Today there's a bitting, howling upstream wind, rain, and damn cold - perfect steelhead and line testing weather.
When going conventional on Dredgers, I like to go light enough to have them feel more like crisp Scandi rods, yet not so light that distance suffers and I have to start pushing the cast to make it work.
I've found that when casting overhead, Dredgers like their upper rating number in single hand, overhead lines. So I tried an AFTMA conventional line (Airflo Striper) and a distance taper (Echo Sphere) WF-8-F. The rod could overhead cast both a decent distance into the teeth of the wind, though they suffered when I tried a Single Spey into the wind. Crosswind, the distance taper wasn't bad with a Circle Spey, but the shorter tapered WF-8-F didn't do much. The conclusion from this was the WF-8-F distance line was best overhead and marginal as a Spey line. A WF-9-F distance line would probably be a better all round line.
I also brought a 9wt. Airflo 40+ Extreme that turned out to be bang on for Spey casting. The head on this is very close to 400 grains, which I think should be the target for a Scandi head. Unfortunately I don't have one yet, but I think that the 390 Compact Scandi would fly on the GLX 7/8.
I could drive a Single into the wind with the 40+, getting about 60' with half-decent leader turnover. If I had had a fly on the end and not a big piece of yarn, the turnover probably would've been better. Crosswind when using the Circle went a whole lot better, getting well over 70'. Nice crisp feel with no Skagit heaviness, yet loaded more than well enough for distance without feeling the need to push it.
So conclusion: WF-9-F Distance line if we want a mix of overhead and Spey casts, a Scandi head around 400 or an Airflo 40+ Expert or Extreme 9 wt. for mainly Spey casting.