I agree bunk.
those outside boards, or even middle boards, take a good strong stick to bring it all back in....
3' waves, december, five colour of core, and a 10lbs walleye, 200' of line from the board to the bait, and 250' of line from the board to the boat....so 450' of line out before fish hits...
you need a good rod to get all that in....
when I'm running a true 6 board, quinte december spread, I use my 9' heavy action clarus rods....and they double right over like a medium action rod when hauling in all those goodies
I use my higher modulus graphite rods (r type, compre tc4, wild river series, etc when flat lining, or single board setups....and in march/april on Lake O for trout, not december).
I'll always remember the one year where we literally snapped a shimano convergence 9' medium heavy right in half, simply reeling in a fish...but when it's december, and your dealing with 3-4' waves, it puts a lot of pressure on those rods.
I miss those days