>>922643use medical or kt tape on your fingers. are you using the dacron as your backing and running line?
use a 9wt on the 8wt. 8-9 weight are so close in size that spooling will be the same for backing amounts. if anything i would go with as much backing on the 8wt as you can since that most likely will be your heaver and youll possibly encounter bigger fish with that particular rod. I would go braid backing to dacron running to your shooting head. you can get a shit load of braid on so that you wont git spooled. and by the time your into the braid youll be on the reel so no problems stripping in a fish. set your leaders to be the weakest link so if it does happen that you have to pinch your reel you can get back your shooting head and running line.
mono stretches.
