I fish a lot in the surf in and sound in NC, throwing mostly artificials for reds, spanish, trout. I have a great rod that I built for throwing jigs and light baits, but I need a longer rod for throwing Mirrolures, stingsilvers, heavier (1/2 oz. plus) jigs, Top Dawgs... things that stretch my 7' rod too far. I was speaking with Andy Dear about the 8 or 81/2 Salmon/steelhead rods, but most of those are 2 piece. Rainshadow has a Musky rod that is 7'9" and seems like it would be ideal, but I have never used a musky rod for any building situations. Would one of these rods be better than the other for this application?

Look no further, the Graphite USA Surf Assassin in either the light or medium version. Both 10' long, very, very light, very slim, fast action. You will have a hard time beating one of these for what you want to do. Do yourself a favor and take a look at one. You won't be disappointed.

These are two piece rods with offset ferrules. I think the butts are about 3' in length.

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For an 8' rod, the Rainshadow IP 965 is great as well. I've used it hard this year and caught probably close to 75 red's on it and it's held up very well. It's good for mirror lures, grubs, and up to about 1.5 ounces. I fished it mostly with 1oz and bait this fall for the reds with a stradic 2000. It's got a very light tip and still lots of backbone to handle larger fish. I landed one red that was 36" with it. Looking forward to catching some more spec's with it as the season progresses, and hopefully a striper or two. I really can't say enough about this rod, it's just great.

Dan,
Here's yet another blank worth considering. I built a striped bass spinning rod for a guy in Jersey that sounds familiar to what your needs are.
The blank was a Seeker SPS78 7'8" 12-30 lb one-piece. I wasn't able to actually fish with it but it had a very nice and solid feel to it. I think the blank was gloss black if I remember correctly. It also cost a small fortune to ship. Randy.

Randy
I have shipped to Cal, and Alaska, I'm in Jersey, now there is a small fortune. Think I only lack two or three states now .

I'll second the GUSA surf assasin. I picked up a medium model strickly for throwing large sluggos and 1/2 oz swimming plugs at stripers. Its a fast action blank thats very light in the hand. The 3 ft butt section is tough to get used to visually...but I'm getting used to it.