Thanks Eades. I'm pumped to start practicing on the pro qualifier. The dual braking system and just the total number of reviews on it sold me.

You're probably right on keeping cranks off a MHF rod... Never had anything over medium on my spinning rods. Everything ranging from UL to M. Just this season I've started experimenting with jigging and more finesse plastics and I feel like I'm missing a lot of fish. Main reason I'm wanting to give baitcasting a go... For all I know, it could just be due to slow reaction by me.

Also never have had anything over 6'6", I guess because I fish from a kayak and sometimes in smaller rivers the trees or branches can get in the way so I'm afraid of going longer than 6'6", but i feel like 7' is the standard for most people. Does 6 inches make that big of a difference in casting distance, hook sets, etc.?