I use my 10 foot 5 weight in the application that you are mentioning. I don't think that the Greys rod will perform as you expect it will. I will say that the Greys is an excellent rod for traditional casting. I like the usual GPX or the RIO Selective Trout taper. I am not sure if the RIO line that I mentioned comes in the 3 weight though. I know that the GPX goes. You might want to give that line a try.