When I was paying my mortgage off and putting the daughter through college, I fished cheaper rods like uh, duh, Cortland and did very well, thank you.  I have a whole fleet   of Winston, Sage, and  Orvis rods, now that I have more disposable income .That and I got some guide discounts and trade for supplying  flies and instruction in a shop.  My Cortlands lasted years of hard fishing and even some rewrappings.  If they break now- Cortland will give you a replacement. Are there better? Yes. Can you get tons of great fishing and enjoyment out of what he bought? I could and did. Chart, you payed more for your reel than my car is worth. I'll take my car over it anyday. It's got real fish mojo. Oh yeah, I still have a Pfleuger Sal-Trout that I mowed a lawn for in 1967. It's still in working order and if I chose, I could  land a salmon on it. It has landed some huge trout , bass and pike. You can buy them on ebay for 10 bucks.  That was a tasteless and misinformed  post, dude.  I only flyfish, and have for decades, but I hate the elitist crap. Gear don't make the fisherman.

ORIGINAL: hot tuna

fichy, as we were talkin and knowing your size I think you should build that 10' or even a
10'-6" 9wt.. seriously !! You are 100% right that extra " gives a better mend.. When I got an 8' 6" I was so grateful for the little bit extra.. However, not so for the LONG 13' rods..
You are a smart & experienced fisher and I'm sure know what is right..

Hey charlie I love building rods. I'm no expert at it but I've built my fair share and they have all withstood the beating that the salmon river can do to a rod.

In my honest opinion a 10 foot 9 wait for salmon and a 10 foot 7 wait for steelhead Are the best allday around tools that you need on the river.

1 small pointer from my 1/2 cents worth of a brain;)

If you are going to tie a rod for steelheiad only, I suggest you use bigger guides all the way up to the tip rather then shrinking down to the smaller ones. This will prevent you from the icing of your guides. Trust me it does a great job.
Give me a ring if you ever wanna chat about rod building;)

ORIGINAL: draketrutta

ORIGINAL: dimebrite

I suggest you use bigger guides all the way up to the tip rather then shrinking down to the smaller ones. This will prevent you from the icing of your guides. Trust me it does a great job.

Larger diameter guides will REDUCE icing...
(not prevent it).

or try plan B:
play the role of hoodrat, tear the hood ornament off of Chartist's Mercedes Benz, fashion up a few guides in your hoodrat machine shop, then marry the rod up with a $900 reel..

fricken 5star Elistist Bastrad....

carry on.

yes reduce is a better choice of words, I forgot that you are a single word analyst ;)





Edit: atleast drake saw it....

ORIGINAL: draketrutta

do u monitor my posts? only took you 14 seconds to respond.
I was unaware that I was on the DB speeddial - I'm truly blessed.

Hey man; it takes one to no one...lol

Hey now, I already edited my first response... it can be our secret...lmao...

Now, we all know that the bloody's make for some hood troll bait;) but no need for any of that...lol

good observation Bearman...

however


the scary reality is that a good portion of the Dawgpack is subdued via heavy doses of pain killer gumdrops...


btw

where's Slammo?

ORIGINAL: bigbear2010

lol, you guys are too much

this snipping reminds me of a bunch of little jack russels...beating the he11 out of each other all the time, never stop...but if one does, the rest jump right on it and off we go again
they are the most adhd dogs on the planet, but also have total ocd....always fun to watch the show

Hysterical bear; this one here is pretty light hearted though... hey hope you're feeling better from last week man...