Lake Trout Open Water Rod

[TK Tack]

Building a new rod for someone that fishes Lakers in the summer. Been researching and found a lot of opinions, I'm leaning towards a Rainshadow RX9 blank with aluminum reel seat and full cork rear grips. Would be a bait caster so I'm spinning up an acid wrap since this is a vertical jigging rod. Might be a little overkill but for $215 in material costs, seems like a really nice rig. Thoughts?

[Northlander]

For vertical jigging lakers I like a 7' to 7'9" medium with a fast tip. I like a spinning rod but a baitcaster will also work fine. $215 is pricey for a rod like that in my opinion. I have many other rods that are in the $120 range that work just fine. Being custom though you get what you pay for. If I had a choice I would go Batson over rainshadow though.