Please keep Charles Smoote (Charles2, C2, a long time contributor on this and many fishing boards ) and his family in your prayers and thoughts. I received a email from his daughter this morning informing me that he had a stroke on the 16th of Dec and is a nursing home recovering plus he has MIRSA.
That is quite a large range of casting weight for a rod to cast well. While some rod companys may make that claim, I personally don't believe its possible with the materials that today's rod are built with . Its like finding a rod that will cast 2 oz as well as it can cast 20 oz. You would be better off looking for a rod whose casting weight range has a upper limit that is less than or equal to 3 times the lower limit.
This is just speculation on my part but the first production reel I know of was the "Ocean City Inductor 250 ModA" about 70 years ago. You can bet that there were reel jockeys pimping their reels with mags some time before that. There also was a quantum leap in competition distances around that time also. So I would say around 1940.
Here an old link where Neil addressed some of question.
http://www.stripersonline.com/surfta...d.php?t=369490
We use to take two sluggos, lay them side by side, weld them together from the head about 3/4 of way down. using a soldering iron to weld them together. Called them twin tail shads!
Equal parts by vol: hydrated Acho peppers paste, onions, and cubed beef brisket. Salt, Black pepper, garlic, roasted cumin and molasses to taste. Cook at least 12 hours on low until beef is fork tender.
Beans in Chile???????