Snig, your g/f dad and i would get along great!! for some reason i get sick when i think of the Loomis lifestyle. But i bet there nice and i'd like to have one. I have a 8.5ft Browning Syntec IM7 with an Okuma Epix EF40 Spin on it(i feel belittled now). Slow taper rod, good backbone, but the top 3 feet is unbelievably sensative, so much so i fish this rod for lake rainbows and they bend the hell out of it. Similar to a noodle rod. So when you drift this pole you can pretty much map the bottom into your memory cuz you can feel everything, and filter out that drag+tap+freefall feeling from all the normal tapin and dragin going on. The nibblers have no where to hide. Sharpen those hooks too.