Capt.Bob

St Croix Premier 6'6" MHF Lew's BB1 w/30# 832 a pikes nightmare with Bucktails.

The Avid like has been said is where St. Croix rods start, the LTB is very good, but the Legend Elite and Legend Extreme are what made me believe they really are "THE BEST RODS IN THE WORLD"!!! Not many rod's I haven't fished, but St. Croix will be all I invest in anymore, they have proven themselves the last 20 years to me to be the best. If you like that Premier, which I think is the best St. Croix you say you have tried,,,,, you will be much more delighted in an Avid, an you may not be ready for a LEGEND,,,,

Sorry I'll put it this way, show me just one you ruined, I have 4 rods with em now and looks like I'll never get to use the lifetime guarantee on em, I am just saying the only flawed ring I have ever heard about was exactly that, herd about, like you I have never seen one in reel life. I have seen this kind of stuff from abu before, when it comes to their rods. Sorry, didn't mean to flame anyone!!

Sounds like you see more rods than the biggest manufacturers,,, or are listning to what someone shows you in a picyure. I have seen grooved recoils once,,,the guy admitted to using wire, trolling and fishing for salmon,,,, Yes I always have mine built with a sic tip top. But when your fishing a ML in a river sytem in muddy water landing carp and cat's to 12-15 pounds with a few 6-7 pound sheep head thrown in the tip isn't getting more pressure than some of the other guides when it's bent in 2 with 10# braid cutting thru everything. Never had a problem with any. remember owners hardly ever tell the facts when their misuse ruins something. That 1`0# braid is like a saw blade also. In all honesty those guides would never be on anything I would use,,,period! And the handle is no excuse, bad quality also, sadly your right aint many US owned or built, but no excuse for spending good money on sorry quality when we Have St. Croix, and other than the handle, even the recoils and blanks are made right here, and fully built here! I was told the same thing, and by custom builders also. I know one custom builder that said he had one rod trashed early in the release of the recoils, and that was the guy running wire line, I assure sic or any material won't take that for ever. He also did say it was the only one out of many he has herd of anything but stellar results with using the Recoils. I imagine that's why when I started having my rod's built with recoils they let me know it was bull, and if I ever had there guide fail they would replace it for life!! He also said if I ever wanted to build another rod if something happened to mine, reuse em and still lifetime warranty,,,,try that wuith a sic or any other imported guide?????

Any spinning reel for light freshwater I am aware of are either, the user decides which side he wants to crank from. They come with the ability to change the handle to the other side. This is easy to do with the drive system on spinning gear, quite the opposite with casting reels.

would you rather see those raving about this rod and suggesting it to others who know no more than those that think they have a quality rod go out and buy one also????? Be real, people need to see this to use better judgement when buying equipment, and although abu make quality items, they need to be called when they try and compete with junk playing the eye appeal game,,,,, I don't like the St. Croix imports nbecause they are not the quality of the USA built rods, but don't go to these cut corner components.....PERIOD! But for abu to offer this as quality rods is something they need to be called out on!!!

Remarkable reels, if you like the round reels this is a very small, extremely smooth machine, remarkable reels!!

Most braid isn't as abrasion resistant as the lines you mention. Suffix 832 is, and all I use, then to get the most abrasion resistance I have found in lines, I use Trilene BIG GAME,,,, this stuff is to stiff and has a lot of memory for use as mainline on most smaller reels, but when I use it for leader material I control all my fishing needs for weight and durability with excellent no stretch fishing and added sensitivity. Before 832 I used Fireline for mainline, as it like 832 are proven the most durable limpest abrasion restant synthetics we can get today. There are other lines available and most cheaper than 832 but none as abrasion restant, very important to me, and 832 is thinner pound for pound test of most other braids,,,,just why I use it,,,,,on everything form 10# to 65#

I have yet to feel any rod built with anything other than recoil guides to offer more sensitivity, more weight savings, or more durability!! They allow for the same blank to be "lighter weight, more sensitive, faster, and quicker than with any other guide. I have 3 rods now with Recoils, all are custom, 2 St. Croix Extreme casting rods, and one Elite spinning rod, I can't believe anyone would ever use Recoils and not want a Sic or similar tip when using these indestructible guides. The 6'10" MXF casting rod get's big time use, with thin 20# 832 braid and is as new, the Elite MLF gets a lot of use but have only had it this season, River fishing for Walleye and it catches Cats Carp and other fish up to 15# is a ball and stressed to the max with 10# 832 are unbelievably sensitive, and a huge part of the sensitivity is from the use of the Recoil guides, and the amazing light weight of these guides is ridiculous. These guides have made these rods the absolute most durable and light sensitive rods I have ever owned, and why right now I have a 6' LF being built and yes, they are the same guides being used on this rod. One should not be confused with the extreme high quality of the Recoil Guides, and those being offered to imitate them, "or" these cheap soft guides being used by Abu, Berkley and others, the Recoils are quite expensive and lifetime guaranteed, I assure all these others aren't!!!!

