Hello Spug,
This is the first post from you I have come across, I always enjoy reading a post like yours. Have you ever followed an artist's work from the first paintings that went into prints right up to the latest offering? I have, and often times I see the early work as being the best, as they progress there seems to be a greater effort to make the painting look more like a photograph. It seems that the early efforts are the product of passion and the later a continuing endeavor to produce something better than the last. I hope I'm not losing you with this, there is a correlation between what I see in outdoor art and fly rods. I have the advantage of having come of age as a fly rodder at the same time that graphite was introduced as a fly rod material. The thoughts I will share here are only personal observations and preferences and not meant to be taken as the result of some sort of real data collection that would resemble a true research.
It would seem that the early graphite rods (some of them) were just about as good as a fly casting tool could get. By the late 1980's marketing became a driving force more so than at earlier times in our history. The rod makers may have slid into the groove whereas the thinking was that; if every year you did not offer some new & improved version of the fly rod, your sales would suffer. For the most part the scheme worked. Every new design, taper, higher modulus, and flashy name was accepted and diligently bought up by the angling market. With each new season of production and marketing there was also a new batch of would be fly fishermen to buy the new & improved rods. This trend reminds me of why a Great Horned Owl breeds in January. The idea is that by the time the eggs have been formed and deposited to the nest, then incubated, it will be the end of February or there abouts. The adults share the task of feeding and keeping the young warm. By the time the owlets are at the fledgling stage it is the end of April. Am I losing you again here? The whole of the design is that by the time the young owls are ready to begin learning to hunt it is May and there are litters of young rabbits and squirrels who are as inept at avoiding capture as the young owl is at catching them. The analogy is that the new crop of humans entering the fly fishing fraternity every year are similar to those young rabbits. If the rod manufacturers had to rely on fooling an old rabbit like me every spring they might go hungry.
Those anglers who owned the early graphite and also picked up some of the new sticks were privy to the differences. I watched as the rod makers supplied the shops with a seemingly endless lineup of new rods each with a new name. Most of the titles that were attached to the rods could have easily been affixed to a new missile technology of the times just as well as a fly rod. The claims made for the next generation each year were copious at the least. Faster was almost always part of the description, this was accompanied by other phrases like; vibration dampening, quicker recovery, higher modulus, and of course, more backbone. For a fellow who was only fishing, all of the new rods and the hyperbole that was flooding almost every magazine in the form of gear reviews was dizzying. I remember being at an Orvis store when a guy who enjoyed a certain level of localized fame as both an outdoor writer and fly casting authority was demonstrating the new rods on the lawn out back for a group of customers who had came for the casting clinic. I watched the demo but didn't fall in love with any of the rods that were purportedly allied with the same technology as the US Navy's submarine fleet. After the casting guest and the customers had went inside the store I tried some of the rods. They were very different than my old rod but there was no comparison as far as it having a better feel. I do admit that they were pretty snazzy though.
No doubt the new rods sell every year, this new technology is part of what fuels the used rod market on sites like eBay. Remember I said 'part' of what fuels sales not the sole reason rods are sold. I have many fly rods, I gave in to the desire to have rods that would be situation specific. In truth, there are but a handful of these rods that see use every season. Most of the rods I use are old and posses what would be considered a slow or full flexing action. Even with these rods that lack a 'flex rating' I can make as tight a loop as a fellow handling a brand new rod. I can cast as far as most people using a new generation rod while also being able to get the rod to do what it should do at close and medium ranges as well. The most interesting aspect of the old, slow rods is that I can present a very small dry fly or a size 2 salmon fly with them with equal ease Told rods seem to be all round fishing tools.
I'm happy that you found your way to something that will make your experiences while casting more enjoyable.
Ard