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Rod Review


The Search For One... St. Croix's Mojo Bass

 

Date: 1/16/11
Tackle type: Rod
Manufacturer: St. Croix
Reviewer: Cal






Total Score: 7.92 - GOOD

Introduction:
No single category of rods has grown more quickly in the last year than that of the budget sticks. Just about every manufacturer is responding to the slow economy with product that is more value oriented giving anglers a better bang for their buck. One of the early adopters of this approach was St. Croix when they debuted their value fishing rod line, Mojo Bass. This line has been so successful for St. Croix that they recently expanded the Mojo line into the Musky market. Our review of this product line is long overdue, so to make up for the delay we put the Mojo line through an accelerated test. How did we do this? Why, by taking an MBC70MHF south of the equator to do battle with peacock bass in the Amazon!

 

St. Croix Mojo Bass MBC70MHF Specifications

Material SCII Graphite
Length 7'0"
Line Wt. 10 - 20lb
Lure Wt. 3/8 - 1oz.
Pieces 1
Guides 8 Guides + Tip Top Batson Forecast Aluminum Oxide
Power Rating Medium Heavy
Taper Fast
Rod Weight 4.8 ounces
MSRP $100.00

 

Impressions: St. Croix builds the Mojo sticks in their very own factory located in Fresnillo, Mexico. Here they can control quality while keeping production close to home in North America. The quality shows as each Mojo stick we've handled has been very well assembled with a clean flex coat and straight guides.

 

Introducing St. Croix's Mojo Bass MBC70MHF.

Introduced at ICAST 2008, these sticks were among the first in the St. Croix line to feature a split rear grip, no foregrip design and were developed with the next generation of bass anglers in mind. Everything from the color of the rods, to their actions, graphics, and price points were chosen to attract these up and comers and introduce them to quality of St. Croix product.

The MBC70MHF features contemporary styling at a value price.

We like the result. St. Croix refers to the color of the rods as a black cherry metallic, but we call them purple and really enjoy the aggressive yet tasteful design of the series.

Fig 1: This chart illustrates the deflection characteristics of the MBC70MHF (yellow) along with the MBC70MHM (orange) as compared to that of our TSFO baseline rod (blue). Note that by simply changing the taper of the rod, St. Croix is able to deliver two entirely different behaviors.

 

The Lab: As is typical with St. Croix, the MBC70MHF, though classified as a “medium heavy” powered stick, has ratings more inline with other manufacturers’ “heavy” powered rods. To verify, we strapped the stick up to our RoD WRACK and sure enough, its deflection curve shows the rod is a shade heavier in power than our baseline TSFO rod.

 

Lab Results for St. Croix Mojo Bass MBC70MHF

Model
Avg RoD (2-32 oz)
Taper
Measured Weight (oz)
Balance Point (inches)
Balancing Torque (ftlbs)
St. Croix Mojo Bass MBC70MHF
1.47
Fast
4.8
10
0.26
MBR783C GLX2000
1.72
Fast
4.8
5
0.11
TSFO 26 Rod Avg
1.69
--
4.92
7.65
0.19

 

Testing grounds for the MBC70MHF were the Amazon!

Field Tests: We’ve had a few of the Mojo Bass sticks in our possession for more than a year, but with the pile of Search For One sticks in line for review, the Mojos were somehow overlooked. That is, until it came time to pack for the Amazon. As soon as we began lining up the candidates to take with us on our exotic adventure, the Mojos went straight to the front of the line. Their affordability made this an easy decision and with the MBC70MHF’s performance on the RoD WRACK, we were confident this stick would be ideal for Amazon duties.

Rated to one ounce in lure weight, the MBC70MHF cast this 1.5 ounce Amazon Ripper by Luhr Jensen just fine.

Casting: We paired the Mojo Bass MBC70MHF up with a Revo Toro spooled with 55lb Sufix Performance Braid for our this trip. Given this stick is more along the lines of heavy powered we had a hunch it’d perform well as both a jig and topwater stick for the Amazon. Our suspicions were soon confirmed when we tied on a one and a half ounce Luhr Jensen Amazon Ripper and had at it.

The MBC70MHF worked that ripper well too calling up this Paca peacock early in our trip!

Though the Amazon Ripper comes in at a weight above that of the MBC70MHF’s recommended lure rating, the rod handled this bait expertly loading just the right amount for both precise and distant casting performance. The Revo Toro was a perfect match for this rod at this task affording us plenty of line capacity to really launch the Ripper.

The MBC70MHF comes with a Fuji ECS reel seat ...

Sensitivity: On the other end of the spectrum, the MBC70MHF also loaded well with our half ounce hair jigs and when it came time to feel the bite, well peacock bass for the most part, aren’t too shy so this aspect was difficult to assess under these conditions. At least the MBC70MHF showed us no reason for concern regarding this aspect of its performance.

... Batson Forecast Aluminum Oxide Guides ...

Next Section: Power to move all "bass"

 

   

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