Christoffer, better if I answer the question as I was the primary field tester for this rod.
Let me say at the outset that the old SP78UHL was about the ultimate rod made for monster sized poppers. It was, however, made with no compromise in mind for its purpose. While a lot of anglers found this rod amazing in its ability to handle even poppers like the Hammerhead I Cup, they found a completely different beast when fighting a fish and very, very few anglers could handle it against a seriously big fish because the rod that was your best friend with the lures turned into an angry snarling beast when locked up against a big fish. This is the reason why a lot of GT anglers have UHLs and the rods stay permanently in their rod racks.
We designed the Extreme to be able to handle big poppers but not to the same degree as the UHL. We did, however, design a rod which a good angler could hold onto in a long drawn out fight with a big fish. THe rod has enormous power down low and arguably even more so than the UHL but the mid profile to the tip will fold more faster and more parabolically than the UHL. In terms of the poppers it will handle, we designed the rod so it will handle big poppers like the GT3 170 well. It will pop lures like the King Kong, I Cup and GT3 190 but the rod will saturate more than the UHL. I was popping these from the gimbal and it did the job but was outside its ideal range.
When we recommend a lure weight, it is always intended that you are going to add hooks to it!! It would be pointless to recommend that you ca pop a 200g lure without hooks!
