I use a 5 wgt for most of my smallmouth fishing. It's slow action and when I have used my 6 wgt line with it cast fairly well. This is when I trying to push my 5-6 inch streamers and my size 2 poppers and sliders. My 5 wgt handles bait fish patterns up to 4 inches without a problem and size 4 and smaller sliders and poppers.