we fish center pins lots up here. Imho the alvey set up would be terrible at best. You need to get a decent cnc machined reel. Okuma is about to make one available in the very near future (it was supposed to be ready for x-mas). You should wait until it is available. There will be both a bearing and a bushing model. For a rod , you want a "slow action" rod. It works better when starting the cast . Any lighter action mooching rod will work. A perfered lenght would be 10'6" or 11'. This makes it easier to cast deeper float depths.