I think it depends on *where* you are fishing and for what.
Using 4 weight gear, I have caught 12 pound redfish and a 14 pound
ling in knee deep shallows off the Texas and Florida Gulf coasts. No
problems with bringing the fish in rapidly and the relatively soft
rod action was a help when the fish did unexpected things. BTW, these
fish put up more of a fight than did 20 - 24 pound chinooks caught
off Campbell River.
OTOH, in, say, angling for bass in very windy and weedy Oklahoma
lakes you need something heftier (rod and leader!) to keep the fish
from tangling line in weeds or tree branches. The bass fight hard,
but only for a minute or two so the problem is to control them during
the brief fight (see any Bill Dance video).
In rivers, it depends. If the hooked fish is in a large pool or a
long stretch of smooth bottom, there ought to be little problem in
quickly landing large salmonids on 4 or 5 weight gear. If the river
is full of boulders, or it is very windy (ALWAYS when I go out) you
need something heavier to heave the fish in before nasty things
happen.
Actually, for the usual highly variable conditions on steelhead
rivers an 8 or 9 weight fiberglass rod should do nicely; plenty of
power in the butt and a nice soft action to take the bite out of
sudden fish movements.
AL Revzin
From the deep, dark empire of LurkerDom.
