Dude I hate to say it, but the heartland rod is going to cost you fish on the hudd guaranteed. The tip is just too soft and not enough backbone. The Crucial extra heavy or the Okuma heavy would be a lot better option. I fish the Okuma heavy for that bait myself.

The reason everyone (myself included) learns the hard way on big bass is because big bass don't bite, fight, and pull like small bass do. And until you hook quite a few of them, you don't understand the dynamics of what is going on. People might catch hundreds of 2 to 6lb bass on a setup with few problems, and then they get drilled by a giant and all of a sudden things start to go wrong like bent hooks, pulled out split rings, broken line, not enough backbone in the rod, handle too small on the reel, etc. The easy thing to do is to chalk it up to bad luck but I say screw that! Bad luck happens, but the right gear can minimize the luck factor by orders of magnitude.

Honestly though, most people I meet and talk to are just too stubborn to listen to what I have to say about gear until they themselves get burned. Even then a lot of people stick to the gear they got burned on because 'it worked in fine in the past'. Hell I can't even get CV to change some of his swimbait gear and I've been bugging him about it since we started fishing together LOL. I personally don't understand that attitude, and I adapt my gear on an ongoing basis based on real concrete evidence. If I'm losing and missing fish, I change until the problem stops. If that means that I completely stop using a certain lure, then I stop using the lure. If that means I have to change knots or line styles or rods or reels or hookset angle or anything like that, I do it. My percentages this year are better than ever before as a result and you guys can do it to. Its not some big secret, its just trial and error.