Mark, I don't have my major in dawgology like many others do, but here's my 2 cents…

I use a heavy single strand wire – maybe somewhere in the 175 lb range…whatever Ron was using to tie his. Like Jason said, sometimes a big fish doesn't T-bone the lure, but inhales the whole thing and that can lead to some toothy sawing.

I like the 8'6" XH gander and maina rods…after one cast you can tell if your rod is a winner or not.

Like others have said the dawgs and D's are different. I've found that the D's need to be 'tuned' (by wire bending – left/right and up/down) out of the box more often than the dawgs, but I think that every one can be made to run well. The dawgs that I have, which are admittedly older versions (not sure if this still holds true) are 'stiffer' and spring back into the curled tail form after you pull them faster than the D's. This, among other differences, gives them a much different look coming through the water. Some days I like the slow, undulating tail after a pull and some days it's the snappy/springy look of the dawg. Since I'm more used to them currently, and I'm pretty cheap, the D's get the nod most often. I'm now doing all repairs/tail reattachments/weighting/re-wiring with a homemade mend-it that seems to work pretty well. If you keep the rubber from burning then the hot welding approach works just as well.