My reply was in jest, Bob. You know that. The fact is your questions, as important as they all are, would take five pages of text to answer. My best advice would be to go somewhere that has a large selection of jig-sticks and pull on them yourself. For the largest selection in San Diego I would suggest going to Dana or Seaforth landing. They have most every top brand jig-stick in stock.
I have a factory wrapped Seeker Ulua 93H, a custom wrapped Seeker Ulua 93H, a custom wrapped Calstar 100J with six inches cut off the tip, and a Super Seeker CJB100H with six inches cut off the tip. These are my favorite jig-sticks, but you might hate them.
Buy quality, a brand with a lifetime blank warranty. I prefer a 30lb-60lb line rating, as in rated for 40lb mono.
For you, Bob...a few blanks come to mind. Calstar has a nice 8' glass stick rated 30-60lb. This rod is a nice compromise for someone scared of going full length. From there, you might want to look at a Calstar 90J also, rated 30-60lb. Then, pull on the GG90J, same rating, but it's a composite graphite/glass rod. The Calstar GG90J has a signifigantly stiffer tip, but it's lighter and casts a little farther if you load it right. The first two Calstar rods here are made for throwing lighter irons: TadyC, Tady45, Candybars, smaller Megabaits and so on. The GG90J, with that stiffer tip can throw the lighter jigs and the larger jigs too, like say a Salas 7X.
I hope this helps, have fun shopping
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