I had a 10 1/2 foot Fenwick HMG 11 weight fly rod blank made into a downrigger/float road 30 years ago. It's a great rod for fighting fish, very forgiviing, and I've got springs up to 36 lbs on it and loads of steelhead. You have to be careful tripping the line off the downrigger as it hasn't the strength in the butt section of other rods. Unfortunately, the wife of a fishing buddy broke the last 4 inches off the tip one day. Nowadays I prefer my Loomis GL2's for springs off the downrigger. Hope this helps.