Love, love, love this rod! The extended foam grip is amazing. I'm actually not an angler! I'm a professional bubble performer. We (many of my colleagues also use B&M rods) often need very long, light, stiff rods to make our massive bubbles and B&M rods are ideal. My only criticism would be the butt end not screwing off like the BW series and most telescoping rods. We always need to remove the last whippy section so I had to cut a hole in the bottom. Not a big deal, just sayin' ;-)