Just an observation from the weekend and certainly not having a pop at anyone....
A chap next to me hooked a fish and started to play it. Within 20-30 seconds I hit into a fish....and in the time it took me to land my fish, make a few further casts and land and release another 2 trout, the gentleman next to me finally landed his fish.
I play my fish hard and my 5 weight (tip flex) was bent double whilst his rod, obviously a fast taper jobbie, only had the top third bent over. He appeared to be applying the same pressure but the fish seemed to be giving him the run around. All the fish he hooked took a long time to get in, as did his mates..again with a fast action rod.
My experience of fast action rods is that they not only play the fish, but also the angler. I have and still use some very tippy rods and feel that the lever effect works against the angler. A more through action rod stops a fish in its tracks and you can really clamp down and hold a fish hard without fear of the line snapping or the hook pulling.
I later changed to a 7 weight "tippy" rod (due to the howling gale) and started to bump fish constantly as the bloody thing just would not absorb the lunges and runs of the fish, popping hooks out of the trouts mouth.
Anyone feel the same way??