I wanted my dad to get better gear since most of his... well all of his stuff is junk. So I told him to pick out some Lighting Shocks since they're probably some of the better choices when it comes to a budget rod. Well I took it out all this month. I worked with the 6'6" Medium/Fast and put a Curado 51E on it with 8lb copoly. Fished it several times this month and satisfying results. Although my area sucks for bass right now I did hook up on a bunch of trout, crappie, perch, pickerel in the 1lb range and a couple pickerel in the 2-3lb range. Mainly using inline spinners, swim jigs/baits ranging from 1/16th to 1/4" the rod held together nice and provided enough strength and action for an enjoyable time, to the point when I built more confidence in the rod. I must say I'm impressed with the price vs performance of this rod. At the time, late last year purchased, they were somewhere in the range of $30-35 at cabelas.