I've been getting quite an education from largish stripers lately, and it's telling me that a 9 wt rod is not the way to go:
Fished my usual between moonset and sunrise this am. Hooked two large bass on eels, so I went back for a fly rod. Sure enough, got another one, but I had a very tough time landing it. Here's a couple of thoughts as I fought the fish:
My 10' Ben Doerr with 20 lb line has no trouble 'persuading' a 3' bass to stop a run or change course just short of a rock. With a T&T Horizon 9 wt, even with a 20 lb tippet, I simply can't put enough pressure on a large fish to keep it out of a rock it's decided to go to. You get that feeling all the rod bend is in the foot above the grip, and that's with a stiff T&T Horizon. I find I have to let the fish go for a while and hope for the best. Been loosing a lot of the fish in the crags of Nobska that way. Large stripers seem to know just how to rub off on a rock...
Similarly, I find I'm cranking the drag down on my fly reel (SA 89) all the way, and even then, end up palming the spool. This morning I checked the drag with a scale: 4 lbs at the max setting I had earlier. Almost right, but not quite, for a 20 lb tippet. Just have to wonder about the light drag settings recommended by the FF literature? Is this a bad reel, or am I missing something?
Does it make sense to play a fish with a fly rod set at 5 lbs drag? Why is Lefty (praised be the great master) Kreh so opposed to high drag settings?
I'm coming to the conclusion that a 9 wt, even a stiff 9 wt, is not the rod of choice for shore casting to large bass, or rather, is not a od of choice for playing large bass in rocks.
There's two parts to this: casting flies and playing a fish. Casting, I'm wishng for a 10 wt to get the big flies out. Line slap doesn't make a differece here, I think, and I find I can cast a 10 wt just fine. Don't know how much help a 10 wt offers when keeping bass out of rocks, but it's gotta help some.
Methinks I'm off to get a 10 wt Horizon for these fall bass runs. No downside I can see and possibly the extra oomph to turn a fish just that much sooner. I'd be very glad to hear opinions. Why aren't we all using 10 weights?