I learned something interesting today.
My WF7F Rio Redfish taper behaves so beautifully on my 8'6" Izch 6/7 S-glass para (truly a cannon that blasts line like my RPLX7 up to 15 knot wind).
But the line will not shoot on the CGR 7/8.
It's because this line has a very long front taper followed by a short belly. The line handles and casts beautifully on the CGR - like a DT - but the rod will not shoot the back taper more than a dozen feet - not with all my coaxing and best haul form. Shooting the belly shouldn't be affected by the long 7' furled mono leader plus 5' fluoro tippet.
Noteworthy, and not surprising, the CGR 7/8 would cast the long leader alone beautifully.
So I dug out my 333 WF8F Salt Rocket taper on my Young Sea Venture reel. Up front, it also had a total tapered leader and tippet of 12'
First off, the lighter weight of this reel is much better on the rod than the Ocean Prince packing the Rio Redfish.
With the 333 WF8F Salt Rocket, it behaved exactly the way it did yesterday, and I was able to duplicate the exact same cast.
A foot of front taper out the rod tip, holding my long dangling leader, 2 false casts through the belly, and 3rd stroke, shoot additional back taper equal to what was already in the air, and more.
The rod did ask me to control my arm movements and use my haul.
So for my shotgun start leader, ordered a couple of 50" mono furled leaders, which I'll balance to the rod length with fluoro tippet.
The CGR 7/8 likes the 7-wt slime line taper, and it also wants an equally short front taper on the floater, which the 8-wt rocket taper has.
A warning to try your lines with this rod if you want a shotgun start and still be able to cast to 70'.
Here's the pretty reel with the line, at work on my Fisher 9' graphite 8-wt Natural - of course progressive taper, a magic wand for quick accurate casts, but too long to do what I want sitting in a kayak.
I want to be able to make boat-length presentations to fish sign, and also be able to cast (some) distance.
Added a shot of the CGR