I have found several tapers for the PHY Midge rod and all of them seem to be quite different from each other, I am thinking of a 2 piece either 4 wt or 5 wt.  Any suggestions about what your favorite is?  (Don Green)

My favorite is the one in Jerry Foster's Rodmakers site,  it's a 4 wt. I make both it and the Perfectionist with a swelled but 'cause I can't stand having the grip bend under my hand.   (John Channer)

I like the Young Midge taper from The Lovely Reed.  It's a nice crisp 4 wt.  (Paul Julius)

Is the Para 13 the lightest line weight of the Para series.  (Gary Nicholson)

Wasn't the 14 the lightest and the 13 was named and made by a modern maker by modifying one if the other para models?  (Jim Lowe)

PHY was constantly playing and experimenting - one never knows what might turn up. Wayne Cattanach has an interesting tale or two. Wayne has stated that he has seen one (and only one) PHY Para 13. To the best of my knowledge, the Para 13 taper that is floating around was first posted by Brian Creek from dimensions given to him by Wayne, presumably taken from that rod.  (Larry Blan)

Isn't  the perfectionist a Para rod with a #13 ferrule? (the ferrule size depending on whichever perfectionist taper you accept as accurate).  A Para 13 with a cooler moniker...and fine rods as to be sure!  (Rob Hoffhines)

Can anyone tell me what length this was and pass on the taper please.  If anyone has it.  (Gary Nicholson)

Paul Young Para 13 submitted by: Carlin Rod Length: 84.00 Line Weight: 4 Number of Sections: 2     Station Dimension 0 .066 5 .080 10 .100 15 .116 20 .133 25 .148 30 .165 35 .184 40 .201 45 .214 50 .225 55 .232 60 .240 65 .250 70 .261 75 .273 80 .289 85 .298

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

(Timothy Troester)

Thanks for that.  I'm confused, is the rod only 7ft ?  (Gary Nicholson)

That is the way it looks to me. some of the tapers I found listed around various places I think need to be interpreted or translated or guess about but I think this one is straight forward 7'.  do you do your work across the pond in inches or centimeters? just curious.  (Timothy Troester)

Since my name is attached to this I had better let everyone know the history. :)

This particular Para 13 taper was posted on Clark's in early 2006 along with a pair of alternate Para 14 tapers, all of which were supposedly mic'd from rods.  The original post seems to no longer be there so I'm going from memory here.  No mention was made of subtracting for varnish, but looking at the other P14 tapers given, it looks like that has already been done.  However, a few people have mentioned that this rod looks heavy as some seem to think the P13 was a 3/4 wt whereas this is more of a 5 wt.  Others say the P13 was a specialty rod and not just a line weight lighter than a P14.  I have no idea, so please treat the numbers with the suspect they deserve.

It was specifically stated to be a 7' rod.  Below is the original post with the other P14 tapers included.

Para14  Para14 #2 Para13   7'9"   7'8" 7' 0 0.072 0.072 0.066 5 0.088 0.084 0.080 10 0.100 0.100 0.100 15 0.117 0.116 0.116 20 0.133 0.134 0.133 25 0.150 0.150 0.148 30 0.167 0.166 0.165 35 0.183 0.184 0.184 40 0.200 0.200 0.201 45 0.210 0.216 0.214 50 0.221 0.224 0.225 55 0.231 0.234 0.232 60 0.240 0.240 0.240 65 0.248 0.248 0.250 70 0.257 0.256 0.261 75 0.265 0.266 0.273 80 0.273   0.272 0.289 85 0.285 0.275 0.298 90 0.285 0.275   93 0.285

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

(Chris Carlin)

Here's an Excel file (Young Paras) to a list of Young tapers from the RodDNA database if that helps.  Unfortunately, the "para 13" isn't included.  I've stratified the list into parabolic and other designs.  That's beyond the scope of the question since you specifically asked about the "para" series.  But I thought it might be interesting to see all the parabolic Young's sorted by line weight.  I've defined parabolic designs as tapers with average diagonal values greater than five percent.

This is a FlexRod download.  For folks that are not familiar with FlexRod, read the intro on my blog first.  Return to this e-mail when you're ready to download the file.  There is no link to the Paul Young file on the blog.  This is a temporary file.  I'll delete it in a few days.

Here's the link to the Paul Young file.  (David Bolin)

Just reviewing the tapers on Hexrod, looking at the two tapers for the PHY Perfectionist.  One is from Chris Obuchowski, the other from Wayne Cattanach.  These are radically different tapers!  Wayne's measures 12.99/64 at mid and takes, of course, a size 13.  Chris' version measures 3.95/64 at mid and takes a 14!  While the stress curves are similar, they certainly are not the same.  Did Paul Young vary that much on a given design or am I missing something here?  (Bob Brockett)

You are not missing anything.  Both are great rods, IMHO.  One is a 4 wt.,  the other a 5 wt. (or a very fast 4 wt).  Made 'em both, like 'em both.  The 14 ferrule rod is really an all-around type rod, while the 13 ferrule is more of a dry fly rod, at least for me.  (Paul Julius)

Y'know what, guys, I'm going to have to take up a collection for Lenscrafters.  Reading over these again, on Chris O's taper, it reads as a 7642 at the top, but in the description beneath he does list it as a 5 wt. Still, if you compare the tip sections and butts with Wayne's, they're still a bit strange for the same taper.  Thanks for your insight here, guys.  And Paul has made them both!   And they work fine.  There you go!  (Bob Brockett)