I'm just getting into steelhead fishing and I'm sold on the advantages of a center-pin setup to present a float rig but due to time and travel distance to fish I'm not sure I'm ready to invest in and commit to the center-pin. I'm considering building a 13' float rod in a spiral wrapped casting configuration. The other option is to build it as spinning and can always go with a pin later on. What do you think?

The Dark Side.....Mike, I am your father. LOL.

I use both casting and the pin. Spinning works, but it's way more work than it's worth, and the reel gets thrashed. I prefer a casting rig for salmon, mostly for the drag. I want to be lazy when its a 30 fish day, especially when some of those fish could push 40 lbs. The down side to the casting reel is too many moving parts that will freeze up come winter. Start up is faster with a casting than the pin, though the inertia generated once a pin is spinning gets into a rhythm easier, matching the flow of the stream with line paying out. Spinning reels twist and tangle. You have to open the bail to pay out line on a long trot. It's very difficult to get the float cocked properly as well. Thumbing a baitcaster in freespool, or a finger on the flange of the pin is much easier. Especially with frozen hands.

Last thing....get a cheap pin, the Okuma will work fine, and commit to it. It's what you will eventually go to anyway. Everyone inevitably turns to the Dark Side. Even the spey cast fly snobs.