First Time Salt Water Fishing

I am headed to India for a few weeks and will be on the beach. (It is much nicer than you are probably imagining.) Not wanting to go so long without fly fishing, I decided to pick up a 7 piece travel rod from Orivs and give saltwater fishing a try. My plan is to fish from shore and just fish the surf. A recent article by Jeff Solis in Fly Fisher magazine had some great pointers to get me started.

The Orvis operator suggested I go with this package:
Frequent Flyer 8-wt. 9' TIP FLEX Rod - This is the smallest rod w/ anodized reel seat
Access Mid Arbor IV Reel
10' Polyleader - I thought this might be long according to the article, but the operator said it was the best one. It is fast sinking.
Mirage Fluoro Tippet 8lb
The rod comes with a floating line and they wouldn't let me swap it out for a sinking line, but he said it will be fine for what I want to do.

Does this sound like a decent package or overkill? I was originally planning on a 6wt rod, but the guy said those do not come with salt water reel seats. Mr. Solis wrote that he uses 5 & 7 wt rods for his trips to the beach.

I think for most, an 8 weight outfit is a good way to go for casting off the beach anywhere in the saltwater. If you took a second rod then a 6 weight would be OK.

Also, anywhere there are thousands of people living, there won't be that good of fishing. Try to get away from the people....

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Thanks Bill. I'll be on the west coast in a pretty rural area. I'm sure that doesn't mean there will be fish there though!

You might want to check with Jeff Currier---www.jeffcurrier.com