Question:
When fishing this river with spinning equipment what kind of a rod is
best?
Answer:
No experience with spinning gear, but a 6 weight fly rod would leave you
*seriously* under-gunned for the fall salmon and steelhead runs. Hooking up to
a 40 pound king with a 10 foot nine weight *still* left me feeling like the
salmon was the one in control, though it was an apt match with five pound
steelhead.
An 8 or 9 weight would be more appropriate than the 6, especially if you
intend to release the steelhead with a chance of actually surviving.
For the flyline, a WF floater will work fine to get weighted flies down to the
fish. When the river is actually fishable it isn't all that deep or fast, so
an 8 or 9 foot leader with a couple of crimp-ons will have the fly ticking
bottom with better control than a sink-tip would offer, imo, while not running
as big a risk of losing a chunk of flyline to a snag.
As for the flies, I imagine that has a lot to do with the time of year/type of
fish you're going for. For salmon and steelies in the fall run, it's pretty
much all about egg patterns, various flashy "leech" patterns, and "flesh
flies". But the winter brown trout might want something different (haven't had
the pleasure, yet).
