I wouldn't break the bank to fish the canal. Use your rod with the stradic 8k and you should be fine. I have caught a few 20lb fish on a stradic 6000 in the canal, it wasn't ideal but got the job done. You should be able to reach the fish with that rod. If you wind up going there a lot you will get distance envy pretty quick and try to gear up for distance. Then again its likely the fish will be on the other side.
