Overlining a rod should be THE standard for smallie fishing. Some will argue with me, that's fine, but as stated, a 5wt will handle most of it.

I fish small streams and big rivers for smallies. I'm no expert but the small stream stuff is EASILY handled by the 5wt, or even a 4wt if the rod has any zip. Overline it and it will toss a pretty large bug with minimal false casts.

I used to use an 8wt for the big river stuff and one day I grabbed the wrong rod tube. Ended up on the river with my 6wt rod and my 8wt Clouser line and reel. Not having any other option, I strung it up and had a fantastic day. It cast just fine, the smaller fish were more fun, bigger fish were handled just fine and I realized the value of overlining a rod for tossing bigger(smallie sized) flies.

Some have said that you need an 8wt for the size of the fly, not the fish. There is some truth to this but I'd suggest it's the lineweight, not the rod, that does the job for you.

I now use a fast 4wt overlined with a Rio 6wt DT for my small stream fishing.....perfect. Bigger water gets a fast 6wt overlined with a Whitlock 8wt bass bug taper. Good, not perfect.

There are times I'm undergunned, wind blowing, 80' cast with a BIG deer hair bug. Still working on that one