St. Croix Rods Legend Elite EC70MF Casting Rod Product Review

Rod Review

Is the Search Over? St. Croix's New Legend Elite EC70MF Casting Rod

Date:	9/5/16
Tackle Type:	Rod
Manufacturer:	St. Croix Rods
Reviewer:	Cal

Total Score: 9.00 - BEST VALUE & EDITOR'S CHOICE!

Introduction: High end tackle is what moves the needle for me. I can appreciate more budget oriented product, and of course, fish it all the time because of my job here at TackleTour, but when the opportunity to fish something high end comes around, that's when I get excited to go fishing. The level of refinement - and most of the time performance too - makes it fun no matter if the fish are biting or not. The subject of today's review, St. Croix's new Legend Elite, is not only super high end, but high end at an extraordinary price! Here's a look at the Legend Elite EC70MF.

St. Croix Legend Elite EC70MF Specifications
Material	St. Croix SCVI & SCV Graphite Blend
Length	7'-0"
Line Wt.	6-12lb
Lure Wt.	3/16-5/8oz
Pieces	One
Guides	11+tip Fuji Ti/Torzite
Rear Handle Length	9inches
Power Rating	Medium
Taper	Fast
Rod Weight	4.2oz
Origin	Made in USA
MSRP	$390

Quality/Construction: St. Croix's Legend Elite EC70MF bass rod is an even seven feet (7'-0") in length and is built from the company's proprietary SCVI graphite filled with technological acronyms that basically amount to a very strong, high performing blank. The rod is finished with a sparkly, kind of hunter greenish paint and built with a full rear grip and foregrip from high quality cork.

Introducing the re-imaged St. Croix Legend Elite EC70MF.

The threadwraps around the guides match the color of the blank perfectly with the epoxy sharing the same amount of gloss as the paint for an almost seamless transition between the blank and epoxy. The precision is quite remarkable and of course the blank and guides are straight and perfectly aligned.

Quality Ratings for St. Croix Legend Elite EC70MF
Finish (1-5)	Grip (1-5)	Epoxy (1-5)	Blank (1-2)	Guides (1-2)	Total	Possible	Rating (= Tot/Pos * 10)
5	5	5	2	2	19	19	10

Matched with a Shimano Metanium and ready for some testing.

Performance: I matched the new EC70MF up with the Editor's Choice Award winning 2013 Shimano Metanium casting reel spooled at different times with braid and nylon monofilament for testing on both the California Delta and Clear Lake, CA.

The EC70MF is a lot of fun with rip baits.

Casting: The Legend Elite EC70MF is equally adept at casting and pitching duties and loads very well with baits within its rated range of three eighths of an ounce to five eighths of an ounce (3/8oz - 5/8oz). If anything it can go a little higher and a little lower to match the ratings of a traditional medium heavy (1/4 oz - 3/4 oz).

This stick loads and casts very smoothly.

It loads easily and releases that energy smoothly with each roll of your wrists. I particularly enjoy fishing this stick with rip baits. The EC70MF's springy tip is really adept at whipping those baits out and working them back as you snap your wrist with each twitch of the rod.

St. Croix makes use of Fuji's newest titanium framed Torzite guides.

Sensitivity: St. Croix's Legend Elite rods feature a blend the company's top end SCVI and SCV graphites used strategically for best performance in strength and sensitivity. The blanks are rolled with what they call Taper Enhancement Technology (TET) using curved instead of angled patterns to improve the rod's action but also increase sensitivity. Combine this blank technology with the lighter than SiC, Fuji Torzite guides with titanium frames and you theoretically increase the rod's sensitivity.

This is an old school wrap, but the foregrip is very minimal.

This theory plays out very well with the ECM70MF as this is a very crisp, sensitive stick that's particularly inspiring when pitching unweighted plastics - even with just nylon monofilament. I didn't get a chance to fish this stick with straight fluorocarbon before writing this review, but it is definitely on my to-do list.

Checking out the spry tip.

Next Section: Power for more than the ratings indicate?