St. Croix fly rods are back

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ianpadron

Steelhead
As a Wisconsin fella, this is great news.

I've found the lack of St. Croix notoriety out West crazy, given that top tier St. Croix gear rods like the legend elite are basically in a league of their own.

Hope they can carve out a piece of the pie, and move away from the MOJO trout cabelas special approach their fly line has taken recently.

The Larimer+Rajeff combo at G. Loomis produced some of the most highly regarded rod lines EVER, so yeah I'm pumped to see what Larimer can do.

https://www.hatchmag.com/articles/st-croix-poised-big-return-fly-fishing/7715486
 
My first "real" fly rod was a 6/7wt St Croix I got in the early 90's. It caught a lot of pond bluegill, largemouths and quite a few creek smallmouths. Made in the US. Might still be in my parents garage.
 
I'm happy to see this. I started fly fishing while going to college in Wisconsin and most of my fly rods (and several conventional rods) are St Croix. They have treated me well when I've had warranty claims, and really like that they're all made in North America.

It seems crazy that they haven't been the clear leader in fly rods for smallmouth and muskies... a 100 mile radius around Park Falls contains a huge amount of great smallie and musky rivers.

ryan
 
I've had two St Croix fly rods. A 9' 4wt that was as limber as a wet noodle. And I had a 8wt rod built for me on Avid blank. I still have the 8wt. I swapped the 4wt for a DS2 6wt
 
I have never owned St Croix fly rod. But I am a fan of their bass/panfish rods. It's nice to see them getting back in the fly game.
 
One of the sweetest, slowest rods I've ever cast was a st croix 4wt. Couldnt tell you the model, just remember the slllloooooowww load and waiting for it. But when you timed it up, it was the most pleasant casting rod I've ever laid hands on. Count me in for them making a comeback.
 
Ryan Smart said:
I'm happy to see this. I started fly fishing while going to college in Wisconsin and most of my fly rods (and several conventional rods) are St Croix. They have treated me well when I've had warranty claims, and really like that they're all made in North America.

It seems crazy that they haven't been the clear leader in fly rods for smallmouth and muskies... a 100 mile radius around Park Falls contains a huge amount of great smallie and musky rivers.

ryan
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Where'd ya go to school? I grew up in Marshfield and went to school in Madison.

Spent my summers up exploring between Park Falls and Lake Superior, you're right, the fishing is out of this world!

Best part of every trip up was stopping by the St. Croix factory to look through their factory blemish bin. Picked up some smokin deals there!
 
Pink Nighty said:
One of the sweetest, slowest rods I've ever cast was a st croix 4wt. Couldnt tell you the model, just remember the slllloooooowww load and waiting for it. But when you timed it up, it was the most pleasant casting rod I've ever laid hands on. Count me in for them making a comeback.
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Same, I had a 5 wt Premier that I gifted to my Father in Law, slooooow action is right (for a graphite rod), but so damn smooth
 
ianpadron said:
Where'd ya go to school? I grew up in Marshfield and went to school in Madison.

Spent my summers up exploring between Park Falls and Lake Superior, you're right, the fishing is out of this world!

Best part of every trip up was stopping by the St. Croix factory to look through their factory blemish bin. Picked up some smokin deals there!
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UW Stevens Point, then lived in Wisconsin Rapids for about 5 years right after college
 
Some of the worst rods I have ever tried, when I was in the industry the rep came to the shop. The boss and I both agreed they were absolute garbage, the entire line up sucked.
The next day the Ross rep came by with the new Ross worldwide rods, they were a 1000x better, super afordable and well designed.
Hopefully they have found someone that knows how to design a rod.
 
Paige said:
Some of the worst rods I have ever tried, when I was in the industry the rep came to the shop. The boss and I both agreed they were absolute garbage, the entire line up sucked.
The next day the Ross rep came by with the new Ross worldwide rods, they were a 1000x better, super afordable and well designed.
Hopefully they have found someone that knows how to design a rod.
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I'd say Tom Larimer knows a thing or two about rod design
 
Nice oooking forward to what they crank out. The old legend ultra bob clouser rods are still great - 8’-9” 8wts. Although they feel more like 7s in conventional super charged lines but still damn good rods
 
My first real fly rod was a st.croix pro graphite 5/6wt. Learned to cast and caught a ton of fish on that rod! Went to a new home 14 years ago or so on the old forum to a guy collecting rods to teach kids how to fish.
 
I was glad to read recently that they were getting back into the fly game, as well as offering blanks to rod builders. The green SC4 blanks were always my favorite to build and fish with.
Hope Tom is able to get them going in a solid direction in short order.
 
DerekWhipple said:
My first "real" fly rod was a 6/7wt St Croix I got in the early 90's. It caught a lot of pond bluegill, largemouths and quite a few creek smallmouths. Made in the US. Might still be in my parents garage.
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That was my first post glass flyrod. A 6/7 still love that old rod all my St Croixs were bought from the Greased line fly shoppe. In Vancouver… still have the 4 St Croix’s. And yes the owner Mark Noble said the St Croix reps just disappeared… i shopped through the closingof his shop and retirement…
 
Capt Insano Emeritis said:
That was my first post glass flyrod. A 6/7 still love that old rod all my St Croixs were bought from the Greased line fly shoppe. In Vancouver… still have the 4 St Croix’s. And yes the owner Mark Noble said the St Croix reps just disappeared… i shopped through the closingof his shop and retirement…
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I'm curious about St. Croix rods and how they will be repped - or if they will be repped in some of the area fly shops. I hope so, I'd like to test cast a rod or two.
 
It will be interesting to see how they proceed, Back in the day when i was guiding i had their rep call me and want me to use their rods which i did but when they disappeared they left me with rods i could not replace or get fixed with no one to talk to, I went back to Loomis and never had that problem again. It will be a while before i buy anything with the St Croix name on it.
 
steelheardr99 said:
It will be interesting to see how they proceed, Back in the day when i was guiding i had their rep call me and want me to use their rods which i did but when they disappeared they left me with rods i could not replace or get fixed with no one to talk to, I went back to Loomis and never had that problem again. It will be a while before i buy anything with the St Croix name on it.
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This has to with when. I had great service. But it was from the era when there were not so many competitive offerings. Late 80’s through aout 2005
 
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