With the praise said rod has received from a few guys here on the fire, I'd say there's a better than average chance that he'll dig it. Mark, Scott, and Art all gave a thumbs up. That'd be good enough for me give a TFO a try...and I'm a Winston snob. The finesse series is described as having a traditional taper, and it sounds right up my alley. For $180 msrp and the no fault warranty it would be hard to go wrong.

http://www.templeforkflyrods.com/rods/finesse.html