I have been looking for some time now for a new 8' rod to fish 5 and 6" swimbaits and the 7" plugs on. On Leif's advise I drove up to the Rod Rack in Hayward after work today. What a cool shop! They had pretty much every calstar blank that exists along with a big selection of Seeker, Graphite USA, Loomis, and Raid Shadow. I pulled all of the 8' Calstar's and Seekers. There were definitely some contenders. I liked the 196 Calstar. But then I picked up an 8' rainshadow blank and it just felt right. Interesting action sort of a stiff parabolic if that makes any sense. It's a composite rod, a good comparison would be an STH7 Castaway just longer and a little stiffer. The blank was the SW967 rated 12-25lb. Anyway for 42 bucks I said it's a deal. Can't wait to get it built and rip some lip.