St. Croix Custom Ice Rods

I was at Joe’s last night and saw the new St. Croix Custom Ice rods for the first time. They look very nice. Excellent build quality and the action on them also looks good. Prices were a bit high but not crazy out of line when you buy them on sale. Definitely nice to be able to buy this nice of a rod at a retailer vs mail order IMO.
Anyone else seen these? I have several TUCR rods so it would take a significant reason for me to switch. Thought it was interesting anyway.

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St. Croix “custom”

Joel and Tony are about to start a webcast about these “customized” blanks.

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Thanks for the link. Didn’t see that one.

The blanks are of unique design and action. It’s getting into technique specific rods. Good for one thing, not very good for other things.

Stopped in there at park falls between trips into the woods. Found some cool plastics. Not ready for a $140 ice rod.

The rods look very nice and feel great in your hand. Just can’t eat the 139 dollar price tag

Thanks for posting the link fishwater. I tried earlier and my phone just wouldn’t do it properly.

I use their mojo rods in 36″. I like the solid reel seat, action, and split grip. Also they look cool. 50$

A buddy who has TUCR had bought the new Custom Ice and loves it . He said it was extremely sensitive .

I bought the st Croix custom ice rod perch eye spoon and i had it out three times never was really impressed with sensitivity or quality and on the third time out i hooked a nice walleye landed it and realized my new custom rod had snapped in half lucky I’ landed the 19 inch eye but long story short I returned the rod and am planning on getting something much different next go around . Also before it. Broke i noticed the eyelets seemed weak when deicing them i though they would be first to fail and break on it but was wrong it literally snapped 6 inches from the tip and i had taken excellent care of it for the one month i had it . Might have to try a TUCR after all

They feel nice, but not 140$ nice. A custom rod is built to spec, you choose what you want, colors, action, weight, length. Then it’s built by hand. Myself along with several people I know can build just as good of a rod for less money. Custom being all the way to you choosing the taper of the blank. So while it’s a nice rod, it’s not that great in my opinion with that outrageous of a price tag. And just being able to choose the action weight and length of a rod doesn’t make it custom. That should be expected when picking a rod…

These so-called customs are pretty ridiculously priced. The St. Croix didn’t wow me at all handling them in the store. Hard to believe that a 27″ ice rod can cost almost as much as a St. Croix Avid. I’ve bought those new for $150.

Bass Thumb wrote:

These so-called customs are pretty ridiculously priced. The St. Croix didn’t wow me at all handling them in the store. Hard to believe that a 27″ ice rod can cost almost as much as a St. Croix Avid. I’ve bought those new for $150.

No kidding. I agree with this 100 percent. The price is crazy. When I can go have thornebros or tucr build a nicer rod for cheaper

But we all know those diehard st Croix fans will still buy them, so they probably won’t go down much if at all in price…

I am wondering if they will do any custom type work such as lengths, wraps etc? These just sound like stock rods with a big price tag.

Over the last 5-10 years the ice fishing market has been absolutely flooded with custom rods that are all built on boring and bland solid carbon or solid glass blanks. The blanks are all the same except for the taper and each blank costs the builders about $5. I’m not saying these are bad rods by any means, but there needs to be a next step forward. I believer that next step is in better blanks. Any experienced rod builder (specifically open water rods) knows that a top of the line build starts with a high end blank. You can’t make a budget blank into a top of the line rod.

Well here is St. Croix FINALLY pushing the envelope with some new technology in ice rod blanks. I’m not talking about the solid glass or solid carbon models; I’m specifically speaking to the tubular and hybrid tubular x solid models. The new blanks are not like any blanks found in everyone’s beloved custom or home built rods.

I guess I’m the outlier here but I’m excited about this new blank technology, and I hope it catches on and starts pushing other companies to follow suit. There’s definitely a chance of durability issues and other problems, but this will hopefully be the start of a big step forward in an otherwise stale ice rod market.

I see NFC has also released a small series of hybrid ice rod blanks.

And for the record I’m not here pimping St. Croix’s new rods because I dropped a bunch of cash on them and want everyone to think they are the best. I use rods I built on solid blanks that cost me about $10-$20 for the entire build. I’m just excited this will push the market in a direction of better ice rod blanks and ultimately better rods.

Tswoboda – I’m happy to see others looking beyond handles and wrap color.

You can’t just change the definition of a word and make your own language for marketing purposes. It’s borderline, but it’s throwing a title on something deceptively to compete with other competitors that are actually asking customers, “what length, color, handle, eyes, etc do you want on this blank”….making it a custom rod. A higher-end blank doesn’t make it “custom.” Very used-car salesman like. They know “premium,” won’t sell, but “custom” is the rage….so let’s lie.

I’m guessing a lot of it has to do with people googling “custom ice rod,” a lot, and St. Croix getting no action off of that.

Even though I like the brand, and have some rods, it just makes me not want to give them any more of my money for treating me like idiot (which may be true, but just don’t say it to my face while asking for my cash).

______________ wrote:

Tswoboda – I’m happy to see others looking beyond handles and wrap color.

Your point has merit, that the blank is the important part. But, it doesn’t change the fact that they’re playing pretty fast and loose with the term “custom,” to drum up business.

To be fair, buying a TUCR off the rack at Cabelas isn’t custom either.

SW Eyes wrote:

To be fair, buying a TUCR off the rack at Cabelas isn’t custom either.

Have you seen in person how they’re packed on the rack? There’s hundreds of them hanging by a ziptie strung through the top eyelet, packed as tightly as they can get on the hanger bar.

SW Eyes wrote:

Even though I like the brand, and have some rods, it just makes me not want to give them any more of my money for treating me like idiot (which may be true, but just don’t say it to my face while asking for my cash).

And you’re certainly not the only one who feels that way. Many consumers are more heavily influenced by marketing than function or performance of the product.

And I definitely agree that Croix chose a poor (maybe unethical) marketing strategy for these rods. But I just don’t care.

But if a rod says custom on it and you see hundreds of the same rod in rows among rows. It’s totally custom. Correct ?
Because now I’m confused on what’s custom.

For the most part,the word “custom” in ice rods is merely a buzzword.

Why don’t they make more with reel seats?

The Apex Predator rods have reel seats and still feels superbly light.

These kinds of topics make people go Mia

Deuces wrote:

Hey!!!! I think I recognize you!!

Now that the season is over for the majority of people, for those who got to put some time in with these rods, what are your thoughts? Haven’t seen much hype about them after the start of the season.