Vote St. Croix Rods-Junk or Jewl

[Agronomist_at_IA]

Just wanted to put to a vote on what everyone on this forum thinks about St. Croix Rods and Customer Service.

[caseymcq]

I love the St. Croix rods I have.

I have had limited experience with customer service but for the one rod I had to return to them it was fixed and shipped back to me quickly.

My experience with them has been positive.

[Tyler Holm]

Their spring bobber affair flat out helps me put more panfish on the ice PERIOD. It's the first rod I reach for when targeting panfish. Jewel.

The physical rod is nothing spectacular, but it gets the job done better than most other store bought rods (not counting custom rods). The eyelets being straight is a hit or miss deal (this seems to be new this year), and I've never had any issues with their customer service.

[RobertELee]

St. Croix is mostly what I use for my summer rods and I never had any problems, except for one broken eye on the tip when I bought it, called them up and I had a new tip in the mail 2 days later, their customer service is great. I have a couple of ice rods by them and I really like them also, they are lightweight, very sensitive, and very durable.

[iland99]

Love my Legend ice rod.

Hate my Premier ice rod. Used it twice. Pulled it out of the rod case one day, and the tip was broken off. Contacted St. Croix, told them about it, and they basically told me I was SOL.

I would rate their customer service as very poor, and their quality seems to be very hit or miss, at least on their ice rods.

[harvey lee]

I have owned the Premier,Aid and legend ice rods. They are a good store rod. I would much rather have a custom built one. I have had numerous issues with broken tip tops on 3 of the rods. Two I put a new tip on and one was broken a few inches from the tip. They fish well and thier spring bobbers are good. I love there open water rods.

[Northlander]

I have used St.Croix rods for years and to this day have not had a issue with any of my rods. I have several custom made St.Croix rods and they have ben fine as well.

I do feel everyones pain that has had problems though. Equipment failing you after you pay hard earned money for it stinks.

[hanson]

I think this discussion should be clarified to discuss St Croix Ice Fishing rods and not Open Water Rods. To include them all under one name is a mistake because there is a major, major quality difference between the two and that is what really bugs me.

St Croix Open Water rods are great sticks. St Croix has built a reputation of crafting a fine fishing rod that many anglers love.

Their Ice Fishing rods, however, do not live up to the same quality that St. Croix is known for.

You buy a St. Croix because you know the name stands for quality fishing rods, but what you are really getting is an average, store bought rod that has some quality control problems.

I really just wish St Croix would get their act together and manufacture their ice fishing rods to the same standards as their open water rods. The rods really aren't that bad and a great rod for the average fisherman. But that average fisherman is getting a rod that is susceptible to broken tips and line guides that don't stay put. It just really hurts their image.

[PierBridge]

I think they are getting better Chris.

The New St. Croix Legend series Spring Bobber Ice Rod is built awesome nothing like those JUNK ones "premier/legend" you guy's all bought on sale recently with all the quality problems.

Now if we can just work on the price a little......

[Luck e 1]

I am glad you guys posted this...I was thinking of getting a rod with the spring tip system. It looks very sensitive, yet not cheap. Also, the opening on it is big enough to not freeze up like this little spring tips you buy and put on your rods yourself.

For those that use them...if I fish moslty for crappies and gills should I go with the ultra light...or is the light action light enough?

[hanson]

Quote:

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I think they are getting better Chris.

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Good to hear PierBridge.

I've been looking at a heavier Legend spring bobber for awhile. But every time I've thought I've buying it, I remember the one I have that has line guide issues.

[Tyler Holm]

I personally like the UL for panfish, but there really isn't much difference from the Light action. I'm also in favor of last years models without the reel seats. They are a little lighter and I don't like holding on to cold plastic all day long. Just my opinion thou.

[TurnUpTheFishing]

I like my St. Croixs both open water and icefishing. I just wish they hadnt done away with the avid ice rods.

