Selecting a Reel for a New Rod - Balancing
Just picked up a St. Croix 9' Legend Elite 5 weight and I am trying to match a reel to it. This rod is quite light at 2.8 oz so I had assumed that it would match up with a very light reel. Not so fast.
I have read a number of articles on balancing rod and reel and it seems that the consensus is the rod should balance (be horizontal) at the fulcrum where your index (and some say middle) finger is placed on the grip during a casting stroke. An article suggests that a loaded reel should generally weigh 1.5X the swing weight of the rod. According to it, the swing weight equals the weight of the rod (2.8 oz.) plus maybe 0.2 oz for twice the rod length in line out of the tip. Therefore, according to this article, the loaded reel should weight about 3.0 oz X 1.5 = 4.5 oz.
http://www.flyfishohio.com/a_question_of_balance.htm
Yet I am puzzled by "swing weight." According to Yellowstone Anglers, and their 2013 5 weight shootout results, this rod (and many more) has a swing weight of nearly 9 oz.! Hmmm.
http://www.yellowstoneangler.com/gea...os-2-greys-xf2
So I tried each of three different loaded reels on it (6 oz, 7.0 oz and 7.7 oz) with about 18 feet of line extending for each out of the tip. Under these conditions, the reel that balanced the rod at my index finger was the heaviest one at 7.7 oz. loaded (Colton CRG II for 5,6,7 - very pleased with this reel BTW). The two lighter reels were too light as they caused the tip to dip. I was surprised by this result as I assumed I would be needing to pick up a Lamson Litespeed or some other feather weight reel. Am I doing this right?
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