Anyone got to hold the new St Croix Legend X2 and Daiwa Steez 2025 non ags rods? Also Anyone planning to to grab one? 

Because of this post I walked 5 aisles over to check out this St. Croix rod line. Standing here now examining the legend x2.

 

Not going back to Daiwa.

 

I'll send you pm later.

5 hours ago, FloridaFishinFool said:

Because of this post I walked 5 aisles over to check out this St. Croix rod line. Standing here now examining the legend x2.

 

Not going back to Daiwa.

 

I'll send you pm later.

@FloridaFishinFoolwould you mind grabbing me a Daiwa hat? 🙏

 

Nothing new from Dobyn’s, right? I was hoping they would update the champion extreme HP. It came out in 2015. That’s 10 years old at this point.

I just went to the St Croix website to check out their newest rod.

20 hours ago, FellowAnglers1 said:

Anyone got to hold the new St Croix Legend X2

Yes, I did and....woa!  "Incredible" doesn't begin to describe it.  Yes, it's feather-light and sensitive, but get this....it's incredibly strong!  I mean...you can bend that thing far beyond the breaking point of other rods, and it a takes it, no problem.

 

More to come....

17 hours ago, woolleyfooley said:

@FloridaFishinFoolwould you mind grabbing me a Daiwa hat? 🙏

 

 

I did not see this comment until after leaving the show. Daiwa was way over on the side up against the wall on the far side of the hall away from most of the booths I was attending to. So I can't help you with the hat. Sorry.

 

As for the rods, I was not as impressed as Glenn was. 

 

To me when someone says we used less carbon fibers and less epoxy but its still just as strong... is the same as saying we are giving you less of a rod but its the same as...

 

You know when you go to the store to buy some Cap'n Crunch in 32 ounce box and find out there is now only 24oz of Cap'n Crunch now in an even larger family sized box? Less sold as more?

 

Less being sold as more is how it comes across to me.

 

A rod is a rod is a rod is a rod. Some better than others. These new St. Croix rods are priced at $615.00 each. I am wondering exactly what it is that costs so much?

 

I am not a fan of plastic and carbon fiber reel seats. They crack and break. And that is what is on these over $600 rods. St. Croix's own brand of carbon fiber reel seat. I played around with it. Did not like it really.

 

I was not too thrilled with the shape of the grip being almost a triangle shape with rounded corners that seems to fit in the hand one way. Side to side rotation variations not really available here. With round grips on a rod you can rotate it one way or the other as needed. With triangular shaped grips it makes rotating a little more difficult since this grip fits only one way in the hand comfortably.

 

When I build custom rods and use power hump type of grip I align it for how I use it which is not straight up and down. It is rotated slightly at an angle to fit me. Can't do that with off the shelf rods with triangular grips.

 

I had to ask if it was real cork too because it looked to me like cork laminate. They said it was real cork. I saw some evidence of filler in holes. And they topped off their cork parts with a new rubber composite material and glued it all together. I am wondering how durable this will be for years to come? I have rods now built similarly that the cork and composite materials separate over time. 

 

As for the blanks. I can't complain. They were nice rods. But as I looked through the offerings at the booth what hit me was this less is more idea makes me think this line is more like a finesse line of baitcast rods. I did not see heavies and large stiff rods. What I saw was thin small rods I would put more in the medium range with a couple crossing over towards MH. But to me, and heavy cover Florida fishing, it seemed like only half a fishing rod line missing all the heavy rods I need in this state.

 

As I held the rods I was imagining what I would use the rod for and what came to mind was things like rat'l trap, swimbaits, cranks, etc. maybe some spinners.

 

But I was not seeing rods for Flipping and pitching or frogs, etc. So I wondered about this.

 

I would definitely use some of these new rods. But to me they would not give me a complete rod arsenal, and would become only a portion of my overall rod choices because that heavy end was missing from what I saw.

 

So maybe the rods are great. Who knows. All I know is to me they were not $615.00 great. Especially with that carbon fiber reel seat.

 

If I had one of these rods and if it bothered me enough I would strip off their reel seat and grip and build it how I want it rather than how they want it. Might even turn it into a spiral wrapped rod.

 

But I am just not sure what the extra hundreds of dollars are for? I know the rods are made in USA. So that's a bonus. But where are they coming up with $615.00? St Croix rep just told me 'we are selling you less rod but just as strong'... OK, but why is less costing even more I can only wonder? Lots more.

 

If I was ever going to spend that much money on a rod, I could build several full custom rods for that much money.

 

I did ask one last question that was not sufficiently answered. I asked if these blanks would be available for custom rod builders. I was told it might be possible down the road is where it was left.