[FisherPotch]

Originally Posted by Outbound

wow, how big was the bow? must have been a lunker. did you actually manage to land him though?

i've used my 5wt for pink salmon up to 6 or 8 pounds and coho up to 12 pounds without trouble. anything larger, i just grab my 8 weight.

I was reaching out with a short net in the pontoon. My angle got a little to extreme as I was guiding him to net. One big head swing downward and the rod tip bust just as I landed him. Now I use an extension net. From the shore one can just back up to avoid the big bend, no backin up in the toon. Likely not the five weights fault unless it had a defect. But none of my 6 wts have broken yet with similar abuse. It wasn't a huge fish, 6lb male. Thanks to this lesson I was extra cautious landing my big brown on the 6wt st croix.

Just checked the photos and my 40inch pike on the fly was on the 5wt. But again (like the brown) because I was under gunned the fish had little steam left when I was finally close enough to be landing it (this pike was on 7 lb test, 4x flouroflex plus) thankfully to the fridged waters this fish still responded well when released. The bow that broke my tfo was still jacked up because I saw a chance to rush him in. The tfo is an entry level rod too not a top model. Lots of variables that lead to the rod breaking, not necessarily because it was a 5wt. But I'd bet all my fly rods my 6wt st croix rods wouldn't have snapped.

The only reason I have a 5wt is because it was cheap to get a new piece. Otherwise Ida gotten a four. Personally I see no need to go down to a three unless your fishing for Dace or Chubs

An 8 is necessary for myself as I don't want to have to play fish