Donald,

Tom Kirkman builds all types of rods, fly rods included.

For my part, he is 'the' expert on rod performance issues. He has no factory bias, and has spent years doing some pretty in depth and obscure testing.

The issue of going up or down in fly line weight has been discussed quite extensively on Tom's mesage board. He has expressed his opinion on it, and what I wrote tracks with what he has written.

If you are truly interested, you can ask him (and a host of other true 'experts' in the custom rod building indusry) on his web message board at Rodbuilding.org.

Good Luck!

Buddy

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[This message has been edited by Buddy Sanders (edited 30 April 2005).]