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[Keener]

Hello, I've been fishing for a while and looking to try my hand at fly fishing for salmon this year. I'm planning to do some travelling up the coast and targeting rivers. I don't know whether to pick up a 10' 8wt 2pc rod or a 9' 10wt 4pc rod. I'm really stuck since a 9 wt rod isn't a purchase option right now... Just some advice would be greatly appreciated... Is the 10wt too much for smaller species of salmon? Can the 8 handle a spring? I'm leaning towards the 10wt since I might have a 10wt  floating line being donated to me...

[Funeral Of Hearts]

IMO the 8 wt will be fine for springs in this area. I have an 8 wt sage fli that does the trick. As for the big chinooks up north, im not so sure.

[Keener]

Thanks very much. I picked up my very first fly set up to start the season. I went with the Orvis 10' 8wt rod with a Orvis Battenkill IV and a floating 8wt line. Can't wait to get out on the river and practice..

[marmot]

Good choice.  You'll get a lot of mileage out of an 8 down here.

[RalphH]

you will need a sink tip or multi-tip type line for river fishing. Floating lines have limited applications when used for river salmon. The floating line will be useful for fishing off beaches and for some open ocean fishing from a boat but there you will need full sinking lines in a variety of densities.

[Keener]

I was planning to visit the tackle shop to get more info, but since I'm here... I'm curious to see how people are setting up their rig. I figure since I'm new and have heard that casting and fishing with sinking lines might be difficult, I was planning on buying a fast sinking line and attaching it to my floating... Hopefully, it would make it easier for me. Any thoughts on this or am I way out to lunch? I understand that there is a lot to learn and I'm up for the challenge, but would any fly fisher-person mind a tag along sometime?

[RalphH]

you can buy sinking leaders that work fairly well. These are just mono leader butts with the same PVC or Poly material used on sinking lines applied to the mono. Looping sinking lines to an existing floating is expensive, time consuming and aften doesn't work near as well as the multi tip lines. BTW some shops will sell you just the floating part of the multi-tip line at about half the cost of the whole set. You just need to ask for it. You can then just buy the 15 foot tips you need at about $25 each.

[marmot]

Ideally, pick up a multi-tip system (I'd suggest Rio).  You'll get floating, intermediate, type6, ghost tip.... you'll be set.  But for now, just use beads and weighted and you'll be fine.  There are plenty of guys that just use floating lines and adjust their fly and leader length to hit the right depth.

good luck.