9-wt line on an 8-wt rod.

[morcey2]

Another dude here who's in and out of the forum a lot. I started flyfishing at about 15 when I ordered a fly rod from Bob Marriott's, back when that meant filling out an order form and mailing in a check. I guess that makes it the dark ages. I've been fly fishing off and on ever since then. I'm a pretty good cast w/ my 6-weight SA rod. (Original rod which was MUCH nicer was stolen many years ago when someone broke into the storage unit next to the front door of our apartment, along with my beloved 6'6" Shakespeare Sigma Medium-light spinning rod.)

I picked up another decent (not great) 8-weight rod to go with the SA Concept LA reel that I got at wally-world on clearance for $10 a couple of years ago. I intended to use it for bass and the like along with using shooting lines on lakes for bigger trout. I picked up some 8-weight WF line, rigged everything up with a pretty large woolly bugger, and proceeded to try it out over at Salem Pond. I couldn't cast the thing worth anything. It almost always just piled up in the water in front of me. I could roll cast it pretty well to get it out far enough that I knew I had the full belly of the line out, but it still wouldn't do anything.

I thought my timing might be off because of not fly casting for a year, but when I pulled out my other outfit, everything did exactly what I thought it should do. I watched rod while casting both of them and it looked like the 8-wt was just too stiff for the line on it. It didn't bend much at all, even when double hauling it.

I picked up some Cortland 444 WF-9-F line in peach (it's so purty) from Sportsmans warehouse yesterday and I'm thinking about using it on this rod to see if it helps. I know that with split bamboo rods and some of the older fiberglass rods, changing line weights is detrimental to the life of the rod. But I've always read that graphite rods are much more forgiving of movement up or down by one line weight.

Anybody have any ideas or suggestions on this before I do something that might require me to buy a real 9-weight rod. [] I think I'll try to turn the old 8-weight line into a shooting head for the 6-weight rod. Could be fun.

Matt
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[sinergy]

Yes, you can run 1 weight over your rod weight, its called "overloading". Some guys will run a 5 wt on a 4 wt rod, the heavier line will put more bend in the rod and the larger casting section should give more distance.

I fish a 9wt for carp and bass and your really have to slow the timing between your casts down the rod is allot stiffer than your 5 wt kinda like fishing a slow medium action rod of there was one.
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[flygoddess]

First off, many of the less expensive rods are two maybe even three sizes. You see all the time 7/8.
I would try casting that 8 wt line on the six first...it could be the guide placement on the 8 wt. Sorry but my Eagle Claw has a problem casting Shark Skin!

Not sure what you payed for the Peach (I have never been a Peach fan, but another story) But I did just order this stuff for my Bass and Carp fishing on an 8 wt.

http://www.sierratradingpost.com/sage-hi...rFamily=01

The like is the most important feature of fly fishing, and it can make or break a good cast.
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[riverdog]

Probable has more to do with the action of the rod than the line weight. Going up one size will give you more speed but is also going to make a bigger splash so take that into account. For your situation I either work on casting technique or go up a size. I see what I think is a lot of misinformation about selected line weight on BFT. My experience is the other reason to change line weight is wind. If fighting wind going up on the line weight is counterproductive as higher speed equals less tight loops and more resistance to cut the wind. My experience is going down a notch on line weight will keep your loops tighter against that resistance and result it better casting. Best way to compare is casting with a size lighter and comparing to a size larger in the wind. Skip the middle size to see the difference more dramatically. Just my observation but I experiment all the time to see what works best for me rather than trusting the experts. Truth is most of the time you can compensate without changing your line weight in the first place with enough practice in casting technique under various situations.
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[gstott]

Speaking of line, I'm looking to upgrade the line on my 4wt. Is Sharkskin still your favorite? Do you have any other lines that you would recommend for fishing creeks and smaller rivers?
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[flygoddess]

Sharkskin is my favorite. On my four I have the Trout, on five and up I went with the GPX.
Selective Trout II by Rio is my second fav.
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[gstott]

Cool, thanks! I will keep an eye out for deals on those.
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[morcey2]

So, I did a little experiment this afternoon. Right after work, I went out to Salem pond and tried casting with the current 8-wt line. Everything still seemed to pile up right in front of me. I couldn't get a single cast where with a nice straight line with the fly at the farthest point. Kinda depressing. I tried for about 20 minutes, concentrating very heavily on proper form, but no dice.

I went home and replaced the line with the new 9-wt line. I made sure to keep the same leader and keep everything else as close as possible to the earlier test. I went back to the pond at about 6:00 for this half and it was a world of difference. I was able to shoot 60 feet of line fairly regularly. I would occasionally get a pile o' line in front of me, but not very often. Usually when I would get excited and get my wrist involved in the cast.

The rod is a Scientific Angler 8 wt rod, not one of the 7/8 specials. I'm pretty sure it's supposed to be a 9 wt by it's performance today.

On a side note, I need to get a float tube. Or a boat. I kept getting the line tangled in dead weeds at my feet and once in the brush behind me.

Matt
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[flygoddess]

Good to hear. I have always said, the line is the most important factor next to fly choice and presentation.
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