I'm a newcomer to flyfishing. I have two relatively inexpensive flyrods... a Redington RS2 5 wt and a St. Croix Premier 6 wt. Both are 9-foot, 2 pc. rods. I can't cast the Redington for beans. The St. Croix, on the other hand, casts quite easily for me. I have put 7 wt, 6 wt, and even 5 wt lines on the St. Croix, and I cast satisfactorily with all of them. The lines are pretty good quality SA and Rio lines. I have put the same 5 wt and 6 wt lines on the Redington, and I'm pretty disappointed with the results.

First off... do you think a 6 wt rod is too heavy to be used as an all-around rod? I would use it for panfish, and trout, but there is a high likelihood I could get into largemouth/smallmouth bass, or even walleye or pike where I fish, so I'm thinking maybe the 6 wt. is not such a bad choice.

I've thought about trying to find a comparable St. Croix rod (Premier, Reign, Triumph, Rio Santo) in a 4 weight, for trout and panfish, but I don't want to do it yet if the reason I'm struggling is because the lighter weight rods/lines are just more difficult to cast.

In other words, is the difficulty I'm having more likely related to the rod design or the lighter weight of the rod/line?