The capacity of each fly rod to set the hook on the size flies and tippet you use with that rod is very important. For example, I recently tested a proto-type of a new 7 1/2 4 weight rod. The fishing that specific day was very good with size 20 Black Ants fished on a 6X leader but I was breaking off over half of the trout on the strike. I put this rod back in the car and used my old 7 1/2 4 weight rod and using the same tippet material and flies landed over 20 trout and did not break any off on the strike.
I called the designer of the rod company and he redesigned the rod and sent me the new model. This second rod was outstanding and protected the fine tippets exceptionally well.
I stock over 70 different models of fly rods in my fly shop and when a customer comes in to purchase a new fly rod I carefully show him just what he can expect to achieve with each rod. Important features which help the customer are the drag control capacity of the rod, the fly sizes which will cast well, the tippets it will protect and the accuracy and distance they can achieve with each rod they are considering. Finally we take the rod with a lined reel to our casting lawn and test it.
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