Here are the 4 main things Jake looks for when test casting rods 1: Line is not slapping the blank or bunching up between guides 2: The rod actually casts far. The guides have to be in the correct places for each blank, with each real 3: As the reel spins, the line touches the whole inside of the first guide (stripper guide) 4: Static Deflection, or line lay, under load (while rod is bent) With these 4 things checked, you can be extremely confident that your custom rod will perform extremely wel