[ChemE]

Junk. St. Croix has fantastically poor customer service too. When they do return a phone call or email, which is less than 50% of the time, they cannot answer any questions and require you to ship your rod to them. After they receive your rod, they may or may not fix it for an exhorbitant amount of money and not return it for many weeks. $10 shipping $20 to fix a broken Legend ice rod = why bother?. Multiply that by total by 2 and you may as well buy another local custom rod. My experience may be an anomaly but it seems others have had similar.

[nthomps66]

I've had a fine experience with St Croix. I own 3 open water rods and two ice fishing rods. Customer service has been awesome in the one instance I dealt with them. I will buy more.

[Quickstrike]

I agree that they should have kept the avid ice rods out. For the price i feel that they are a hard rod to beat. I have a couple of them, one for walleyes and one for panfish/trout and they both work great.

[DEADhead]

I also love the avid ice rods. They are my favorite trout rods hands down. Something about that nice woven graphite handle... The legend is hard to beat for pannies. I have not had any problems with my ice rods except for one slightly misaligned guide. I do agree that the quality control issue with the ice rods is ridiculous and out of hand.

I agree with hanson, in that St. Croix's open water rods should in no way be looped in with their ice rods. Their open water and fly rods are outstanding, and a great value when compared to other high-end manufacturers like G-Loomis, Orvis, Sage, etc.

[DinkADunk]

I like the spring bobber mechanism too but dislike the rod. I'm in the process of building a couple of rods, based on Thorne Brothers blanks, that will use the St. Croix bobber mechanism but on a much better blank. Should be fun. I just hope I get it finished while we still have ice.

[The Crumpler]

I agree with Tyler that the reel seat is a step in the wrong direction, but hopefully the blanks are better in this years model. I have also had two tips break on the Legend series recently, one was Light and the other a Medium.

I feel that detecting a bite on their spring bobbers is just as easy as seeing it on camera. Now, lets see how they deal with fixing my broken rods!

[bronzeback01]

I have 3 Avids. 2-32" Mediums and 1-24" UL.

The rods are absolutely nothing special for what they cost.

I would just assume use a $12 Gander Mountain rod. If you're going to spend the money just have a custom built, it wont cost you much more and you will have a one of a kind rod that is exactly what you want.

I just bought a Yad rod about a week ago and I absolutely love it, funny thing is it was only $12 in the bargaid pail at Four Seasons Sports.

As far as open water rods go, I use all Kistler rods. They are spendy but they are worth it and the customer service is flawless. I busted the tip off of a $280 custom Helium I had built and they had my new replacement rod (custom built to my specs) the next weekend for a tournament, no cost. They even payed for shipping It doesn't get any better than that.

[Bob Horn]

Jewel. I have never caught so many fish!!! Here's a tip on adjusting the spring. Put some chapstick or vaseline on the spring and it will slide easier.

[hondavxr]

Dang, I thought I was the only one that had issues with the rod guides not being straight. Last year I bought a few Avids and got mad when I was stringing up the rods. And to my surprise when I went back to exchange the rods for better ones, I had to practically dig through the whole stock to get a straight guided one and one thats almost straight. I don't know why the quality of the hard water rods are different from the soft water. I guess when companies get really big it's about mass quanities not quality.

[trapperdirk]

I have to agree with you CHEM as the ones I got which was 4 in all had serious QC issues and calling them junk is being polite .4 out of 4 ice rods either had very badly aligned guides or tip not attached etc . Even without the issues I had with them I still would say they are way over rated yet I do like the spring bobber system they use but I will shy away from these rods I think for a bit .

TD

[Big Pine Walleye]

I love my St. Croix rods!! I am planning on buying another one soon!

[matthothand]

I am satisfied with the legend that I bought in the store...except for a wandering tip. It seems to turn randomly in a direction of it's own choice but always aligns with tension on the line. I really like the legend that I built for myself this year. The eyes definately don't move. I used a laser level to align them and they are there to stay. I was able to speed up the tip action by tying the guides more towards the tip and softening up that area. Overall I feel they make an acceptable over the counter rod. Their blanks are great though. If it's either junk or jewel...I lean more towards jewel.