E-glass report

I started a new thread on the batson e-glass one piece blanks because I wanted to update everyone on my experience with metal ferrules on the SpG780 blank. I installed a nickel plated brass ferrule, size 19-20 I obtained from jannsnetcraft. cost was $2.49. The ferrule was situated 28.5 inches from the butt of the rod, leaving 49.5 inches in the tip section. My reasoning was that I wanted to maintain as much rodflex integrity as possible with a metal ferrule. I installed the ferrule using regular flexcoat rod epoxy. I used a cheap reelseat, a cheap full wells grip, black snakes, a #8 stripping guide, and an oversize tip top, because thats what i had and I didn't want to put any money into an experimental rod. After winding the black blank with charcoal thread, i used two coats of flexcoat regular.
Okay, my first casting was done with a #5 wf line since i had tested the ERN according to the "cents' method and had determined the ERN of 5.3. The five weight line made me want to cut the rod up and make tomato stakes out of it. It cast terrible.
Next I went to a #6wf line and it was like daylight and dark; exactly opposite than with the 5 weight line. It cast very good, distance wise out to about 55-60 feet, but more importantly it cast very well in the 30-40 foot range, loading easily with the #6.
I'm not satisfied with the ferrule placement. The rod was "tipsy" in that it felt like i was casting one of the cabelas PT rods, stiff butt and limber tip. There needs to be a little more moderation in the two. I think it would be good for playing small fish, good for pinpoint accuracy, but with my casting style, the rod was still a little too fast for fiberglass. Perhaps a #7 line would be better. I think i will locate the ferule just a little further up on the rod, toward the cnter to moderate, just a little bit, the flex of the tip and the butt. Comments, questions, criticisms are welcome-p-