Question for sparkey or anyone else on fly rods. The other night after a meeting Sparkey and I attended he was proclaiming the greatness of fast action Winstons. They are very nice and I own a couple fast action Winstons for winter steelheading but when I mentioned the beauty of a Winston BL5 for casting a floating 8wt double taper line he called it a noodle and drove off quickly. It would have been a whole lot of fun to talk with a experienced rod salesman as he about why so many now a days are using fast action rods. The BL5 is a soft action rod and a finess rod to cast. The beauty of the cast is part of the fishing experience.
On this post there have been mentions of sore arms, elbows and other ills such as being tired out after casting an 8wt all day. Does anyone else out there believe that it could be these fast action rods causing a lot of the injuries and not so much the wt rod? Why are so many sucked into the manufactures BS that faster is always better and power is what counts in a cast. A good soft action rod you can cast just as far and with less effort if you take the time to learn how to use it as it was intended and not try to over power it. now I'm talking about with floating line for summer steelheading.
I agree with sparky and sinktip go to your local fly shop and try out a bunch of differnt rods but try out some of the soft rods and see if you can figure out finess over power, you may find a whole new world of enjoyment and you may find you are less tired may have less sorness.
Tuna