I regularly fish with a Tioga and I was very impressed with how it fished. I was uneasy at first because I had some drag problems with Teton but that was a specific case. The most inpressive thing about this reel is the drag. It is very smooth and sounds good as line zips out. As for over loading your rod by one line size, It depends on how you feel. I have done it on my rods but what I found is that as my casting improved the benfits decreased