The Winston is a fine rod. I have cast the 9' 6wt and it seemed very nice and smooth definitly not as fast as the xp, but few rods are. Another rod you should consider is the Sage SLT. Its a nice med-fast action, but it seems like when you need to laydown the hammer and shoot some line it can do it. Again the best advice is too just cast a bunch of rods and see what feels comfortable.

Mike