I'm a plastic jerkbait nut and in addition to building rods, I pour all my own plastics. Stripers eat them like candy, caught 52 stripers yesterday on my 7 inch jerkbait. No keepers, but most nice chunks from 5-12 lbs, with maybe 6 pushing that magic 30 inch mark. My old standard was built on a Lamiglass GLB841M blank, matched up with a Shimano 3500 Baitrunner. That's a great reel, good drag, casts well and isn't all that heavy. I spool up 30# spiderwire, which allows me to cast my baits a country mile.
This winter I built myself another 7 footer on a Lamiglass GW84ML, because I wanted a lighter action to have some more fun. I'm using a Quantum E3-4 spinning reel, again with the 30# spiderwire. Man I just love that outfit and so far it's not been out-matched and I've caught them up to 20 lbs this year. It's a ball, even if the stripers are running smaller in the 5-10 lb range.
When I'm dragging live eels to double my efforts, I'm using the same GLB841M but casting and with an Ambassadour 6500. Now if I were surf fishing and needed more capacity, then those spinning reels probably would not be suitable. They work for me and when (hopefully<img src="/Images/Wink.gif"><!--e3-->) I get the big one on that light Quantum reel, I've got my 55# thrust Great White trolling motor to help me keep from getting spooled, lol.
Good luck and tight lines.