Beginner LM Trout and Steelhead fisherman

[Uncle Willie]

I am looking to get into fishing Trout and Steelhead after seeing Gillespies show. Whats a good rod/reel setup? It looks like they were using some long rods. I currenty have a 7' quantum medium action spinning, and a 7'6" bps pete mania musky combo. Would the 7' medium action be a sufficient rod for Trout/steelhead? What would you pros suggest? TIA!

[BigMusky]

that rod will work for casting spinners. It will be a little more difficult to drift spawn/jigs with such a rod, but you can get it done. There are really cheap rods out there that you can get for drifting in the 9ft range (30 bucks) or you can just wait to see what method you like best and make a purchase then. The longer rods make it easier to mend your line when drifting (much like flyfishing) and also help in getting a good hookset when you have a lot of line out and fighting the fish. You want to use relatively light line, so a long rod takes the pressure off the line.

[Eric Haataja]

When it comes to rods it's all personal preference. A lot of your decision is probably going to be decided by the amount of $$$ you want to spend. There are a lot of nice rods out there that will work just fine for you. I remember about 10 years ago when things were very tight on the money $$$ for me while going to college. I would basically buy the cheapest rods I could get for my money, some held up and others did not. I did slowly move up to better equipment both rods and reels and found out that the better rods and reels do hold up better in the long run.


Myself I'm a big St. Croix guy not only because I'm on their pro staff but simply becuase I believe they make the best rods on the market that I use. Along with their fantastic warrenties and most of there rods are made right here in Wisconsin.

I use almost all St Croix drift rods for starters a 9 1/2 footer is a decent all around rod however if your going to fish the Milwaukee river I'd go with at least a 10 foot rod. I mainly use 13-13'6" foot rods on the Milwaukee. When I fish the root or smaller river I'll use a 9-10 foot rod.

Best of Luck!

Eric Haataja

[BigMusky]

It is sometimes hard to find a rod case for a steelhead rod because the butt section is so long and the ones they sell on Bass Pro and Cabelas are only good for rods of total length under 9 feet. I found a custom rod case builder that made one for me that is really nice. You can always use a plano tube or something for actual rod, but if you want to keep the setup rigged for quicking fishing opps, this is the way to go.

Rod Cases (http://www.hardingandsons.com/BaitC.html)

[BigMusky]

Doors - one thing that I have found is that if you use a "good" float that you can tell if your bait is dragging on the bottom without a lot of weight. If you use the long river floats that are positioned by little rubber hands that they will tilt showing you the direction of your bait.