Thank you for the kind offer
Actually, I now rarely use the 7 wt, for this precise reason, as I found that for most fishing I do -- almost exclusively trout -- a 5 wt is plenty enough, and I have been quite lucky with comparatively small flies (#6 is the biggest streamers I use) even on 4+ lbs trout, which to begin with are not so common around here, even on the Colorado River.
I do use the 7 wt on the Kenai River, AK for silver salmon (Coho) though, as it has more spine, which is needed for 10 lbs fish...
Curiously, I have never been tempted to fly fish in Africa. My inner reasoning is that I can fly fish 365 days/year in Arizona if I so wish, from tiny stream to large water to altitude lakes, so when I make it to Africa I really want to spend 100% of my time hunting.
As a matter of fact, I was on Big Lake, AZ (950 acres at 9,000 ft elevation, but happily with a primitive boat ramp) yesterday (snow and 41F air temperature), and I limited out in 3 hours on decent rainbows with a 5 wt and streamers. I typically release everything I catch in mountain streams as the populations are under pressure, not to mention those protected such as Gila and Apache trout, and the fish are generally small, although a couple a large browns can be lurking, but Colorado River Lee's Ferry or "large" high altitude lakes have very healthy populations, and my wife had ordered a family trout dinner sometime during the Thanksgiving holidays
Big Lake, AZ: 950 acres at 9,000 ft elevation, but happily with a primitive boat ramp, by 41F weather on November 22.
14" to 16", 1.5lb to 2lb rainbows: perfect for a family trout dinner sometime during the Thanksgiving holidays.
