flyrod help

What is a good wt.fly rod for Erie steel head ??

the wt of the rod is less important on your ability to play/control/land fish.
6wt-8wt is plenty

Thanks all

A 7wt. for Erie steelies is the way to go. Not too big-not too small.
The reel is the key.
You've got to have a good reel w/ a good adjustable drag that allows you to change and control the amount of drag while playing the fish.
The reel and drag system is what fights the fish, not the rod.

Side pressure is very important and greatly helps in fighting the fish.
The rod does work by putting pressure, leverage and direction to the fish.
'where are they going to go??'
Erie steelies can go a far as they want to, when you don't use the correct
techniques. 
For me, personally, that includes a good drag set.
Not too tight, not too loose.

A pike is not a steelhead.  Saying what is good/bad for a pike is the same for a steelhead is assuming a lot.  They are both fish, that is it.  What is good/bad for a spider monkey is not good/bad for a human.  There are plenty of studies on trout & steelhead, that suggest if proper techniques are used, C&R is relatively effective.  Will some of those same issues that they noted in pike occur, possibly, but until the same study is done on Erie steelhead, it is all assumption.  Much as what many other studies of steelhead from Pacific NW or trout from Montana.  If test conditions are completely different, then the same results can only be assumed.
 
I think only a complete fool would think C&R does absolutely nothing negative to a fish.  That said, unless they are stomped on, gill raked, and left out of the water for an extended period of time (or done multiple times every day for 4-6 months), they are mostly better off than being roped.
 
I'm definitely not an advocate of either C&R or keeping everything.  If I catch a perch, crappie, walleye or many other species of legal size, 9 times out of 10, it is going in a cooler and home to meet my skillet/oven/grill.  I'm a fish eater, and buy fish when it's Winter and out.  If I happen to steelhead fish that year, I'll usually keep a fish or two per year for the smoker, but I don't have issue releasing others.  I release most other large predatory fish that I catch.  I do my best to control the fish in water and unhook it, seemingly off to be hooked 2-3 more times that day for the next 3 months if caught in the Erie tribs...  If your point was that Erie trib circusheads are better off being roped, due to the abuse they take, even from the best C&R techniques, I'd completely agree.

since this thread as going off the track...
 

pikepredator2
...a study on northern pike a while back in In-Fisherman magazine that proves that the practice of catch and release over and over again affects the fish's growth, feeding habits, reproductive habits and longevity...

resident naturally occurring population VS 99.999% artifical population
Apples VS oranges
 
 
growth - they grow in a raceway at their most fragile time and then in the lake 
Feeding habits - they eat in a raceway and then in the lake
reproduction - void
longevity - void (unless you are taking about "longevity" over the fall-spring season)
 
its artificially engineered migratory population managed for harvest of returning fish knowing that the next season new fish will come
 
not a naturally occurring or even naturally reproducing population, that supports a "natural number" of fish ... they are not resident long-lived fish that support a fishery over a 15-20year live span... stocking replenishes year after year...there are fish from 3 year classes in the stream as adults (never seen a true study of multiple run fish) but i'd venture that a multiple return fish is a rarity, not the norm.
 
 

pikepredator2
... C & R affects the fish after we see him swim away...

i don't think anyone is debating that
 
its just the the "pike study" has little to no similarities/ relevance to LE steelbows

Just heard that Sportsman's Warehouse is planning to close.

Lol it's kind of a joke. Some jagoff (pittsburgh term meaning jerk) once tried to make a comparison between a relatively wide section of elk and the yough. Some idiot I'm guessing ;).
And pork, can u indeed confirm the closing of such an amazing retail establishment??? I've been shopping there since I was a lad.

Just need pxatim to chime in now for a complete burn....

It's actually spelled pahher bait. Nnat.

The yough is the new old 20 mile

No but the bonefish are. Don't tell anyone.

There's Timmay!!!!