[fleming13]

I have fished an Orvis full flex tight loop for about 12-13 yrs and have no intention of giving it up. For trout anyway. What I have noticed with the full flex is that I can cast an 8 ft leader with only 1-2 ft of fly line off the end of the rod. This makes the full flex a very effective tool in tight spots, which covers most of WNC. I bought a tip flex 8 wt to bass fish with and the faster line speed really helps lay out a big mouse pattern that I fish. Although if you miss time the cast it all ends up in one big wad about 10 ft away .

[FitFisher]

I haven't cast a lot of the higher end rods so take it for what it's worth.
The only high end rod I've cast was a B2x and it was a little too limp for me.(for me) I've only been fly fishing for 20 months so again, thats just me. I know great fishermen who say thats the best rod they've ever casted, thats what "they" said.
My main rod is a TFO Professional 8'6 5wt. At first I really didn't like it much(cabelas purchase so no testing before I bought it) but now I like it a little more everytime I use it. I can tell I'm getting more accustomed to finding and feeling where the rod loads and I love it. It's supposed to be medium fast action but I've heard people review it as fast. That probably depends on what you're used to casting. I'm finding that that I'm longing for a faster rod more and more and yes longing would best describe the feeling(dang this addiction!). I throw alot of lead and double nymph rigs/buggers with a fluffy indicator and mainly just flip the line from downstream to upstream and having a stiff fly rod really gets that done. I like being able to throw line really fast, but thats just what makes me happy while casting on a river, just me.

[czkid]

For the blue lines try a 7-8ft, 4wt, bamboo rod. Check in with Bo Cash on this forum and he'll take you and show you the kind of rods I'm talking about. I get over to W NC a couple times a year and try to fish with Bo on those little stairstep streams. It's a lot of work, but worth it. We use nothing but bamboo in order to be able to handle the short distances and accurate casts required.

[racine]

I'm thinking that you purchase a rod for it's intended purpose and then work in your technique to cast that rod for the given need. When I started with med cortland rods I didn't understand casting and thus had mediocre results. I though fast rods could cast the line where and how far I needed. Fast forward and with some improvement I now realize that fast can get the line out but medium can also equally well. I'm moving to medium rods again for freshwater but keeping my salt rod fast (BIIX). I trialed several 8wts for salt and found the BIIX the slowest but the lightest also. I'm sure it's labeled fast but compared to the TFO TiCrX, Sage Xi, Scott X2s it is slow. However I've found it much easier on my tendons and joints to cast and given the same conditions in 15knot winds casting all 4 rods I was somehow able to cast the Winston 100ft consistently but only 90 with the other 3 and with a bit more effort? I just purchased a Sage SLT 3wt and hope it can handle casting softly from 10-20ft. I'm also back to enjoying my older Sage 6 wt VPS that I initially struggled with and find it casting well to 20-90 ft. Learning for me is a never ending passage and I don't mind adapting...