Hey Steve, Thanks for the input. I actualy have a heartland of my own and I agree its a pretty sweat rod. I have mostly been using it for my smaller swimbaits. The 6.5" charlie casts like a dream on that rod. I just got a new okuma and was hopping to find a good application to put a few fish on the new rod. I figured that it was a bit much for the smaller baits. I bought the okuma for throwing the hudd's. for some reason the fish at my local lagoon wont touch the hudd.x(. I just keep throwing it any way. I guess I will just have to wait for a trip to oregon to catch a fish on my new swimbait rod. (pretty sad huu) Nice fish by the way. Did you catch it in the snow?