I finally convinced a fish to help me test the flex of this rod.
the fish was caught on black Friday about an hour north of Atlanta, ambient temps in the high fortys. The fish took a size 10 beadchain pheasant tail that I tied for bluegill.
I have settled on the 1495.5 for this rod as it balances well. I fished the rod with a 444 peach dt7. It handles this line well until you get out past 30 feet, then the tip goes a little soft and accuracy degrades. nonetheless the 44 dt7 would probably by my choice for warm water kayak fishing with this rod in the future. with the dt7 it casts "mr. hankey" mice very well (and yes, I had a take on one in November!), and it cast a 2/0 clouser reasonably within 30ft but not great. I think the tip is a little too delicate for the really big streamers or for a 7wt line past about 30ft.
I imagine this rod would be great with a "heavy 5wt" or any flavor of 6wt line for general purpose trout fishing. I havent done any smallmouth fishing but imagine this thing would be near perfect with a heavy wf6f for smallmouth, 6-10 streamers, 2-10 foam dries, poppers, etc.
I think the tip is a little soft to be a truly excellent choice for really big bass flies, really big/heavy streamers, or lines heavier than a true to weight 7. then again, that probably makes it a pretty good dry fly rod even if the fish are only 8".
all in all, a good versatile rod.
Thanks!