Dear Mark,

I don't think they are any more damaging to the fish than a whimpy whippy rod of a heavier line weight. There are some awful soft 5 weights out there. If you are using 5X or 6X tippet that will be the limiting factor in how much pressure you can put on the fish anyway.

I trout fished probably 25 days from late April to mid June, and I used my one weight for 90 percent of those trips. They were all to smaller streams where the shorter rod came in handy. I don't think I caused any extra problems for the fish and managed to take fish up to 16 - 17 inches on the one weight using smaller dry flies and terrestrials. In the past I've caught fish over 20 inches on my one weight.

I wouldn't use anything smaller than a 6 weight for warm water pond fishing though. I've seen too many nice fish get lost in the weeds and slop when I used a lighter rod. My one, two, and three weight rods just don't have the hoisting power necessary to keep the better fish out of the slop.

Even when I can keep most of the fish out of the weeds the extra time I have to spend cleaning gunk off the line and flies, I often use two or three flies when pond fishing, when the fish find the weeds makes the light weight rods impractical for me.

Best Wishes,
Avalon