Line Advice

[teleee]

So I recently joined the Albright feeding frenzy and purchased an 8/9 weight rod. Now my question is which is more versatile 8 or 9 weight?

[ak_powder_monkey]

depends on if you like a slower or a faster rod... my guess is that it will flex out better with a 9 wt line

[72Twenty]

Personally, I would go with the 8wt to start with. Which are you more likely to buy in the future? Another new 9wt rod or a new 8wt rod?

8wt line on a reel can be moved around easier.

I use my 8wt line on my 7wt rod sometimes and it is fine (I currently do not own an 8wt rod...)

[Andy_B]

9wt. It will be better in the wind and toss big flies better.

[teleee]

My thought and the consensus seems to be 9 weight so far... Anybody have any good reason to not go 9 weight?
And 72 I am pretty sure when the time is right and finances allow I can just buy another spool and get an 8 weight line and use it on the same rod... Just trying to decide which to get first and which will be the most versatile.

[schwerty]

On lighter rods I generally try not to overweight but in the case of an 8/9 weight I'd go with a 9weightish line. As AKPM said, the rod will prolly have a more true flex with a heavier line.

[Andy_B]

Another option would be to go the a local fly shop and see if they have any test lines spooled up and ready go... Go do a few cast in the parking lot.

[Obama Nate]

Well, I too joined the feeding frenzy, and today I received my new 9’6” GP 7/8 . I just got back from testing this out on my lawn—not a great test, but it gave me a feel for the rod.

First, I would classify this rod as a medium action rod. This is important in choosing line weight depending on your personal casting style and the rods intended uses. There is a lot of good insights above, and I’ll give mine based on casting the 7/8 using three different line weights.

This may sound strange, but I tried a 10 weight line with a heavy, fast sinking tip. With about 20 feet of line out on the backcast, it was very easy to shoot the line out to about 50 plus feet. But as I increased the amount of line in the false cast, it (of course) became very difficult to control the size of the loop; resulting in less than satisfactory long-distance casts. The furthest I could cast this rod with a 10 weight line was about 80 feet. When you line-up, the more line you get out in your cast, the more this is going to load this medium action rod down in the butt section, and the wider your loop is going to get. Of course, a better caster would be able to control this better than I.

I did not have a 8 or a 9 weight line to test, but I also tried both 6 weight and 7 weight Rio windcutter lines. I could cast both of these lines into the backing—both about the same distance. The 6 weight just required more line in the backcast to properly load the rod. This illustrates the point that, in your case, 40 feet of 8 weight line will have the same mass, and thus load the rod the same, as 30 feet of 9 weight line (those numbers are made up, but you get the point).

Of course, distance is rarely the name of the game. I’ve caught the majority of my fish within thirty feet. But when you’re casting into wind, it can sometimes be difficult to even cast 40 or 50 feet. While it seems a general rule of thumb to line-up in wind, at least in some situations, I find it better to line-down in wind. This way you get more line out while maintaining a smaller loop. This is key to casting into the wind, as the wider your loop, the more wind resistance you get killing your cast. Also, but of minimal importance, is the fact that a heavier weight line will have a larger diameter—thus also increasing wind resistance.

I routinely use up to two line weights up from that recommended. This allows you to load the road, for both overhead and rollcasting, with less line out. It also, as pointed out by Andy_B, helps cast big, wind-resistant flies. I also routinely down-size. I do this when I want to make accurate and delicate presentations, and it allows me to get away with using a 9 or 12 foot leader rather than, say, a 15 footer which is much more difficult for me to handle.

I don’t know if anyone will read this long-winded response to your simple question, and at the end of the day, its much like selecting a rod—it depends on personal preference as much as your intended use. But given my recent experience with what I guess would be a similar rod, I’d say the following.

8 weight:
Delicate presentations of relatively smaller flies;
Ample room to make false casts;
This would be my personal preference for casting into the wind;
9 weight:
Big, wind-resistant flies;
Cramped space to make backcasts.

[72Twenty]

I don’t know if anyone will read this long-winded response to your simple question

Actually, I found that to be very educational. I have been fishing for years but have only recently gotten into multiple rod and line sizes/weights. For most of my fishing "career" I had two rods, a 5wt and a 6wt. I didn't notice much difference between the two and used the 5wt 90% of the time. Now that I have added more rods to my collection, and even more reels - I am starting to learn more about this stuff. Thanks for the info!