was it really windy down there? we had hardly a breeze at all. in fact i was hoping it would pick up a little to cool things down.

yup, both the rigger rods and the lead core rods are eagle claw starfires. on the rigger rods, i have some okuma magda line counters. magda 30 i think they are. left handed too. the reels on the lead core rods are eagle claw. i can't remember what model they are, but they came as a rod/reel combo. got em through ktp.com last year.