Re: impact of rod color?
Clearly, I did a poor job of explaining the issue and any attempt to clarify would only make things worse, but I feel compelled to try.
The true question is in the impact of overlining with willow color and underlining with yellow or orange, since the rod weight impacts distance and accuracy in the shade matched to the reel exponentially. See?
Then, when switching from LFW to RHW because of shifting wind and current conditions the anglers finds himself in a consolidation conundrum, of sorts.
If willow color (wc) is in the LHW mode and the shade is agressively asserting itself, then (((wc*lhw)/wind)/.033)=angler IQ
I think it's pretty simple, as long everybody agrees that the 9504 Zaxis is the best 5 wt ever made, except if you're not a sage guy....then it's probably a featherlite if you consider cost/utility in Texas as opposed to Tucson, where it's snowing on the match play.