Not all rods suit every caster. This is why we have everything from slow bamboo and glass to ultra fast graphite. Progressive tapers, mid flex, tip flex, the list of differences goes on. The variety of rods and casting styles is exactly why I hate hearing someone ask "which 5wt rod should I get?" and even worse is when people reply with a specific rod. What a complete waste of time. The rods I love to cast and fish are not necessarily the same ones someone else will. Plain and simple.
If you're looking for a new rod the best thing you can do is go down to your local fly shop, tell them your price range, and cast all the rods in that range. If the fly shop won't let you try a rod in the parking lot then it's time to look for a different fly shop. So what does this have to do with the five rods in the title? I've found that when I try rods out in the parking lot they fall into five categories.
The first category is the simplest. It's a rod that you just plain hate. You hate casting it at long distances, at short distances, into the wind, with the wind, you name it. This is probably a rod that just does not suit your casting style, which isn't to say it's necessarily a terrible rod as someone else may love it. It just isn't the rod for you. Glass rods like the Butterstick and Blue Halo fall into this category for me. They aren't bad rods, just not my style.
The second category is a bit more difficult. These are the "meh" rods. They cast ok but they don't thrill you at all. To me these are the Toyota Camry or Honda Accord of fly rods. You can buy this rod and fish it but you'll always wonder if you should've held out for something you liked more. I've experienced this with the BVK, NRX, and Helios 2. They cast ok but to me they were lacking something that I can't place my finger on.
So next we have a dangerous category. This is the rod that casts great in the parking lot but once you get it out on the water you come to hate it. For me this is caused by casting for distance in the parking lot. We've all done it - get out there and start double hauling to see how much line we can throw. That might be fine if you're buying a rod for flats fishing but not so much for trout rods. This happened to me with the 9' 5wt Sage Method. In the parking lot I was casting it a mile and it felt like it would cut through any wind. The only problem is that as an all around trout rod it was too stiff for casting shorter distances and didn't protect light tippet well at all when fishing dry flies. After this experience I always make sure to try casting rods I'm testing at shorter distances that I'm more likely to use when fishing for trout. These are the rods you often see posted for sale as "lightly used" or "only fished a couple of times".
The fourth category is a little more difficult. This is the rod that you don't like or maybe outright hate the first time you cast it but grow to love it. For me this was the Sage Circa. I'm pretty sure the first time I cast it that it had a heavier line on it and since it's a slower rod to begin with it just felt like garbage. The next time I tried this rod I brought my own line - a Rio Trout LT - with me because I was looking for a small stream dry fly rod. With the lighter weight line the Circa was suddenly a hell of a lot better than the first time I tried it. So if you can, bring your own line with you when testing a rod. Most fly shops seem to have either Rio Golds or SA GPXs as their demo lines so if you don't particularly like those lines then you're probably going to have a bad time. And also test the rods more than once preferably on different days.
The final rod is the holy grail. This is the rod that you love from the first time you pick it up and continue to love through every fishing situation. It's magical unicorns puking rainbows. This rod becomes the first one you reach for. You start questioning why you even own any other rods (but you'll never sell all the others because that would be crazy). If you find this rod it means that you've found the rod that suits your casting style almost perfectly. It lands your fly where you want it and you don't even have to look at the line while casting because you know it's going to go where you want. If you find this rod you need to hang on to it and not let it go for the next latest and greatest rod X (see what I did there?). This is the reason you find some people still fishing an RPL or old Fenwick glass rod (other than hipsters). I only recently found this rod after 20 years of looking.
So there you go. This is why you shouldn't bother asking people online which rod to buy unless you're just looking for a few recommendations on what to try, and you shouldn't just blindly reply to people who ask to go out and buy a TFO (or Sage or Loomis or Hardy or whatever). If you're a beginner, all of this is incredibly difficult to navigate. That's ok though because you may not have developed a casting style yet. Stick to a lower priced rod until you get a better feel for casting and when you're ready to buy another rod you'll have a better feel for them. Don't be afraid to fish a meh rod at first then later on you can figure the rest out.
