Tom Littleton wrote:
Ken writes:
... An experienced caster can take a fly rod
out back of the fly shop, cast it and fully evaluate it in five or
ten minutes ... or less.

if you had thrown in the caveats that:
1.Said caster could evaluate it fully with
the given line type and weight at hand

I'll grant you this caveat. At the least, I like to cast three
lines, the stated weight, one weight under and one weight over
to fully evaluate a potential addition to the arsenal. (I can
do this in 5 minutes or less BTW.)

2. Said caster could evaluate the CASTING
(as opposed to fishing) qualities of the rod
and
3. casting quality is but a small portion of
the overall nature of a rod. ...

A fly rod does three things. It casts, it controls the line and
it plays the fish/protects the tippet. Of these casting quality
is BY FAR AND AWAY the most important. Casting quality is not
but a small portion of a fly rod's nature, it is the ESSENCE of
a fly rod's nature. Furthermore, the other two attributes can be
easily inferred by first, the rod's length, and second by the
nature of its casting quality.

--
Ken Fortenberry