GLoomis or St. Croix?

[Ron]

LAST EDITED ON May-18-00 AT 03:36PM (CST)[p]Worked hard and have earned a "treat." Looking to buy the best spinning rod available for walleye jigging. A fair amount of the jigging will be deep (15 - 35 feet). Probably 1/8 oz jigs on the shallow end and 1/4 - 3/8 oz on the deep end. What
reel would you recommend to complete the package? Thanks.

[AquaMan]

Well, I will try this and see what happens. I think you might want to consider the FigRig Rod. <Duck> LOL

Seriously, depending on the type of rod you want either the Fiber Pro 661 (Medium Light 6'6") or the Fiber Pro 662 (Medium 6'6") are two great fast rods.

Graphite is fast reaching its maximum flexibility to sensitivity ratio. To make rods more sensitive, Mfrs have to increase the percentage of graphite. This, however, increases its rigidity and lowers its flexibility. Think about a graphite pencil. Very sensitive but very brittle.

What separates these rods from others is that they use hand picked blanks that offer a good back bone in the middle for fast, solid hook set and yet have a smooth, flexible tip for subtle hits. To take the sensitivity one step further without sacrificing strength, FigRig has strung a fiber optic line tight from the tip to the butt through the core of the blank. This transfers the slightest movement from the bait to the hand much like the old telephone (2 tin cans and bailing sting) we made as kids.

I can tell you from personal experience that these rods are very impressive, smooth and tight. Aside from some communication issues with the MFR posted earlier, I have not heard anything bad yet and doubt I will. Look at there web site. www.figrigrods.com. You will be thoroughly impressed with this concept and rod.

Otherwise, if you really are hooked on the other two, take a look at the St. Croix SF66MF. A nice versatile medium fast 6'6" IM6 single piece spinner with a nice feel and characteristics. My other 2 rods.

AquaMan~~~~~~~~~~~~~

[EricCO]

Aquaman,

I just bought a Fiber Pro (Middle of the road?) 6'6" Fig Rig. It makes a noise in the tip. Is that the fiberoptic? Should I be concerned?

[Fred_G]

I would highly recommend the Loomis Walleye series 6'2" light action jigging rod, coupled with a Shimano Stradic 1000. I picked up this outfit early this spring and I just love it. I spooled it with 6 lbs Fireline. Makes it ultra sensitive. LOL Fred

[Dave in Mpls]

For jigging, I use both a Loomis IMX SJR 721 and 722. I use the 721 for 1/16 - 1/4, and the 722 for 3/8 +. I absolutely love these rods (in part because their paid for!) I also have a 782 which pulls double duty as a jigging and rigging rod.

The only St Croix I've ever owned I purchased last Sunday on my way up to Mille Lacs (had a small accident when I shut the back door on the Suburban!) This was a one piece 6'6" Premier, medium light, fast action. I caught several fish on it, and it worked just fine for a $70 rod. My only complaint about the St Croix is that the handle is a little too skinny for my liking. I'm not sure if the Avid series are the same or not. I've never heard anything but good about St Croix in general, however, so that in itself says something!

As for reels, I've always had good luck with the Shimano Stratics and Symetrys. I prefer the 1000 series, as I think they balance on the shorter rods a bit better than the 2000s. Also, the Diawa Tournament SS is a fine reel.

Good luck in your search!

[Ron]

Too many negative posts recently on the FigRigs for me to feel comfortable. It is rare to find people who have negative things to say about GLoomis and St. Croix.

[Ron]

Eric,
My post immediately above was to Aquaman, not you.
Good luck with the problem.
Ron

[Jeremy]

I took back a walleye series(WJR 741) because I didn't think it was quite the rod my IMX SJR 721 is, especially in windy situations.

[Tyler Campbell]

I would look at the Avid series from St. Croix. The Loomis line is fantastic, and the new Elite Rods from St. Croix are beautiful. However, I found that the price to performance ratio beyond the Avid was too negligible to go the distance, so I opted to get more rods and stay with the Avid. There are alot of nice rods out there, but I found the St. Croix rods to be the best price to performance bang for the buck.

I would recommend the Daiwa Emblem X or Z. I have both Stradics and Emblems, and the Daiwa spinning reels have noticeably tighter construction. However the Shimano baitcasters I feel outperform the Daiwa line.

Good Fishin'

[jigemup]

Ditto on the St. Croix Avid's- the price is right and the customer service and warranty far outdo Loomis. I would suggest the model AC62MXF - I fished this rod all last year and it's awsome for light jigging applications and pitching - good backbone too. It has held up for all my MWC fishing last year and all the guide trips I do as well- it's a great product and worth the money- trust me you will not be disappointed.

