Well, i gathered up the 7.5' Fenwick glass 5wt. and lined it with 7 and 8 wt floating lines, both wf. Interesting that at once i felt the Fenwick was overlined to the point of failure at 55' or so. It was great close in though and i can see the use of the 7wt line in tight quarters and short casts, say nothing over 30'. I could cast the full 70' with more than normal effort than i would have to use with a more evenly matched combo and there was no way i could carry the 70' of line. Also the reel and rod combo felt too pendulumy (is that a word?) to use comfortably, so a lighter reel would be in order to even things out.

I felt the 8wt line would be worse but i lined the Fenwick up with it anyway though i had to put the reel in my coat pocket as it was way too big and heavy for the 5wt. I got a big surprise right away and in the absence of the 'pendulum' effect, the 8wt. line cast with ease out to 40 or 50' and with a little double haul, fairly ripped line off the reel. Yanked another 20 or so feet off the reel and with no false cast but with a bigger double haul, the rod fired the 70' of line out there just fine.

At that point, i din't think i could carry the 70' any easier than with the 7wt line but when i gave it a try, i could. I thought it was a fluke so i tried again and with good hauls i could false cast several times before my abilities ran out. I don't consider myself any kind of super-flycaster or anything but the Fenwick glass did the job....caveat here: all the casting was done on the lawn out back that i mowed just yesterday. I'd bet the whole exercise would be futile on the river and that i'd wear myself out in a day of flyfishing, either that or break the rod. I'd come close to doing just that years ago, so i quit uplining by so many jumps.

If i had a modern 7.5' graphite rod, i'd have tried it too but i don't. Maybe someone out there would like to take up the exercise with their 7.5' 5wt modern graphite rod to see if the Fenwick glass isn't a fair test. On the other hand, i won't ever fish the Fenwick with the 7 much less the 8wt line so it doesn't matter much really. I'd just be curious to know what someone elses take is on actually trying it like i did today. Hey, it was something to do besides yardwork, right?

Cheers,

MontanaMoose