Unless the canal is your primary territory, a GSB1321M is the standard for an 11 foot plugging rod, and for very good reasons.
Built with new small light guides it is every bit the equal of anything else out there. It won't cast quite as far as some blanks, but it will have a wider weight range and be more comfortable to fish than most longer casting options (that gain distance by stiffening the mid section which requires more effort to load...at 3-5 oz that takes its toll as the night wears on).
A lot of this comes down to where you fish, what you throw, and what your casting style is.
Bottom line is that the Lami GSB's, XRA's, the St Croix Mojo and Legend, the CTS and Century blanks all make superb rods. Turns out it has more to do with how light and small you wrap them than the blank itself. Don't buy a rod that uses anything larger than a K 30 as the first guide and a size 10 or 12 as the third guide otherwise you are losing out on what a rod can do.
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