[Weyes1]

Hey,
If money is no object go with the St. Croix Legend series. I just got a matching pair (custom made) and they are awsome. I saved some money by having them made for me, but none the less, These are the lightest most sensitive rods I have ever fished with. I have them teamed up with Pinnacle Dead Bolt 30 series reels. The whole package is so light I can fish with them for days. Don't let anyone tell you that the light weight rods don't have any power either. These rods are crisp and extremely powerful. If you have to watch you pennies I would strongly recommend the Avid series. My wife has a Premier also which is nice but I like my Legends better. I tried an Avid and it was nicer than the Premier, but still not as nice as the Legend. I have 3 St. Croix rods and my wife has a St. Croix. No problems what so ever.
I also fish the local walleye circuit (6 tournaments) and fishing those you equipment takes a beating. These rods are awsome! They take the beatings and keep on bringing in the fish.

Weyes1

[MUDFLAT]

SEE FORUM ON "FIG RIG...POOR CUSTOMER SERVICE." SAVE YOURSELF A HEADACHE AND GO WITH ST. CROIX OR G.LOOMIS.

[AquaMan]

If two negatives make that too many, then I would never buy a boat, truck, motor, rod, reel, depthfinder, lure, line...##### I would not leave the house. Every single Mfr has taken a beating on here and yet we still buy them based on our own exposure and experience.

Come on now. Be realistic in your decision. You do not have run out and buy one today, but to close the door based on the two and ONLY two posts you just read is a little dramatic.

AquaMan~~~~~~~~~~~~~

[Jim O]

I agree with price/performance ration pointing to the St Croix Avid series. Besides a great feel, the St Croix customer service is excellent. They have helped me out twice in the last two years on damage caused by my own mistakes.
Jim O

[teacher]

Hey aquaman why do try to come across like you know everything! Actually your post are very annoying because you seem to respond to every question on here! You basically tried to change the origanal guys post by goi9ng off track! Why not just try answering the question as it reads ,instead making such a huge issue over it!

[eye lunker]

hey jim o i also snapped one of my croix in a car door ! Wil;l the st.croix replace or give me a deal on repair> thanks

[Bill Lodi]

St. Croix all the way baby!!!!!!!!
I have 4 legend series 3 premier graphite series spinning rods and some Muskie rods. I love them all...........Awesome fish hooking ability and sensitivity!!!!!!!!

[AquaMan]

LAST EDITED ON May-19-00 AT 01:38PM (CST)[p]Yeah, your right, I'll back off. Sorry, but I was disappointed to see the wave going against a great product based on one, in particular, very questionable source. I feel that the product got a bum rap from a less then factual story and tried to garner redemption.

I had a few rainy days to kill with some idle time and watched these strings for a few days. Maybe I got a little over zealous and to those that feel the same as "teacher", then I offer my apologies.

If posting good, honest information on here is no longer welcome, then I guess I am in the wrong.

I would have sent this to you privately "teacher" but your e-mail is invalid...Hmmm...

AquaMan~~~~~~~~~~~~~

[Ron]

FigRig is lucky to have such an avid supporter. I always like to see a small company make good against the big guys (e.g. Pinpoint before the takeover), but I'm definitely into taking the course of least resistance on this situation and know that I can't go wrong with GLoomis or St. Croix. Good fishing.

[Minnkotaguy(Mn)]

In my mind, G Loomis is the only way to go. I personaly own 12 G Loomis rods. Mitchel rods are a good rod too. I have tried the St. Croix rods and have nothing bad to say about them.

[EricCO]

I would put up with a few hassles to get a product that is the next best technology.

I had a shipping snafu with FigRig that left me with a cheap bass pro rod to fish a tournament. I got the FigRig rod the day after the tournament, but now am glad I didn't cancel my order. I wasted a dozen minnows by setting the hook on them and almost had to quit fishing with it because it was plain tripping me out. It was the minnow 20ft. down on my jig. I thought walleyes were attacking my jig it was so sensitive.

I'm like Aquaman I guess... product performance is way more important than customer service to me. I have time and can deal with people.

[John N]

Aquaman, I've been reading the site for a while now, and your posts for a while now. For a different point of view, I couldn't disagree more strongly with "teacher". I've enjoyed reading your posts. Good luck on the water. John.

[John N]

By the way, GLoomis, of course.

[trolling monster]

I would have to say that St. Croix rods are the best value for the money. I looked at the G. Loomis rods, which are excellent, but I always went back to buying St. Croix. Whatever you choose, your getting a great product. As for a reel I would go with Shimano, I feel they still make the best spinning reel on the market. Good Luck

[Jim K]

Like John I read this site for information but don't participate very much. I thought this site was for information, not bashing. If you bash you should at least provide your e-mail so the discussion can be taken off the board, where it belongs. Even though Aquaman may have expanded the topic, it was still consistent in that it provided the requested information, and then added more potentially helpful information to it. Thanks for the added info, Aquaman. With St. Croix you get more for the buck. Spend the savings on upgrading the rest of your arsenal. Good luck.

