Line weight, reel and rod question

[troutinturnie 0]

Greetings all, I recently purchased a Cabelas Prestige Plus reel at a 7-8 weight. I bought 30lb backing which was recommended and 7WF sink tip line. I live in northern Canada and do a lot of walleye, pike and trout fishing. My question is can I put this reel and line on my 9 weight rod to use lake trout and pike fishing? Or I have a cheap Canadian Tire 7 weight rod I've had or 10 years and has been beat around pretty good.

I've had great luck with my 9wt for throwing big like flys and catching plenty of fish in the 10lb+ range but never had a sinking line. I should have just gone with another 9 weight reel but wanted something a little lighter for walleyes which tend to be deeper.

 

Your thoughts are greatly appreciated

[troutinturnie 0]

I plan on purchasing a 7wt rod in the future

[Fish For Life 0]

Do you have a yard or a park that your could try it in?? Thats whats i would recommend to see how the line feels casting on your 9wt. It will cast it, might just not feel all that right. Especially if your are casting some bigger pike flys. Since it is a sink tip and has some weight to it, it should cast better than just a floating 7wt line. Still not ideal but im sure it will work. You will find out the first time you hit the water with it. If it doesn't feel that bad go ahead and keep using it, on the other hand if it feels like crap you might want to consider getting a different line.

Where in Canada are you located if you dont mind me asking??

[troutinturnie 0]

Northern Manitoba around the Thompson area. 4 hours from the famous Reindeer Lake. Best fishing province in my opinion, pike walleye, trout, small&large mouth bass, grayling, catfish plus a dozen other species. Only thing we are missing out on is Atlantic Salmon.

[Dave G. 0]

Typically with a sink tip I like to drop back one wt. so with a 9 that would put me/you in an 8 wt line. It's not inconceivable that if you carry a bit more line in the air on false casting that the 7 might work. I'm sure it's not perfect or ideal, but work. Then again you get rods that like to be a line weight up !! So good luck. All you can do is try it. It either works for you or it doesn't.

[SilverCreek 0]

Greetings all, I recently purchased a Cabelas Prestige Plus reel at a 7-8 weight. I bought 30lb backing which was recommended and 7WF sink tip line. I live in northern Canada and do a lot of walleye, pike and trout fishing. My question is can I put this reel and line on my 9 weight rod to use lake trout and pike fishing? Or I have a cheap Canadian Tire 7 weight rod I've had or 10 years and has been beat around pretty good.

I've had great luck with my 9wt for throwing big like flys and catching plenty of fish in the 10lb+ range but never had a sinking line. I should have just gone with another 9 weight reel but wanted something a little lighter for walleyes which tend to be deeper.

 

Your thoughts are greatly appreciated

 

 

You can give it a try but I am betting that it result in frustration.

 

I see at least two problems and they have to do with the 2 purposes of a fly line and matching fly rod.

 

The first purpose is to cast the fly. So if you are going to use a 7 wt line on a 9 wt rod, are you casting flies that are normally cast with a 9 wt line or a 7 wt line. Fly line mass is needed to cast fly mass. So a 7 wt line will be severely under matched if you are using flies that need a 9 wt fly line. You can go down in fly size but trying to cast as fly that is too heavy or too air resistant is going to be difficult.

 

The second problem is that by using a 7 wt line on a 9 wt rod, is that it takes a longer length of 7 wt line to match the line mass that the 9 wt rod is designed to cast. It gets worse if the 9 wt fly rod is a fast action which I suspect it is at that line weight. So if the fly is oversized for the 7 wt line and you are trying to cast it on a 9 wt rod, you have the worst of both worlds - a longer cast to balance the rod but a line that is cannot place that fly the distance that is required to balance the rod.

 

Another probelm will occur if you try to use larger flies with the the 7 wt rod. You are using a sink tip fly line so the larger fly will be under water and you will have to lift and pick up that fly with the 7 wt rod. That rod may not have the power to lift that fly and immediately go into the back cast. On the other hand, the sunken fly and line will help to load the 9 wt rod for the back cast.

[vicente 0]

Why not just being both rods with you when you go and if it won't work on your nice 9 weight use your 7 weight. Or try it on a lawn like someone suggested.

[troutinturnie 0]

I'm a physical education teacher so I have access to a gym everyday, I'll just try that out and if it doesn't work I'll fix the problem accordingly.

[josephcsylvia 0]

For now why not just drop to 20lb backing and put your 9wt line on that reel? That would be the easiest thing to do

[Fish For Life 0]

For now why not just drop to 20lb backing and put your 9wt line on that reel? That would be the easiest thing to do

Thats what i was originally thinking as well. If its a 7-8 reel you wont have to drop much. Not like you ever need a full spool of backing anyways, unless you ocean fishing.

[Dave G. 0]

Yep, was my original thought too, put the 9 wt line on there. Do they offer spare spools for that reel ?

 

Edit: went to Cabelas site, didn't see a spare spool but in the US anyway the whole 9 wt reel is on sale right now for $44.95.

[skeet3t 0]

Troutinturnie, it should be a big gym to get the full effect of casting. Let us know how things work out. FWIW, I used to cast all kinds of things with an old South Bend fiberglass rod, 8 ft, D wt. which is now a 7 wt., back in the 60s.

[troutinturnie 0]

Awesome thank you for all the suggestions. I will let you know how it goes

[chugbug27 0]

@Mark Knapp or @mikechell maybe delete these posts from fun flyfishing? He's using the site to advertise a rod balancing kit without the required # of posts, pulling up threads that are years old to do it 

[SilverCreek 0]

I tried casting in a gym and the line got caught up in the lights and basketball backboard supports.