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Try a bunch of reels to feel the difference. I go about the range described above, but lately I find myself moving my hand way down the grip so the reel is almost under the back of my palm which, obviously, is putting the balance point farther in front of my thumb and index finger. You know, the characteristics of fiberglass made fly rods past 9' uncommon, and for most fishing with line weights in common use for the time 5 through 9, and within that 6 through 8 most common of all, 'glass rods were typically in the 7' to 8 1/2' foot range, 8' not uncommon for the heavier lines. Part of that was the nature of the material in casting and playing fish, but a secondary reason is that by the time a 'glass rod is 9' long, it's hard to find any reel that balances it just forward of the hand. Get one heavy enough, or weight it enough, and you might as well use the outfit to thwack porcupines coming out from under your canoe. To get "lightness" in rods and put them in range to have some semblance of "balance," they had to be shorter than the norms graphite has conditioned us to. With most glass rods, reels 4 oz. to 6 1/2 oz will do, that being the common range of production reels of the time.