Over lining?

Late to the game, but was curious as to how many of you out there over line your rods. I don't nor never have, but after researching it for awhile and owning a majority of TFO rods. I'm considering giving it a try.
What say you?

I use SA GPX taper line on my fast action rods. It is made 1/2 a size heavier to load the rod easier. It is also on sale at Cabela's right now.

I think most people are fooling themselves by overlining to solve casting problems...but hey no law against it. Try it and see if you like it.

The only time I overline is if I'm in a situation where I have a rod without the correct line. I actually carry an 11 wt line I use to backup a 10wt rod and a 12wt rod on trips....makes life simpler where you don't have a lot of gear/room.

[quote=]I think most people are fooling themselves by overlining to solve casting problems...but hey no law against it. Try it and see if you like it.

The only time I overline is if I'm in a situation where I have a rod without the correct line. I actually carry an 11 wt line I use to backup a 10wt rod and a 12wt rod on trips....makes life simpler where you don't have a lot of gear/room. [/quote]

Overlining can also be handy if one is fishing where short casts will be involved.

Some of my rods it works great, some not so much.

I don't think the rod manufacturers have a solid and consistent methodology for designating the weight of a rod. Complicating that is I think that the rod's action also comes into play. An alleged 5 weight rod with a soft action might require an entirely different line than the same rod with a stiff action to get optimum performance.

Concurrently with that the fly line manufacturers don't appear to have a solid and consistent methodology for designating line weight: http://common-cents.info/part4.pdf

So, a 6 wt line on a 5 wt rod may not actually be overlining, given the variables involved.

About all you can do is to try it and see. Sometimes you do it and immediately you can tell it was a good move. Sometimes not so much.

Overlineing a fast action 9ft - 5 weight with 7 weight line works for me but I suspect overlining below a five weight rod won't work as well beyond a single step up.

I'm just going to guess here, but I'd say the over lining works best in with heavier and faster action rods. If you have a real slow action glass rod, the heavier line will just make it fold in half. Same with a little 3WT rod.

I've not tested it, but I can just imagine how my rods would respond.

Overlining works in some situations, and with some rods. As Meadowlark says, there's no law against it. But I have seen posts claiming that the author overlines all fly rods. Beware of that guy's advice.............

It all depends on the rod you are using. Try it out it may work or not. I have overlined a 3 weight with excellent results and the same with my 5 weight.

One time I grabbed the wrong rod for the reel I had and didn't realize it until I had been fishing for a while. But it was an underlined rod with a weight forward floating 5wt line used with a 7/8wt CGR. Somehow, I got it to work well enough to get some bass and bluegills. I knew something was up with my casting, but it took me a while to check the rod as the CGR's are all pretty short.

I don't usually under or over line on purpose. I have a 7wt that I'll use with 8wt line on occasion just because I'm too lazy to switch out the line on the reel.

I agree with this comment. The person giving that advice may not be fishing the same way you are.

There is no "one size fits all" for up lining or down lining a rod. Personal preference, equipment, wind, fishing conditions, casting skill, and fly size can all play a part in the decision of what line size to use with what rod.

Here's an example, when the bass are holding close to the bank and fishing from boat, a 20 to 30 foot cast may be all that is needed. Well, a 9 ft rod + 8 ft leader and a 30 foot cast means that only 13 feet of fly line is outside the rod tip. Up lining a size or two to a heavier fly line can help load the rod and make casting large, wind resistant bass size flies easier at these short distances.

Trout fishing has similar situations, a heavier line size may make it easier to cast heavy nymph rigs that consist of 2 or 3 weighted flies, plus a few split shot, plus a Thingamabobber style indicator. On the other hand, you might want to down size the fly line when casting a single dry fly in calm conditions for a gentler presentation.

Basically, match your equipment to that day's fishing situation.

Rex, as always, provides the definitive and well-researched answer.

My suggestion is that you experiment. Try overlining or underlining different rods and see how it works for you. If you don't have a variety of line sizes available, take your rod or rods to a fly shop and ask to borrow a few of their demo reels with different lines on them.

Line manufacturers also make lines that deliberately overline. There are many lines out now that come a half size heavier, ostensibly to better load fast action (stiffer) rods. Others, like Orvis, have created specialty lines like their Bank Shot lines with heads a couple of sizes heavier than the listed line weight, especially for shooting heavy flies or streamers at the bank while floating a river. I have them in several line weights and they work well for that application, or for throwing flies into a strong wind. I've also found they DO NOT work well when trying to softly present a dry fly.