Well another site to put my bad luck on or hex on. I had a friend(mtlhead) build me a rod for the winter time. It was built on a St Croix Avid blank. It is a 9' 6" 8wt. While you are looking to get a Gloomis think about a St Croix the're also in that price range.

While I'm on this subject I am going to add that I can't seem to cast anything with this rod. I have a Rio versitip system. And Sunday I was trying to cast a weighted fly and all I seemed to do is just lob it. I thought that if you had the bigger rod,bigger flies would cast alright.