To some extent the plug craze has been replaced by a rod craze. The most remarkable part of it that it wasn’t some super-duper-one-piece blank that has all the internet boards buzzing, but instead its two piece offerings from companies like St Croix, CTS and Century.
Who would have thought even 5 years ago that we would be comparing a two piece rods to one piece sticks? I would have personally put a large wager on the fact that after fishing my Lamiglas 1321M for ten or fifteen years, I will never ,ever fish with two piece rod.
And what am I fishing with today? Two piece St Croix Legends and Mojo rods.
I am not much of a “must get the hottest toys” kind of a guy. I buy my trucks used instead of new. I wear $99 LL Bean waders, $70 Grunden splash top and cheapest laced up Korkers boots they make. My plug bag is stuffed with Super Strike and other affordable lures. The only “fancy” thing I do fish with is a VS 250 that I’ve had for a decade. Its it so beat up, most of the paint is gone. And this is all fine with me, I prefer to let others beat up and test new products. If I learned one thing over the years is that hype is rarely justified when it comes to fishing products. If for no other reason than because our personal fishing styles are so different.
When we tested St Croix Legend and St Croix Mojo rods I was impressed in how light, crisp they were. In Mojo’s case I was surprised at the retail price too. That is a lot of rod for your money. My Lami 1321M seemed like a dinosaur compared to these rods. But one thing about the Lami, it has never failed me. It has tossed ten ounce rigged eels and ½ ounce bucktails when asked too. It has fallen with me from the rocks, whipped some big fish and fell on ground more time than I care to admit.
I was intrigued about the St Croix Legends but one thing gave me a pause, the placement of the reel seat. It was just too low for the way I cast. So I got two Legend blanks , a ¾ to 4 and 2 to 6 and had our Surfcaster’s Journal Rod Guru Lou Caruso wrapped them and placed the reel seat where I wanted. He also added butt cap, something I suggest all of you do it if you are fishing on the rocks. For few bucks its very good investment.
So although I used the factory Legends in Costa Rica and little bit last fall and this spring, I eagerly awaited the custom ones Lou was building. I finally got a chance to use them on our SJ annual Cuttyhunk trip .I thought this would be a great place to put them to the test. I used ¾ to 4 exclusively back home throwing lures and caught few fish . I already used this blank in Costa Rica on some very powerful Jacks and Hound fish and I had an idea of just how responsive it was and how well does it cast. Since my plan was to use rigged eels that were anywhere between 4 and 10 ounces, my 2 to 6 ounce model was going to get a workout…
And that was some workout!
It handled the casting of rigged eels into the wind with ease. It cast the rigged eels with a wind for a country mile. It swam from rocks to rocks with me, it pulled giant stripers onto rocks, it yanked the big 8/0 hooks out of the bubble weed forests on the bottom of the sea. It whipped the schoolie, the teen fish and even few twenties with ease. It handled many thirties without issues and forties were no match either. The darn thing is so light, so crisp, that after doing an all-nighter everything hurt but my shoulder, something I wasn’t expecting.
You are probably wondering after all this swimming, catching, falling, how many times did I have to adjust the guides to be in line with a reel? Exactly once and only because I placed the rod on top of the rock I could not get on, only to watch a wave sweep it into the water. I did find it and yes, the guides have moved a little but that is the only time I had to fix them.
All in all , I am thrilled with the performance of the Legends. I am sure many of you guys have had the same experiences with CTS or Century rods Lou or someone else has built for you. If I ever had reservations about two piece rods being inferior in any way to a one piece stick, I don’t have them anymore. There is nothing wrong with a having a one piece rod. In a lot of ways, one piece stick will always be more desirable because they have, well, one less piece. But there is no reason to not consider a two piece rod when looking into buying a new stick. Just saying….
