Mainly at fly fishing shows, I've gotten a bunch of rods out and cast them. And you pick em up without looking, cast, pick up another, cast, etc. It's the best way to compare rods.
1. My absolute #1 favorites have always been expensive rods. When designed for what I like, they are better rods.
2. My least favorites have often been expensive rods as well. The ones you say, man, this one's terrible... They've been designed for someone else. And whatever it is I don't like, they do it better too, lol.
3. Low-mid range rods often have an "eh, it's fine" factor. They don't blow me away but they're perfectly fine tools. Nothing overly wowing, nor overly off-putting.
4. And most important. This is casting back to back to back and paying attention to fine differences. If 2 rods are designed how I like it, for me, I may pick up a $200 rod and say "I like that", then pick up a $800 and say "ok, that's even better." Just because I could actually tell the difference, when casting them back to back, and really paying attention to the differences. That doesn't mean that the $200 rod isn't going to do everything I would ever ask it to do on a stream. I don't pretend the $800 rod is going to catch me more fish or give me more enjoyment while fishing. I am perfectly happy to get the $200 rod I liked well enough and spend the other $600 on gas/lodging to go fishing... It's like guns. The expensive rifles are prettier, and, in general, last longer, break down less, and hold a little better group too. Will the cheap rifle do the job? Yep. Are the expensive ones objectively better? Yes. Is a rifle that costs 5x as much, 5x better? No, not unless you're talking dangerous game or something. And yeah, there are expensive rifles that don't fit the purpose too. You don't take a groundhog gun elephant hunting, just like you don't toss heavy streamers into the wind with a finesse dry fly rod, nomatter how good of a finesse dry fly rod it is.
But not sure me casting would be applicable to what she'd like anyway.
