That sucks. Kudos to your friend for replacing the rod.
The Shimano Trevalas are excellent rods for jigging iron (thats what they are designed for), and depending on the model are beefy enough for trolling. I assume they'd work ok for live bait to. I have three, two with Saltist STT20's, and one of their heaviest rods with a big Daiwa Saltist in the 50 size for halibut. Lifetime warranties. In terms of value, they are pretty hard to beat. They seem to run around $150-175 these days... can catch them on sale once and a while cheaper.