I have a 10"6' st.croix matched to the neptune and it's awesome. At first, I loved the handle but now after fighting many Stripers over the last 2 weeks, I have to say that the handle needs to be fixed. It has this balancing system that keeps it on one side at all times. In the middle of a fight I tried to adjust the rod a bit and I grabbed the wrong side of the handle and almost lost the fish.. All in all, it's an awesome reel. SOL has them but you can get them real cheap at netmarket.com.. Goodluck.
ErikT
Oh yeah, to answer your question, it's not too big..
