James, If you are going to be stretched with the Viper on GT's you might want to reconsider your quarry.....not the rod.
It is easily one of the most managable rods for chsing GT's, anything less and you will be doing well to get your popper back to the boat! It might feel heavy to a new comer, but go and pick up a couple of PE8 - 12 rods for comparison, they are down right crow bars on a small angler.
Seriously though, there is a minimum requirement for extracting a reasonable GT from it's lair, the Viper gets pretty close to that. Whilst I would happily fight a GT in open water on my Saltiga 80 TN, I'm limited to 100 gram poppers and get I'd get comprehensively dusted in tiger country every time.
Hit the Pub........then hit the Gym, that's my advice!