I got to take the new rod out for the first time yesterday.
It's a 9'4 piece Pac bay Rainforest 8wt that I started well over a year ago. I finally got around to finishing it and I'm sure glad I did.
I met a friend(a hardware fisher) at a weedy pond,we launched our canoes, and prepared to do battle with largemouth bass.
The new rod performed like a champ. I built as a back up to my other 8wt but I'm afraid it's going to be the otherway around.
It had enough backbone to haul a couple of 3 pounders out of the salad and could accurately toss my foam diver into the tightest cover.
I used a spinning rod reel seat and a bottle cork for a fighting butt. The whole thing ran about 60 bucks and it looks great.

By the way, my buddy who was using sluggos and rubber worms only caught one dink largemouth.
It was a good way to break in the new stick.