St. Croix Legend Tournament Bass

This spring I bought a St. Croix Tournament Legend Bass rod. (6'8" Medium power, extra-fast tip)

I've been fishing with it for about 4 months now. I've caught a wide variety of species on it and I am very happy with the rod's performance. I have it paired with a Shimano Symetre 2500.

Look: The rod looks great. I love the blue colouration and the split grip. My only complaint is my reel no longer matches. 4.5 / 5

Feel: It is very comfortable in my hands. Cast and retrieve is very easy and the rod is perfectly balanced.  The only concern is when fighting a fish I have to change my grip higher up the rod to get the full power from it.  With wider gripped rods that aren't split you can grip below the reel. This one I have to choke up on.  It is not a major issue, but on a long fight it does tire my arms out more. 4 / 5

Sensitivity: This rod is extremely sensitive.  You can feel a fish cough.  When dragging tubes on the bottom you can tell what the bottom is composed of.  Loose sand feels different than packed sand, which is different from dirt, which is different from mud. You can tell round rocks from angled rocks.  One of the side effects of the sensitivity is fish bites become amplified. Early in my use of this rod, I was pulling the bait out of the fish's mouth because I could feel every little thing. Now I've learned to be a little calmer in my hook sets. 5 / 5

Power: Speaking of hook sets, this rod has power to spare.  I've dragged in decent sized carp and catfish on it without issue. It feels very powerful and sturdy bringing fish in. I'm not sure I'd use it to hunt 40 lbs Lake Trout, but for what I fish it has excellent power and flexibility. 4.5 / 5

Casting: The rod is fairly stiff, but it does flex on the cast.  For casting distance and accuracy I would say it performs as expected, which is to say good but nothing spectacular. 4 / 5


Overall: This is the first premium rod I have owned and I can see where the extra money goes. It looks and performs great. I'm sure my next rod will be a St. Croix and I would recommend this rod to anyone who asks. 4.5 / 5

Lost My Skunk

I went out in the rain tonight, since the fish are already wet. Rebecca, Charlene and I hit the forks of the Thames.  With hot dogs on steel leaders and 1/2 oz sinkers we went after catfish. Only one was caught. A 3 pound cat on Charlene. (no picture because of the rain) I am very pleased that I have wiped the skunk off my new rod. I was getting a little nervous.

Still have the skunk on

I went out a couple of time Easter weekend with my new rod Charlene.  I tried a number of areas to get some catfish but turned up empty.  I am assuming that the combination of the weather, bait and location were not what the fish were looking for. I tried bacon on the bottom at Springbank, warm water discharge at Greenway and the Forks of the Thames.  No nibbles at all.

In good news I watched Derek play with his new 3 segment Live Target lure. The swimming action was great, just like a fish and it kicked around and did a 180 when stopped on the retrieve. It looks like that could be a devastating lure come bass season.

I need to get something soon to get the skunk off my new rod. The weather looks decent for Saturday. I'll have to give it a try.