I have been searching for a while now for a 14ft rod for fishing rivers, currently using a mach 3 xt which performs well but is not quite there, bit too waggler for stick and avon floats on the Dorset rivers, the Matchpro ultralight 14ft didnt suit, as didnt the conny Daiwa. Always seem to come back to the shimano xmr at 13ft. Are the carbo, tricast etc rods a real step forward, do they have the balance and feel of a 13ft rod at 14ft or are they also not quite there yet? The other burning question is durability, I seem to have a knack for breaking rods on the bank (Normark being particulaly suceptable to my ineptitude, I have managed to break 3), would this be more of an issue with these high end rods?