Garsays,
I was fortunate that I had a local flyfishiing show that I could cat alot of rods in one place. I settled on a Elkhorn 6wt. Better casting rod (for me) than anything else near that price range. I only casted 6wts. I you are wondering about different rods my suggestion is to never buy anything you personally have not cast. Also I there are some rods I have that If I would of known how to cast well at the time I would not of bought. I wish I would have spent more time learning how to cast with my first rod before investing in any more.
just my 2 cents,
Jeff