX 9 wt. side by side last Spring. We both liked the St Croix better. Not too shabby since it cost about $125 to build vs. the $400+ price tag on the Sage.
As for reels, you can't go too far wrong with either a SA System II or a Teton Tioga. There are also many more that are fine. Both have performed flawlessly for me on stripers over 20#.

I'll need to try that because that's about where I want to be. Good for a beginner?

schoolie monster, leader, Id recomend fishing around rocks 20 floro. you could catch some BIG fish around rocks.
"GOOD LUCK GOOD FISHIN"

specilest, depend if your fishing beach, the surf,jetties,beep holes, off a boat, or night,day
got to pin it down. BUT start w/ decievers, sandeels, off beach,clousers in deep water, bright colors daytime, an BLACK at NIGHT.
that should get you started.
"GOOD LUCK GOOD FISHIN"

JOHN ,go w/ the ST-CROIX if your going to build it. I would rather jusy buy it for the price. BUT if you like building doit. now reels!this is a money thing $69.00-$600.00 Id wait a few weeks like the 2nd week in APRIL Redington is comming out w/ a NEW reel LOOK GOOD, Im ordering A.S.A.P. for the shop.might even fish w/ one instead of the air-t-hart,I like the REDINGTON reels have fished them for 2 season an never had a problem YET.
outher then a knuckle buster, my falt! not the fishes.the TRINETY reel from tioga/teton is good also. SO LOOK AROUND an play w/ some at some fly shops, what feels good IN YOUR hand is what you want.
"GOOD LUCK GOOD TYIN"