Chris, now my curiosities have been picked. Do you think the 53MF will have enough backbone to land steelhead and salmon. Or even smaller stripped bass or wipers? It is not that often I fish for these but have on occasions. I do know they are using 6lb test mono here in the creeks for the steelies but that is on spinning gear with a drag system. I have looked at these rods before but was not sure of the weight of these. I am sure that the more backbone a rod has the heavier it might be.