Right hand is dominant among all civilization, we learned that in grade school, the rest should be self explanatory. Everything to do with economics feeds off that fact,,,,,pretty simple actually.

There is only one place I use and suggest ceramic bearings for spinning reels, and that is the line roller. This bearing seldom ever gets serviced by its owners and is subjected to water often, The ceramic I have had better luck with longevity and treat the race for better resistance to corrosion. Like everyone said, there just isn't enough RPM's generated to see a difference with ceramic, I even have reservations installing ceramic in baitcasting reels, as far to many find the difference marginally noticeable, if at all.

I would consider that trading down,,,,and would go with the Avid,, I consider them the best buy on the market,,,,,excellent rods!

Yes that is correct as long as you are using the TSI-301 which is only available in metal cans and can be harmfull to some plastics as it is the solvent it is in that causes the evaporation and allows the lubricant to more quickly soak into the pour of the metal,,, I agree 100%. But TSI-321 which the OP refers, and comes in plastic bottles, does not contain solvents which does not dri quickly, but is totally safe with plastics and does not dri out, and is asynthetic lubricant, or "oil". I have used both every since AG&C made it available to the public,,,,both are good stuff, for different reasons.

I always go with a standard spool, You can use only a little if you have more line than you need, you can never use more when you don't have enough!! On a 6'7" rod in that weight I hope you didn't go with less than a 7 1/2" rear handle or balance with the lighter reels will be a problem wothout knowing materials used to build the rod hard to guess,,,, and no way to know. As far as drag with any of the reels mentioned, with only 6 or 8# test, they all offer more max drag than would ever be needed for those lines. Good luck but as others have said, I always go to my rod builder with the reel in hand, and he builds it to that reel, without having the reel or at least the weight of the reel it is no better than trying to match a reel to a rod off the shelf. As a matter of fact if weight is being considered and trying to keep it light, the size spinning reel usually has an influence on the size of guides used to start the guide train,,, good luck hope it works out without using weights to get it right, but that is always an option and I have done that with a couple new St Croix Extremes I got new for less than 1/2 price even after changing to full cork grips. There is always a way, but when you build a custom from now on always have your reel for the finished rod before hand, it will make it much more efficient in the final results!!!

Get some free time come on down!! We'll go get em,,,,,if they'll cooperate!

I had a Ci4 and sold it a week later! The Stradic FJ is a smoother, and to me a better reel, it has XShip which with bearings, support the pinion gear front and rear, but this has been done for years on multiple Stradic models. The big change with XShip is the relocation of the gears, which enables much better cranking torque, and smoother operation, especially under a load. This lets the reels with it show a huge improvement in cranking over previous models. I would suggest a Stradic FJ for my choice of the best spinning reel under $200.00 and can usually be had for less than $140.00. The Ci4+ is a much improved version of the Stradic Ci4, it retains the light weight of the original Ci4 but does offer all the benefits of XShip, making it a huge improvement over the smoothness of the original Ci4, BUT,,, it doesn't stop there the the Ci4+ also includes the Rapid Fire Drag which is also used on the much more expensive Sustain a feature not found on the Stradic FJ models. This allows much quicker drag adjustment and to me my Sustain and Ci4+ seem to be smoother drag performance?? This may just be in my head but the Rapid Fire drag is a nice feature just because of the quicker response to drag adjustments. That pretty much sums up the big differences in what I consider the best spinning reels for most anglers in the Shimano freshwater line, without spending a weeks salary on a Stella. If the Stradics are to much , Ci4+ can be had around the $225.00 mark if you are patient can be had under $175.00, the FJ can be had around $140.00 new, which is in my eyes not only a better reel than the original Ci4 reel, but also cheaper than you can find a used Ci4 in great shape. But by all means if you don't want to spend $140.00 dollars the new Saros, Symetry, and Sahara reels which also have been upgraded to XShip technology are still excellent choices, and any of these reels are where I would turn to if I was looking for a quality spinning reel today!! Good Luck and be assured any will please,,,,,,,just depends on what you have to spend,,,,and how happy you want to be!!

