I have a close friend who I got into fishing, and this year for the first time we ended up hooking into fish together. I took her out on the boat twice, the first time she hooked into a gorgeous high teens hatchery Chinook, and landed it despite never having hooked anything but a stocker Rainbow in her life. The second was the best day of coho fishing I have ever had, we ended up releasing at least ten unmarked fish, losing 2 or 3 (Including a gorgeous hatch ) before moving back to area 10 and catching our keepers. She fishes the rivers and beaches with me as well, but doesn’t enjoy it as much as we have never had luck with it. (Tell me how the one day I had to take her pink salmon fishing on the snohomish was the one day I couldn’t get a humpy to hit a pink jig)
She asked me if I could buy her a fishing rod for Christmas that she could use in most salmon situations. My plan was to buy her an Okuma celilo, a decent spinning reel spooled up with 30lb braid, and get her set up for pretty much every beach or river situation I can think of, but we fish together on the boat a lot and I know she’d like to have her own rod. She’s a very food motivated angler, so we usually troll when we fish together, and the idea of a spinning rod in a downrigger seems like a nightmare. She’s into it enough that down the road I can see her picking up a kayak or similar.
I’m thinking of picking her up a moderate power/action 9’ baitcaster, and then some kind of antique conventional reel. I know some folks who put baitcasters in downriggers, but modern ones are definitely not in the budget for me. Are there any decent conventional reels out there that are reasonable to cast? Or should she stick to borrowing my gear on the water
She asked me if I could buy her a fishing rod for Christmas that she could use in most salmon situations. My plan was to buy her an Okuma celilo, a decent spinning reel spooled up with 30lb braid, and get her set up for pretty much every beach or river situation I can think of, but we fish together on the boat a lot and I know she’d like to have her own rod. She’s a very food motivated angler, so we usually troll when we fish together, and the idea of a spinning rod in a downrigger seems like a nightmare. She’s into it enough that down the road I can see her picking up a kayak or similar.
I’m thinking of picking her up a moderate power/action 9’ baitcaster, and then some kind of antique conventional reel. I know some folks who put baitcasters in downriggers, but modern ones are definitely not in the budget for me. Are there any decent conventional reels out there that are reasonable to cast? Or should she stick to borrowing my gear on the water