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| The author loves St. Croix's coil spring bobber system. |
Ice fishing season is quickly approaching and I’m looking forward to focusing a lot of my blog content on hard-water topics. This entry gets things started with a product review and update on the popular Legend Ice Fishing Rods by St. Croix. I’ve used these ice rods for many winters and they’re responsible for hundreds of crappie, bluegills, and yellow perch hitting the ice.
For the 2013-14 ice season, St. Croix unveils the new Legend Gold and Legend Silver line-up. Time will tell how popular the newcomers will be, but odds are good they’ll be successful based on the original Legend ice rods’ track record and that the latest models feature St. Croix’s unique strike indicator system.
See the Bite
A big reason Legend ice rods are popular is because of St. Croix’s patented built-in strike indicator system developed by ice fishing guru, Greg “The Prowler” Wilczynski. This coil spring bobber system is one of the best I’ve used. It shows strikes extremely well. It also helps imparts a fluid, swimming action to baits when jigging. The new Gold series features a 24k gold-plated version for better visibility in low-light, while Silver models retain a natural stainless-steel finish. (For information on why and how to use spring bobber when ice fishing, check out my 1Source video here).
... And It’s Adjustable
What sets Legend ice rods apart from many others is that St. Croix’s coiled strike indicator is adjustable. Why is this important? In short, balance and sensitivity. Being able to fine tune the indicator’s tension by sliding it forward or backwards in the grommet customizes the spring’s sensitivity to match the weight of different lures. This in turn delivers a correctly balanced ice rod, which is critical for proper presentations and detecting light strikes. St. Croix’s spring indicators are also interchangeable and available in light, medium, medium-heavy and heavy tensions.
Rugged and Work
Another perk of Legend ice rods is that they’re durable. While compiling images for my book, Ice Fishing — The Ultimate Guide — myself and other anglers used and tested a range of ice fishing rods. While behind the camera I saw Legend ice rods get dropped on solid ice and the coil spring buckled over when novice anglers reeled the lure all the way to the tip. St. Croix’s ice rods took this abuse and kept catching fish.
Quality Components
Like the original, the new Legends are built on a solid graphite blank. The Gold models feature a neoprene-skin handle with Fuji SK2 reel seat. The Silver versions have a secure-lock reel seat with cork trim akin to the original. Twenty-four inches was the workhorse length of the original Legend ice rods and remains the Gold model standard. The Silver versions run the gamut, with 10 models ranging from 17 to 48 inches. Powers span ultra-light to medium-heavy.
Ice fishing is hard on gear. No equipment is invincible, nor safe from nature’s winter wrath, but if you want a reliable, proven spring-bobber rod, St. Croix’s Legend models will deliver the goods.
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