Perfect Drift - comparing one manufacturers rod to another is kind of tough. I wish Rainshadow offered a 1082 but they dont. When I look at the specs on the Rainshadow 1081 I see the weight rating is 4-8 lbs and the next weight up is a 1084 and it is an 8-12 lb rod. The Loomis 1082 rod you are interested in is a 6-10 lb rod. So their is definately a gap between the 2 9 ft Rainshadow rods mentioned.

Trying to get a fly rod to fit into this gap is not my expertise. I looked at the physical sizes of the blanks on Rainshadow rods and found the following.


Rainshadow Salmon steelhead rods
IST1081 butt .440 tip 4.5
IST1084 butt .515 tip 5.0

9 wt fly rods
RXF909 (51 mil mod) butt .435 tip 5.5
IF909 (43 mil mod) butt .420 tip 4.5

The butts on the fly rods are a little smaller in diameter, and a little bigger or the same in the tip diameters

I dont have access to the physical sizes of the Gloomis rods to compare.

I dont know how a fly rod would compare up. I have built very few fly rods. The few I have handled seemed to bend in a different arc than a salmon/steelhead rod.