Below is a list of gear you will want to have for fly fishing rivers for Steelhead and Dolley Varden. The ideal rod is a 9 ft 8wt tip flex (fast action) fly rod, a 7wt Sage will work great also as Sage rods tend to run stiff. Using a lighter rod can make for a challenge casting the large flies and attempting to tire big fish quickly. I personally use a 9 ft 8wt Orvis Trident TLS rod with a 7-8 Reddington Reel and a custom multi-tip line. If you would like to buy a commercially sold sink tip fly line, I really like Jim Vincent's RIO VersiTip multi-tip fly line. It includes a 15 foot floating, intermediate sink, type 3, type 6, and type 8 tip sections. The mulit-tip system allows you to fish a variety of water without having to pack around extra spools. However, if absolutely don't have $120 to spend on a fly line, then the next best thing is the Scientific Angler's Ultra3 Type V sink tip fly line. It will work well in the faster steelhead runs.
When you are fishing over steelhead and salmon, you need to have a good reel so you can tire the fish out quickly and release it unharmed. A reel with a clicker drag alone will give you and the fish a much harder workout than either of you need. Plan to spend $200 or more for a decent disc drag reel.
Item | Type | Brand (Retailer) | Avg. Price |
Rod | 9 ft 7wt (1) | Sage Discovery or RPL | $250-$400 |
9 ft 7wt (2) | Sage VPS | $350 | |
9 ft 8wt (2) | Orvis Trident TLS | $345 | |
9 ft 8wt (2) | Orvis T3 | $595 | |
Reel | 7-8 Disc Drag (1)(2) | Redingtion Brakewater Large Arbor | $279 |
Reel | 7-8 Disc Drag (1)(2) | J. Ryall Steelhead Series | $250 |
Line | 8wt Mulit Tip (15ft floating, Type 3, Type 6, and Type 8 tips) (2) | RIO VersiTip | $120 |
Line | WF8FS, Type IV and V (2) | Scientific Angler's Ultra3 (Cabela'a, Ted's) | $50 |
Leader | Built up leader tapered from 30 lb to 10 lb (Length to match water visibility) | Maxima Ultragreen | $3.75 |
Tippet (Add 2 ft to end of leader) | Spool of 8 lb and 10 lb | Maxima Ultragreen | $3.75 |
Flies | Fall | #2 Marabou Streamers in white, black, blue, purple and conbinations of each, #4, #6 Wolley Buggers in black, purple, #4, #6 egg sucking leaches | $1.75 each |