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Rod Selection - Midge Rods

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I have looked multiple places and all of the midge tapers I see are different?  I’m sure everyone’s responses to my question will be different as well.

Which midge taper do you use and do you have a particular reason why?  (Greg Reeves)

I like the PHY Midge from The Lovely Reed.  It is 6'3" & is a nice, crisp DT4 which casts well from my feet out to 45 feet.  It is sweet.  (Paul Julius)

I have a 6' Farlow-built Midge rod designed by Lee Wulff, which I bought from Norm Thompson back in 1969 for $35.

It throws a 5 or 6 wt line very nicely, and one is little handicapped at all in covering big water using this diminutive 2 oz. rod.  It has a superb fast action, and flexes to right down under the cork grip. It is not, perhaps, ideal for very big streamers or salmon flies, but otherwise it actually does make a very satisfactory all-around rod.  I think it's one of the great rod designs.  Orvis made a version of this rod, too.  On the whole, I'd rather own the Farlow.  (David Zincavage)

I like the AJ Thramer 6ft 4wt DX taper.

It seems a little faster than the Young Midges. Anyway it fishes well for me. I've built 2 and a third stretched to 6ft 3in.  (Frank Stetzer, Hexrod, Taper Archive, Rodmakers Archive)

I use the Lee Wulff 6' Midge,  2 piece, with a ferrule size of 12/64.  I use it because it is a sweet rod that is a pleasure to cast and because it allows me to choose from a #4 line to a #7 line depending on fishing conditions and just how far I want to cast.  I have been told that Lee Wulff  caught a 22 pound salmon on one of these.  The fish I catch in the mountains of East Tennessee  are  usually under  12" rainbow trout.   I like parabolic rods and that's just what this is so that's another reason I like it. 

For Brett and anyone else who wanted the taper, here it is:

Tip         

0          0.072
5          0.090
10        0.106
15        0.118
20        0.134
25        0.154
30        0.165
35        0.184
36        0.187

Butt

40        0.200
45        0.213
50        0.217
55        0.224
60        0.236
65        0.238
70        0.240
72        0.240

I got this taper from Paul Blakley who got the taper from a friend's rod.  I have made a few slight changes to make things easier for the way I set up my planing forms.  If you have any questions feel free to e-mail me off line or in a post if you think others will be interested.  (Hal Manas)

Is this measured over varnish?  (Christian Meinke)

No.  These rods were "Duracane" which is a nice way of saying impregnated.  No varnish.  I use an oil finish on all of my rods.  Sometimes I use tung oil and sometimes I use Tru-Oil.  I always wax over the finished rod.  I often use Nelsonite to impregnate my blanks.  I have built this rod both ways and it works fine either way.  (Hal Manas)

The original Lee Wulff was impregnated. Impregnation makes a rod approximately 1 to 1.5 times stiffer than a comparable non impregnated rod.  (Gary Nicholson)