Fresh vrs Salt water

Why does it matter so much if you are going to fish in fresh or salt water.  It seems sales people want to know regardless if you are looking at boats, rods, fishing line, lures, trailers, almost any and every piece of fishing equipment seems to be split with regard to fresh or salt water.  Does that mean i have to have two sets of equipment and two boats one for each enviroment?

I know salt water is corrosive but is that the big deal here or something else?

I think you nailed a big part of it. " salt water is corrosive "

Also deep sea gear tends to be heavier built for bigger fish I believe...But then I never done any deep sea fishing.

Gizmo100 said:

I think you nailed a big part of it. " salt water is corrosive "

Also deep sea gear tends to be heavier built for bigger fish I believe...But then I never done any deep sea fishing.

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So does that mean that rods and reels and fishing line have corrosive prevention treatments?  It does make sense that rods would be thicker and better build for big fish but what about salt water lakes, does that mean that if you use a non salt water rod and reel you have to wash it off after fishing? 

Their are several boats that do well as a lake boat and a inshore ,, sal****er ,, boat. But as you go father out to sea,, offshore ,, you are talking about a sal****er boat. The biggest difference will in range, besides the size of the boats hull is the size of the fuel tank determines how far you can safely go out and back. Also you have bigger fish holds, and rough water designs built into the boat vs a Bass boat built for shallow water lake conditions and higher speeds.  Salt attacks all boats, gear, motors, the same. Rods have a real science built into them, line rating and action are built into the rods for different applications. Line wt. rating is not always heavier for bigger fish. San Diego waters have Bluefin Tuna that are Freight Trains after you hook one and can be line shy, this means if they see a heavy 40-60 lb line running to a live bait, and that bait is not swimming right, they ignore it,  so getting them to bite sometimes you have to drop down use a line rated at 20 lbs. Using a 20lb line for Black Bass and Catfish is common when fishing around weeds and brush.  The only way to beat a Bluefin in that battle is to have enough 20lb line on a reel big enough to store some capacity to let the fish run with some resistance, the drag setting on the reel,  and the fish back in it back in several times. The drag washers in the Sal****er reels are bigger, and made of different material from mfg. to mfg. and are made to take the heat build up from a big fish pulling out line with the drag set. Same for the rods, one rod for Back Bass may have the same line rating like 20lbs , but a Sal****er rod will have a line rating as a 20 to 40lb line. It will have a bigger butt and longer grips and dwarf the Bass rod even though it has a similar line rating. There is a lot more but this is just a summary of why a informed sales clerk at a store will ask what your uses are going to be.  So yes it really does matter if you want to have the right tool for the right job. I have complete AND different set ups for fishing Trout in a stream, fishing for Trout in a lake, Stripers including a fly set up for those, Rock Cod, Halibut, river fishing Salmon, fishing Salmon in the Ocean, Albacore Tuna and Bluefin Tuna. I don't fish for Black Bass, even though I live in some the best Bass fishing that a guy could want, they just don't appeal to me. And yeas, I have different boats for what I fish for. The bigger boat in my avatar, a 24' Skipjack is mostly Sal****er, a 15' Boston Whaler set up for Diving and casting off of chasing Stripers here in the Delta, but we do sometimes use it fishing inshore on Dive trips. We also have a really nice Ski Boat that has nothing to do with fishing, it is going to my grown kids this year, they can partner up have it for the grand kids to tow around,,,gregg

Thanks broke boater, that explains alot.   

To expand a bit on Broke Boaters comments, the simple answer to why a salesperson asks is so they can help you select the appropriate equipment.  The sal****er environment is much harsher on tackle. A small item like the hooks on a lure: ?freshwater? hooks will rapidly rust/deteriorate when used in salt.  Outboard engines (and very specifically electric trolling motors) are built salt or fresh. The difference is the materials & finishes used with ?salt? being more corrosion resistant.  Also true with Rod guides and reels.
  I often use my light sal****er rods/reels in fresh water, but not the other way around. 
  Most salesperson in tackle shops are fisherman. They want to help their customers enjoy similar experiences.  Tap into their knowledge.
 

J32952 said:

To expand a bit on Broke Boaters comments, the simple answer to why a salesperson asks is so they can help you select the appropriate equipment.  The sal****er environment is much harsher on tackle. A small item like the hooks on a lure: ?freshwater? hooks will rapidly rust/deteriorate when used in salt.  Outboard engines (and very specifically electric trolling motors) are built salt or fresh. The difference is the materials & finishes used with ?salt? being more corrosion resistant.  Also true with Rod guides and reels.
  I often use my light sal****er rods/reels in fresh water, but not the other way around. 
  Most salesperson in tackle shops are fisherman. They want to help their customers enjoy similar experiences.  Tap into their knowledge.
 

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Excellent and thanks,  so everyone should just by for salt then and do away with freshwater gear.  If salt gear is tougher then why have a choice.  If the price of a US army tank is 100 bucks with or without the turret, might as well get it with the turret lol

Price for one.  Why pay for features you don?t need?
I don?t fish enough in fresh, but most salt gear is too large (heavy) for Freshwater species.  Example my normal flyrod is way too heavy for trout, bass, brim etc..so I have one just for fresh.  My smallest spinning rod mostly too heavy for most fresh species.  Pick the right tool for the job.

Pretty much all the major players building fishing equipment have quality gear for fresh and salt, and can be used for both. Just take care of it like anything else that is exposed to a corrosive environment. All gear has to be washed with soapy water and rinsed end of each day when fishing sal****er. Same with a boat. My boats are on trailers and at the end of the day and back on the trailer, we have the same program dialed in every trip. Two guys washing the boat, gear down at the boat wash station with buckets of Dawn soap and brushes, the other two guys cleaning fish. We know it takes about 45mins to wash the boat down after a day of fishing and sometimes it takes that long to clean fish depending on what we are fishing for, so we split the crew to get it all done. Buy nice cry once. Buying the right rods and reels compatible for your target species is important because they are designed with a specific line WT. rating and choice of actions for how you will be fishing. Truck Trout,, Trout that are planted in lakes and streams,,  are a little different, even cheap gear will last awhile for those in fresh water,,,gregg