The Search For One with the Legends… St Croix’s Legend Elite and Xtreme (continued)
 

Field Tests: For the Search for One, the St. Croix Legend rods went through the paces on California waterways hunting for largemouth bass. Being an all purpose rod I tossed everything that I had in my tackle box, including lures that took the rod to its limits and then some. I matched these rods up with an Abu Garcia Revo Premier and Pflueger Patriarch XT which produced two high performing and lightweight combos.

A great all-purpose bass fishing rod capable of handling many types of lures. This fish hit a Jackall Squadminnow

The rods cast like a charm

Casting: Seven footers are now the norm and the Legend in both traditional and recoil guides provide respectable casting abilities. I was able to toss lures within the specified range and ones outside of its limits without issues. The rod loads nicely and matches up with our lab results stated above.

The Legend Elite has a full grip

When bass fishing having a good multi-functional rod like the St. Croix Legend Elite and Xtreme makes it both easy and enjoyable to fish all day long. I’m able to pitch when needed or switch over to tossing cranks, all depending on the bite. The capabilities of these rods to truly deliver in different casting situations and baits make these rods truly multi-purpose.

The curved handle and end provides better grip during double handed casts

Sensitivity: The Legend lives up to its name here on the sensitivity category. The SC^V high-modulus graphite blank and IPC technology provides excellent feel no matter what lure you’re using. You can crawl a Texas rigged worm 30 plus feet below and still feel the weight bumping up against structure, and of course the initial tick-tick from fish before the final tug.

The Xtreme is offered with a split grip

A different angle of the butt end

Both the Legend Xtreme and Elite tested very well in terms of sensitivity, and the recoil guides don’t seem to have an advantage or disadvantage in this area unless you are using braided line. The braided line on recoil guides are definitely noisier and depending on how you work plastics, the additional noise could distract you into feeling the actual bite if there is a light pick up from the fish. Now if you’re only reeling in slack line and then lifting your rod tip to crawl the bait, then I see no issues here and braided lines will provide further sensitivity when fishing deep down.

Worming the rocky shore with the sensitive Xtreme

Power: Don’t be afraid to set the hook hard with the Legend Elite or Xtreme. Though the SC^V is a high-modulus graphite blank St. Croix has excellent technologies to ensure this blank is also high-strain and able to withstand a lot of load while fighting a big one. Their ART, Advanced Reinforcing Technology, adds strength to the rod to prevent any deformation under stress. Not only that, the lower portion of the rod where a great deal of the stress is placed when leaning into the rod’s power is made of SC^VI graphite, this helps provide added strength and power during heavy loads.

Loads nicely with great power