This afternoon I decided to test the rod armed with nanofil and a 2oz lead,just to get adjusted to this type of fishing.What hit me most was the casting distance,totally gob smacked!No effort at all the rod,reel and Nanofil casted further than I truely expected,biggest problem...eye sight lol damn trying to hook up was hard work but thats no fault of the equipment just my eyesight,too many hours and years manually drawing and now using CAD really screws your eyes,Age no...nothing to do with it..lol,Anyway I was extremely happy with the performance of everything,so now I need the water to heat up by 2C and hopefully fish on.The surface ice broke away last week so obviously its still cold,what is interesting is that back in Shoreham thefirst mackeral was bagged,that is early,and the long nose silver trapeze artists,garfish are appearing as well..looks like we are on for a good year folks,fingers crossed and tight lines...by the way,those that don't de-barb,unless you are fishing for the final result in the kitchen why not,it's easier to de-hook as well...and if you fish properly,its not a problem ;)