I compared the 7wt to the 8wt this evening on the lawn with a big juicy bunny type fly strapped on. The 8wt is more to my liking, I'll see if I can work with the 7wt a bit as dave mentioned but the 8wt is really nice for short cast as well as punching line out via double haul, It felt like it took a while to get that 7wt moving.