Well as usual I am thinking about the right setup for throwing the big plugs. Here are my current thoughts. The 800L wrapped how I have mine, is killer killer for the 9 and 12 inch slammer. It is not killer for the 7 inch slammer or the 7 inch stocker trout altough I would use it in heavy heavy cover. If you are only going to own one rod, I would probably go with the 800XL. It might be kinda light for the 12 inch plug but should be adequate for the 7 and 9 inch. All around for bass fishing, you are probably going to be throwing the 7 and 9 inch more than anything else. I have also recently heard good things from Dale Ball and Mike Shaw about a rod made by graftec (don't know if I have the spelling right there). It's an 8 foot graphite blank that runs somewhere around 125 bucks which is a pretty good deal. I haven't checked one out yet but would like to see one. Apparently one of the shops in the Ventura area has them, maybe Erics?

I think that cork tape is a bad option on a plug rod. Using my Sabre 190-9 which has cork tape, I notice that unless I have a jacket on, that cork tape can chafe your forearm pretty bad after a few hundred casts. In the ocean I don't notice it because I generally make a lot less casts and don't have the resistance of the big plug on the end of the line. I know it's cooler to have cork tape but sometimes hypalon type grips are more practical. Pete shaved mine down pretty thin on my 800L and it feels and looks great. Something to think about.