New Fly Rod

[rufus]

I'm currently fishing with my SA trout outfit. I'm looking for a new rod/reel combo, but bought separately. I'm getting the Okuma SLV large arbor fly reel. But I wanted some opinions on different rods. How is the St. Croix Rio Santo? It has a decent price. I also was looking at the okuma SLV and Crisium rods. Any comments?

 

[NCPAtrtbum]

I don't have any experience with Okuma's rod's but, my buddy has a Rio Santo and he loves it, I toyed around with it one day and found it pretty enjoyable to throw around. These guys have some pretty fair prices on their products if you don't want to drop gobs of cash on an upgrade http://www.wildwaterflyfishing.com/rods.html.

Despite what people may tell you, you're really not going to need a ridiculous 800 dollar reel that has a fish print paint job on it and a cork drag system for trout so the Okuma will get the job done twice over. Medalists are always a good reliable reel for the money too!

 

[albatross]

rufus,

The Okuma SLV is a fine reel but it has a bit of an Achilles heel. The cast aluminum is brittle and tends to crack if the reel is dropped. I had several of these reels and I phased them out over time because a waist high drop is not all that unusual in my experience. If you never drop it you'll never have a problem.

The medalist mentioned by NCPAtrtbum is bulletproof. All cast aluminum or magnesium reels have this issue of being fragile. Machined aluminum reels are tougher, but they cost a little more.

 

[bikerfish]

Despite what people may tell you, you're really not going to need a ridiculous 800 dollar reel that has a fish print paint job on it and a cork drag system for trout so the Okuma will get the job done twice over. Medalists are always a good reliable reel for the money too!

YOUR REEL NEEDS TO STOP A TRUCK!!!!! everyone knows a fish will never take a fly that is attached to a medalist reel!! you HAVE to spend big bucks or the fish just won't bite!!!!
:-D
BTW, just kidding.

 

[gfen]

(let the record show who's not partaking in this thread, jdaddy)

 

[rufus]

What about cortland pro cast rods?

 

[krayfish]

If you can afford a slight upgrade, the Imperial from St Croix will have a lifetime warranty. The Rio Santo has a 5 yr warranty. Just some food for thought.

 

[BPS]

I have an Imperial and I love it.

 

[krayfish]

I've never cast one but the tech dept at St Croix said that if you were blindfolded, cast the Imperial and the Legend Ultra, it would be almost impossible to tell them apart. I think that the better warranty is worth a few extra dollars.

 

[moon1284]

imperials are awesome rods. you cannot go wrong with one. I've had a 904/2 for about 10 or 11 years and I still haven't found a 4 wt i like better regardless of price. The new ones are great rods too.