Read the articles and concentrate on what they are servicing, not what they are spelling. Like I said It is not common practice from any reel tech, to soak a bearing in oil for any Bass Reel and run it that way, even after blowing it out,,, period, BUT WE DO THIS FOR A LIVING!! WE flush bearings and 90% of the industry uses synthetic oils. and only suggest to all our customers to use ANY OIL sparingly,,, I believe you will find that is what all reel techs will tell you, clean and degrees with a quality solvent, and after dri-ing use 1 drop of quality bearing oil only for best performance, Salt water gear is quite different. I use 301, and then dry, and spin in ONE DROP of quality oil 321 would be the heaviest I would ever recamend. That is not just me at my business, but I believe what most reputable reel services will advise for Bass size casting reels for STN STL spindle bearings PERIOD, if not I have been doing a disservice for over 20 years to my customers. Feel free to correct any spelling I am thru with trying to explain reel 101 to you!! JohnG if you like high speed bearing performance, and don't mind re oiling a rime or two a year,,,, and think 321 is thin try Yellow Rocket Fuel, or lighter yet Red Rocket Fuel, or give up a little performance and 1 drop of 321 will only give up a little performance and require less re oiling!!

very detailed review,,,,,,thanks A-Jay

Do you understand now you are referring to Saltwater reels used for trolling and not bass casting gear. They are protecting from saltwater. They also pack gear boxes with Yamaha outboard grease, these are thing that should never be recommended to folks servicing bass reels for casting light lures in freshwater, or treating spool bearings one fourth the size of saltwater reels, that must spin at high rpm's with little momentum to get them going. You can ask Mike at DVT .RM, Francho anyone who does this for a living, you soak a bass reel bearing in oil (STI-321) and all you do is blow it out, or as you state let it dri, and you will not get near as good a performance out of your reel as you will if use 1 drop. They are not casting bass reels with oil soaked bearings, they are using it in reels for Tuna and Marlin! Even at that on spool bearings they are using 1 to 3 drops in a bearing after treating and cleaning with 301. Please try and understand the difference. I having been using this for over 4 years started out treating and cleaning my 1911 and bench rest rifle with it, then started flushing reel bearings with it, and before Alan ever mentioned it on his sight which I have been a member of for over 5 years, but have better lubes for spool bearings in most US climates, this on the heavy side and most don't use it on freshwater bass reel bearings, way smaller and more delicate than the bearings used in saltwater gear. I highly recamend anyone reading this post to checkout all the links and use your own discretion on how to use this product if you wish to achieve the desired results. I read much better than I spell, and I know the difference between Saltwater gear and what it takes to properly lube them and Bass reels. I personally recamend lighter oils to most of my customers as there reels are used in cold climates 3 or 4 months out of the season, and even 321 with one drop in a bearing is thicker than I prefer in these cold northern climates, but definatly would never soak a bearing in this heavier oil and use it in Bass reels, 1 drop is plenty at most. Please read all links and understand the difference on how and what they are referring to!!! 301 is a soak or lubricating cleaner, 321 should be used sparingly for best results!!

Yes and why he lubes with 321 being QUITE A BIT THICKER and cleans and treats with 301 because of the solvent and its ability to quickly evaporate,,,,,,, there are several threads he has made on SALTWATER REELS with their much larger bearing using ONLY 1 TO 3 DROPS of 321,,,, but soaks in 301!

Just trying to help you, her is what Alan Tani says as you suggest, just read and there is no need to get upset, we all make mistakes and learn something new every day, but we are trying to give proper information to folks who don't service reels for a living, and want the correct information when they ask for help, please read any of the links and it will explain the difference and how each is best used. The manufacture and Alan both can't be wrong, and I have been using this stuff for about 6 years now,,, great stuff when used properly. I am sorry but I hate to mislead anyone,,,,not good for business!! http://alantani.com/index.php?topic=1037.0

Try this if you want to use Mr. Tani for your reference instead of the manufacturer,,,, http://alantani.com/index.php?topic=1037.0 ,,, again, the 321 will not dri and soaking anything in it will severely slow the bearing, quite the opposite with 301, it will dri and leave only a protected film!! Sorry bout the spelling, usually only engineers have trouble understanding it, and I read much clearer than I spell!!! ,,,,,,,,,do the red lines mean to check spelling,,,,,, trust me you will have even better results using each as suggested!!

Very nice choice, I'd say that would be very hard to beat as the PERFECT ULTRA LIGHT!!! Enjoy!!!

Sorry aavery2 but 321 is an oil, it does not dri, and yes the 301 does dry and yes it does treat the ss races on orange seals, and is an excellent way to protect the races. But 321 will not dri,,,, and soaking any bearing in it will critically slow the bearing down, one drop of 321 is all that is needed and any more is going to slow it down, I prefer lighter oil for bearings as 321 is rather thick. it is strictly a synthetic oil. This why I only use 301 on ceramic bearings, only to treat the race as it will dri and leave no more than a film, and everyone knows oil will eliminate any benefit of using a ceramic bearing in the first place, so never use 321 as a soak. If you want correct uses and info go directly to the manufacturer!! http://www.tsi301.com/main.htm

One drop of TSI321, this is a synthetic oil and is safe for use around plastics. The TSI301 is a synthetic lubricant dispersed in solvent and should be used with caution around plastics. One drop per bearing spin and good to go. I prefer the 301 for ceramic bearings and then I soak, let sit and after an hour spin dry and thats all I use on ceramic bearings.