Padre,

I recently bought a custom TH1164 spinning rod that's 9'6" and line rated 8 to 17 lb. I love this rod Travis built. I got it for a multi-purpose rod for the overlap transition from chinooks to steelhead; mostly in the Tillamook area with it's later arriving 'nooks. I use 15 lb. UG or Izor Pl. on it, and fish well on both spieces with this rig up. It not only does great for float fishing, it is also a very good drift fishing rod. I think you have the same 8 to 17 lb. line rating but the extra foot of length. I prefer the 9.5' over the 10.5' foot but I'm taller than average. If you go with the 10.5' for any drift fishing be sure to get balancing rodbutt caps; which make it less tiring on your wrist but also more sensative to bites.

Also look into the newer Thill 'Steelheader' floats. They have a rubber sleeve and notch clip on feature that allows you to fish it as a fixed float and simply unclip it to driftfish with. If it gets really snaggy for drifting eggs you can just quickly clip this float on. Best clip on version I know of - yet anyway.

RT