d-a: If you have looked at the butt joint on your 80P/35, just that sight should be pretty convincing that if that rod were to break anywhere, it would not be there. And then, just think about it--that is the weak sister of the Japanese popping rods. Smith makes the much heavier Tokara 60 and Komodo Dragon, both of which are wusses compared to the Carpenter Wild Violence--all of which (I think I am right in saying this)--are butt joint rods.
Going one step further, I have a Souls 9 foot tuna popping rod which I bought from Anglers Pro Shop for distance casting. I have mentioned this rod in another thread. But I damned near fainted and cancelled the order when I found on the Souls website that it was a two-piece rod that joins in the middle!!!!! I called Randy in a panic about it, but he defined the difference-maker as the Spigot ferule as opposed to the more traditional one. I spend as much time in my now world-famous garage as Gunsmoke and MrBill spend on their flying bridges
and have pulled 25 pounds of drag on it out there with no problem. It didn't hurt my confidence level that Randy bought one too.
You may think I'm pretty sophisticated having been able to read Japanese on their website, so I won't tell you that what did the trick was seeing a picture of the rod in two pieces.
Russ