Several years ago I watched one of the regulars on this site casting from a distance. He didn’t know that I was watching him, but I marveled at his casts. Then saw him catch a fish. Soon after that he caught another. More than others that were fishing nearby.
Sometime later that day I talked to him and learned that his rod was shorter than I would have expected for that large river we were fishing, and it was an inexpensive rod. He knew the river well though and knew the fly that would catch fish that day. It was apparent that his casting ability, and knowledge of the best fly to use were more important than having an expensive fly rod.
I’m not going to try to influence anyone one way or the other about owning an expensive or an inexpensive fly rod; I own some of both, and I’m only a moderately good caster. I would recommend however that you examine any rod before buying it. Cast it, and if it feels good and casts well for you buy the best rod that you can afford AND feel comfortable with owning it. There’s a lot more to enjoying fishing than the amount of money that you spend for your fly fishing gear.
It’s a little off the subject, but I’m reminded of the time that I worked in Ferrari, and talked to the company’s warranty manager about some quality problems with the cars. He said “you don’t buy a Ferrari for the quality, you buy it for the mystique”. Or, another time when I was at one of the dealers who had a Rolls Royce on the showroom floor, and it was leaking oil on the floor. When I asked about the oil leak the sales manager said “Oh, they all leak oil.”
I suppose those expensive fly rods are in a way similar to those Ferrari’s and Rolls Royce’s. In part, you’re probably paying for some of their mystique, but over time you’ll find that they still have some quality problems regardless of what you pay to buy them.
