Thanks for that idea, Ian. I currently have a 'noodlish' rod which does work well for fighting fish from a kayak, but it doesn't handle 150 gram lures at all. Your points do make a lot of sense, though, as I have no use for a rod that can handle extreme drag (except when occasionally fishing from a boat, which will happen).
Brandon, I wrote to David Noble. Hopefully I'll get some good experience-based insight from him.
Thanks all for your help!