I'll throw in what I know about the fastrac.The color I've been using is black and silver also. I've been throwing the 5.5" because I think its easier to cast (heavier) and has a little better action than the 4.5".I ordered them from lurenet.com and it took about 2 weeks to get them, but I just found out that insidesportfishing.com has them cheaper ($4.67-4.5 $5.19-5.5).They're in california and said shipping would take 1-7 days,so that seems pretty good.And yes bass gear works fine I've been switching between my curado and an abu garcia eon on a 7'6" rod, and it seems to be working fine. Hope this helps.
-PHIL