8Wt Or 9 Wt For Racine, Wi...suggestions?

[10pointer]

Just thought id get opinions on a decent 8wt or 9wt flyrod. Ive built some rods and would on this one but I really dont have the time to mess with it. Really it wont need to be a flawless casting rod like id use out west but more of a rod to roll cast weighted flies and buggers. I really dont want to spend much because I dont need the performance I would normally want but I'm looking for a fairly tough rod that casts decent.

This rod needs to be able to handle 20lb+ salmon and biggg browns....

Any suggestions???

[Gavin]

An 9' 8 or 9wt should do, but you might want to look into a 10' rod for roll casting lead...TFO makes some 10' 8 & 9wt models in the Lefty Krey & Jim Teeny series. Think they retail for $200 or so. Have fun.

[Guest]

I agree with Gavin, length of the rod will be more important than rod wt. A 10 ft. rod will work, but one of those 13ft. switch rods would be perfect. I would get a nice double taper line if you don't plan on doing much traditional casting. I've chased salmon in the root river in southern wisconsin, I would go with a 9 wt. Those things pull like CRAZY. Good luck.

[Wayne SW/MO]

You might check on E Bay. 10 weights don't seem to bring much there. I used a 10 weight Fenwick Boron one year in Michigan and it did a good job, better than the 8 that I also had with me.

[3wt]

I think I'd try to learn some type of spey casting and maybe get a switch rod. Pretty cool stuff, but it looks tough to learn. I saw a guy at Carondolet park standing out on the dock practicing casting with a 12' 8wt Sage a couple weeks ago. Looked fun.

[laker67]

I would recommend a few weeks at the gym before casting a 10 foot or longer rod all day. Otherwise you will be wore down before 10 oclock.

[Idylwilde]

You have a great custom rod builder right in your back door at Phillips WI. Elk River Rods. Call them and they will Make an outstanding rod of the blank of your choice for less than you can get it about anywhere. Check them out. They also have an outstanding warranty on them.

[Jeff Tief]

Have been to Racine off and on since 1996.The Root River is so narrow that a 10' rod might be a little too much rod.We've used 9' rods in 7-9 wts. for years and caught lots of salmon,browns,steelhead and coho's.We were fishing the Milwaukee River at Eastabrook Park when we found out that Laker67 had caught the state record brown.He and I had talked about him coming to Racine that year;glad he stayed home. Could use a 10' rod on the Milwaukee as it is normally bigger water.

[10pointer]

Thankyou everyone for your advice, im going to make a few trips to check out some rods locally at some of our local flyshops now that I have some rods in mind. Im going to look online/ebay too and maybe snatch up a good deal.

Thanks Jeff Tief, if you are the same one im thinking of ive met you a few times on the current and at bennett, I think you know Kevin A and Mark N. They are my buddies that got me turned onto Racine and they have a ton of monster racine fish under their belts over the years. They have mentioned that you go up (if thats your screenname) there and definitely tear up the fish here in MO and Racine too. We hit the Milwaukee last year because the water was so low on the Root and man that Milwaukee is alot bigger river. We hit it pretty late last year and we plan to hit the Root and the Milwaukee earlier this year. Im thinking weekend before Halloween weekend and the first weekend of November. Hope to land some big fish this year up there, and hope they have some water this fall!!

Thanks again fellas,

Jason

[Jeff Tief]

10pointer;yes we have met and if you get on the Wisconsin DNR website you can also check on the Pike River;it's real small but dumps into the big lake and can hold some real nice fish.Lost a big brown in the low 20's the last time we went.Wind can be a major factor there. see you on the h2o