Thinking about this for the next light beach stick. To be used by Dad (me) until the kids wander down to take it from me after breakfast. Wondering:

What is the sweet spot? I know it's rated 1/2 to 1-1/2.
Will it lob 3oz okay?
How would you set it up conventional? I'm thinking 18" grip to back of seat; size 25 casting guide down to size 8 or 7 running guides.

Marty, I've got 3 of these rods and I'm about to build a 4th. That is a fantastic light surf rod. I believe that those blanks are rated 1 - 3oz. (at least the blanks that I've got are) and the sweet spot is 2oz. That being said we throw up to 4oz. with that blank all of the time. I'm wondering if you some how got a different model 1145 than what I've got. They aren't listed on the Batson site any more so I can't see what they have them rated for.

As for the setup, ours are all spinners so I'm not sure that I could be of much help with the conventional setup but will throw out my suggestions. For the butt length all of ours are measured from armpit to where we grip the reel seat. If I was building it conventional the center of the reel seat would be where my thumb ended up. This seems to give me a good balance of comfort as well as a butt length long enough to get good leverage on. 18" seems pretty short. I'm a short guy 5'8" and my grip is 23". For the guide size it will depend on what type of knotts you are dealing with. We only use 12lb line with a 20lb flouro shock leader so our knotts are really small. You really have some flexibility with this rod in that it will handle the larger guides but you could opt to go with the smallest lightest guides that would pass your knotts, even single foot guides (which I'm putting on the one I am about to build). I just finished building an SU1387 with a 25 casting guide and I'm thinking you might want to go with a 20 and then move down to 8 running guides. But, I'm just guessing since I haven't built it in a conventional setup before.

Good luck with the build, if your blank is the same as the ones I've got you will LOVE that rod.

They are on the batson site - rated at 1/2 - 1 1/2 oz. Mine likes the top end of that range.

Sorry, I see it on the site now. I was looking up at the top of the list for it. I'm not sure that those are the same blanks as the ones I've got. The three rods that I already have built were made about 2-3 years ago but I just purchased the 4th one at the rod show. I looked at them last night and they appear to be the same blank with the same flex so I'm not sure if the blank listed on the site is the same as the ones that I've got. I'm sure that the first 3 blanks I've got were rated to 3oz and they do very well with that wieght. I wonder if they changed them????