Northwest Fishing Reports

I have the 8 ", 9' 6" and the 10' 6" rods which I use for salmon and steelhead. I picked up a 13' ST. Croix and if I have room to use that rod I find myself using that rod more and more. I also have a 15 dollar trout reel which works great since the rod works the fish rather than the reel. I drift fish with this as well with 1/8 oz of weight and I find I can cast further than my son who uses a shorter rod.

Am I the only one who thinks this way?

Nope. I like longer rods for bigger water. A 13 footer takes a lot of room to swing though, so it doesn't do well on small streams, but I do like to use the 10' 6" float rods to drift with. At the Cowlitz when you're fishing the far side, the longer the better.

I have used a 10' 6" heavy fly rod with a spinning reel taped to it for about 18 years to fish for panfish. I use the Float-N-Fly technique but use a small, 3-4" straight tailed worm like a Yamamoto Kut-Tail with as small a jig as I can get away with. I position the float as far as I can from the bait and with the long rod I can swing this rig out and make the bait land just outside the weed edge and let it slowly swing down to the 10' depth. Works great for bluegill, perch, rock bass, crappie, and often some pretty good bass too. Longer rods are great when you have the room for them.

I had both a 10 1/2' and a 13' float rod. The 13'er was fun on bigger rivers but ended up being a bit too noodly. I missed a bunch of strikes by setting the hook the same way I did with the 10 1/2'er and wasn't driving the hooks home. I ended up selling it. Since it was a 2 piece rod, storage was an issue.

Long rods are great, longer reach, easier line mending for float fishing, longer casts with light tackle, helps with fighting the fish (takes the stress off the line/reel). Then with a lighter rod, even a little one looks like you are fighting a whopper!

The drawbacks are back cast room, storage/transport, landing the fish my yourself (either by hand or with a net) and though I have never had an issue with hookset, I HAVE had issue when switching to a shorter rod, then hooksetting too hard!

I've got a dedicated setup for trout & pinks - Okuma SST ML 10'6" float rod paired with a Plueger President 6925 spinning reel spooled with 8# braid. I can tie a 1/4oz jig on it and cast it easily 50+ yards. Makes everyday trout feel like trips and pinks feel more like coho

Gringo Pescador wrote: Makes everyday trout feel like trips and pinks feel more like coho

I love my longer poles cause of this. Cabelas sells a 11 6 spinning rod thats 1 - 4lb test, its hard not to have fun with the rod

fear_no_fish wrote:

Gringo Pescador wrote: Makes everyday trout feel like trips and pinks feel more like coho

I love my longer poles cause of this. Cabelas sells a 11 6 spinning rod thats 1 - 4lb test, its hard not to have fun with the rod

Hmm - I might have to check that one out next time I'm in there...

Its well worth the 80 bucks or so that i paid for it.
I don't recommend chums unless you want to get your arsse kicked!!