Found a nice Fenwick FF80

[JBplusThuy]

I just won a nice looking FF80 at auction. A tad heavy for 'gills below monster size, but there are a lot of LMB and stripers in this neck of the woods, too :)

The interesting thing about this particular FF80 is that it's purportedly *new* - not used. If the auction were on eBay I'm not sure if I'd go for that, but it's on an auction site operated by a well-known charity and it says the tag attached to the hook holder is original and describes the "new Feralite Ferrule" :-)

I'll find out for sure when it arrives, but I will say that the rod, sock, and tube look gorgeous in the photos and the person who wrote the description doesn't sound like an expert on fly gear or even fishing gear generally, so I think that at the least, that person truly believes that it is a new-with-tag FF80. It's not inconceivable that such a thing could exist, donated from an estate or something.

For anyone who is fishing an FF80 now, what line weight do you find works best with it? Do you fish it with an 8, or go down to 7 or up to 9? I'm more interested in loading quickly than in really long casts. How heavy of a reel should I look for to balance well on the FF80 (4 1/8 oz.)?

If it really is new old stock, I'll put a photo up here after it arrives.

Thanks!

Jonathan

[jim cosgrove]

jonathan line size one up if you want it to load faster.don't need as long a backcast.thats what works for me any way