Hello Bud,
I find that it's not the "wrong rod for the fisherman" but "it's the wrong rod for the task at hand". I have a collection of multiple rods, and when I go fishing it's usually for 14-16 hrs with a break for food or the restroom. Thus, I've gotten to know all my fly rods very well from the time I've spent with them on the stream fishing. What I've conculded is that one rod cannot do everything well, but it can certainly be the best at what it was designed for.
The rod makers would be jumping with joy if they could sell each and everyone of us our "own" rods. So back to Euro nymphing, I'm finding that it takes a lot of wrist movement to lob those flies, and since it's short lining I'm also finding that often my arm is extended so I can place myself further away from the prey. I've just started researching this myself, and to this date the Hanak seems to be the only make that takes into consideration the importance of balancing.
Update: 10/31/2012 - I ended up taking off the weight I added to the end of the rod. It was PVC tubing with an end cap and filled with enough tungsten powder (from a Golf Shop) to balance the rod. I fished it like this for a weekend. It was no better than the heavy tip with the stock setup. With weight hanging off the back, swinging this rod was like swinging a dumbell with the weights concentrated off the ends. In the end I sized up the reel, and added enough lead wire so that the whole reel assembly (wire, backing, flyline) weighed in at 8.5 ounces. This placed the balance point about an inch below the top of the cork handle. With the weight closer to my hand it was a lot easier to swing now.
Since I had to chop up the original cork butt, I replaced it with a Pacific Bay removable fighting butt, model FM2. A much sturdier assembly.
I've also recently gotten into Spey casting, and in researching the gear setups for this type of fishing, I found that they (Experts at Spey casting) recommend that you size up the reel wt by 2. Thus, if you have a 6wt rod, you size up the reel to an 8/9 wt. With this in mind I sized up the TFO BVK 3wt 10' I've been trying to balance above to a 6/7 wt reel.
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