Joe Bradley Fly Rods Quiry

[Boo.fiberglass]

I cast his Para 14 & 15. As it's been several months since I last cast his rods I can't give specifics and have only postive generalizations which your not asking for. But, I did like them. I liked his 8'/4wt progressive the best! So much so, I plan to order one soon.
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[Tim Anderson]

I have tried casting several of Joe's rods and found them nice to cast.  That includes some of both his progressive and parabolic tapers.  Joe is a long-time builder and his prices are reasonable and, if I did not build my own rods, I might well buy one of his.

       Tim

[Booman2]

I see him often at the Metolius show and always cast a rod or two of his. I've owned a couple para-15's built by Paul Young, and found Joe's tapers similar, and excellent rods in all respects.  He has one personal/demo rod with a cheap " Two Buck Chuck" cork wine bottle reel seat that I've been wanting for years. It's hard to quantify his tapers as opposed to PHY since the former had so many variations. However, if I was looking for a new rod by a high level maker with decades of experience, he'd be on my short list for sure.

[tbc1415]

Regarding his 7'9" 5wt proprietary Para 14 taper. Will you except taper descriptors such as coherent, cohesive, well developed, refined or as stated in the previous post "excellent in all respects"? All these terms apply.

I've only cast it twice, one year apart. Both times the rod had a lasting impression on me as a particularly successful taper among many others during the weekend show at the Metolius. Now, five months after the last show I am still haunted by it. Really great complex tapers are a difficult thing to achieve if you are looking for something more refined than just a line launcher. They must be as they are few and far between.


TC