[Jiggs]

Loomis IMX 641 and/or 642 custom built(rod thru
reel seat). Any good spinning reel is fine. 4 bl
Sensi-thin is great - no need for superbraids.
Cannot be beat - In-Fish says the same.

[JonDVM]

Can only speak for GLoomis. Bought a GLoomis 742S
last winter. It is the best jigging rod I have ever used. I was trying to set the hook on minnow twithces. I fish the Missouri river. The customer service is great. I had a defective rod and it broke under load of a snag. They replaced it no questions asked. Recieved the new rod in 3 business days. I would like to try the Avid series to compare. Don't think you would go wrong either way.

[Jeff Reed]

GOOD post Aquaman, you know your stuff about graphite. The company I work for manufactures and calibrates the tensile test machine used by Berkely for testing their line and rods.

[jeff reed]

Aquaman's post was excellent, leave him alone.

[Ron]

I have to totally disagree with you here. I'm a firm believer that the companies with the best customer service are typically the companies with the best product and the best track record. I'm currently on my third Mercedes with over 750,000 miles and have driven them for a cost equivalent to buying a new bucket of bolts every few years.
The few things that needed taking care of were taken care of IMMEDIATELY and with NO HASSLE.

[Matt]

Bravo, Jim!

[Mr. Walleye]

I probally buy a 6 1/2 foot medium action IMX Gloomis rod with a pinnacle dead bolt reel. This set up cost 's alot but it's worth the price. The total bill for all is about $200.00.

[slick2526]

>LAST EDITED ON May-18-00
>AT 03:36*PM (CST)
>
>Worked hard and have earned a
>"treat." Looking to buy the
>best spinning rod available for
>walleye jigging. A fair amount
>of the jigging will be
>deep (15 - 35 feet).
>Probably 1/8 oz jigs on
>the shallow end and 1/4
>- 3/8 oz on the
>deep end. What
>reel would you recommend to complete
>the package? Thanks.

Hey Ron, the question is all up to you what out fit will work better for your fishing applications. Me I would go with G-Loomis because i know its a descent rod, but ive never herd any thing wrong with St. Croix either. Myself I would go with a Fenwick. I have a Fenwick EagleGT right now and I like it allot. nothin to spendy around 55 bucks.

[EyeDoc]

I don't remember him asking if it was St. Croix, Loomis, or figrig. Please save us the promotion. If you don't have an opinion about the two rods he is asking about, then don't say anything. I see enough commercials on TV.

[eyedoc]

You are CRAZY if you think you can get just the IMX rod itself for $200.00.

[2old2]

I love my St Croix rods

[jbrunner]

Thought I'd shed some light on the topic. I am the Composites Engineer for St. Croix Rod, and spent over 2 years developing the Legend Elite Series. This series incorporates technology that is far beyond just adding more carbon fibers (graphite) to our material (which we did not do). There are many variables a designer has to deal with when engineering a composite structure (resin %, resin type, scrim material and many other manufacturing difficulties). St. Croix has also implemented a unique tooling concept that only we use due to it's complexity. No offense Aquaman, but our design process goes far beyond what you stated earlier.

Gloomis does make a nice product, I will not hide that at all. I think your best bet in making your decision is to go directly to the source. Call someone at Gloomis or you (or anyone) can contact myself at jasonb@stcroixrods.com or 1-715-762-3226 ext.133. I'm not always readily available, but I will do my best to help you out.

[FJH1]

I guess I'll throw my hat in the ring. I'm only familiar with St. Croix. I picked up two of the new Legend Elite (ES63MXFTG) rods this year and I'm completely blown away by their light weight, crispness and power. These rods load up great. Also, I'm really happy that St. Croix re-introduced the "old style" Legend handle. I never thought I would set down my Avid rods but they're still in the rafters and I don't see them coming down any time soon.

Best Regards,

FJH

[AquaMan]

No offence taken. The information I posted was not ment to offend you either, but rather was a simple explaination for the basic properties for rod manufacturing that are still true. Without giving away your sectrets, I am sure the there are fine tuned improvements that exceed the limits of those basic properties. For the benifit of the majority of these readers, the information I posted was correct. Not all of us can, will or want to know the enitre scientific details of rod making. I am sure most of that is very guarded. Though, I would be interested in hearing more andI have been to the plant twice for the tour years ago and was totaly enamored by the whole MFR process.

Thanks for the insight and keep up the great work. It seems that no one has seen that I also have several St.Croix rods that I will never part with. The rods that I posted about earlier are very nice and worth the look as well. I am sure you can understand that since they are St. Croix blanks to begin with...just modified.

AquaMan~~~~~~~~~~~~~