T
turbineblade
Guest
Hi - I finally bought a decent 9', 8-weight fly rod and a nice orvis access reel to match with it. I also own a 3-weight, a 5-weight and a 6-weight.
After using it for bass/bluegill fishing and landing a fairly large blue catfish yesterday on it, I'm starting to rethink my attraction to the 3-weight and/or lighter rods in general. Even in instances where they might be most applicable.
Why? Versatility mostly. Even though the 3-weight is fun to mess around with and casts *most of my flies without any problem, the 8 weight will also do this but will also toss my #4-6 bead head, lead-weighted woolly buggers with ease. Or basically anything else I feel like fishing at the moment. Basically, I can do whatever I want with the 8-weight versus the other rods. Yesterday it also helped me beat the 15-25 mph winds on the river.
I often spot big carp and bass around here, and I could also see this providing an advantage here as well.
My only concern was whether the 8 weight would protect the lighter tippets I may use. Since I only use 4, 6 and 8 pound mono for leader/tippet, this doesn't seem to be a problem at all. I did some breakage tests even using my 4 pound maxima mono and the 8 weight had no issue with it...even with a good bend down to the handle like when you're putting muscle onto a fish.
Anyone else tend to fish "upward" of where the trend now is? I'm strongly considering just using this 8-weight for damn-near everything now . People say the 5-6 weight is the most versatile, but I almost think a 7-8 really is. At least if you fish in warm water anyway.
After using it for bass/bluegill fishing and landing a fairly large blue catfish yesterday on it, I'm starting to rethink my attraction to the 3-weight and/or lighter rods in general. Even in instances where they might be most applicable.
Why? Versatility mostly. Even though the 3-weight is fun to mess around with and casts *most of my flies without any problem, the 8 weight will also do this but will also toss my #4-6 bead head, lead-weighted woolly buggers with ease. Or basically anything else I feel like fishing at the moment. Basically, I can do whatever I want with the 8-weight versus the other rods. Yesterday it also helped me beat the 15-25 mph winds on the river.
I often spot big carp and bass around here, and I could also see this providing an advantage here as well.
My only concern was whether the 8 weight would protect the lighter tippets I may use. Since I only use 4, 6 and 8 pound mono for leader/tippet, this doesn't seem to be a problem at all. I did some breakage tests even using my 4 pound maxima mono and the 8 weight had no issue with it...even with a good bend down to the handle like when you're putting muscle onto a fish.
Anyone else tend to fish "upward" of where the trend now is? I'm strongly considering just using this 8-weight for damn-near everything now . People say the 5-6 weight is the most versatile, but I almost think a 7-8 really is. At least if you fish in warm water anyway.