Stormin' I'm not sure if you have before, but stop by Quality Fly Fishing in Port Angeles. Ben the owner is a really good guy. He'll answer all your questions.

If you want a pretty good rod that will handle all salmon and is cheap, I would say get a 9' 9wt St. Croix Imperial. I think it's about $130, but I'm not sure. If you build a Pac-Bay rod, you will have a better rod in the end and will probably save a little money. I built a 9' 8wt Rainshadow (basically the same as Pac-Bay) rod and I love it. I've got a rod dryer and a rod wrapper that you could borrow if you wanted to. I think you would be better off to have Ben show you how to build a rod though. That's what I did at least.

Most people on this board will disagree with me probably, but I think a 6wt will be fine for silvers. You probably shouldn't take on anything bigger than a silver with a 6wt. Once you get good at casting you shouldn't have any troubles casting the heavier flies. On the Dungeness you don't have to cast much more than 20 feet; if that.

For rigging on a river like the Dungeness I use about 6' of 20-25lb test line off the end of my fly line. Then I tie on a swivel (just a swivel, not the snap kind). Then I tie on about 18-24" of 10lb line. The fly goes on the end of the small chunk. You can put lead on the heavy chunk of line and the swivel will stop it from sliding all the way down. Ben can show you all this stuff.

If you fish for sea-run cutts use a 9' tapered leader of 6lb test. A #8 Knudson's Spider works good on the cutts.

E-mail me if you need any information.

~ Dr Pepper